IMVU boasts 100
million accounts and the concurrent logins are at 50 000 level. The
company itself is based in the Silicon Valley and they have backing from
several well-known venture capital investors. The target demographic for the
community is the 18-24 year-old bracket. On sign-up, personal data is required,
so some content will be locked for underage users. The minimum sign-up age is
13.
Doing interviews on Second Life (SL) I often have found
people who have transferred their online existence from IMVU over to SL. For
these new avatars entering SL, the openness and the variety found here is often
bewildering but liberating at the same time. I decided to set up an account on
IMVU and see what that world is all about, and how the experience compares with
SL.
On the IMVU “About” web page, the aims of the experience
are stated very clearly in an embedded YouTube video as to empower and make
people realize their fantasy of letting themselves be something they cannot be
in real life. Thus, it is very similar to what many people want SL to be. The
way IMVU works is that you download a light-weight viewer program that controls
your account and your navigation and movements, then you “teleport” via web
page links. This is very similar to finding out about SL content in a web
browser and then allowing the SLURL to plug in to teleport you on your viewer.
Logging on for the first time, I could choose from a few
basic avatars and these were readily customizable with some free pieces of
clothing. I got some bonus “credits” which are used as the currency in IMVU for
further purchases. There are some types of content that only can be unlocked by
becoming a “VIP” member which costs US $ 9.99 monthly. Several payment plans
seem to be available.
The content is organized in “chat rooms”, each of which
seems to be able to contain up to 10 avatars at a time. These are organized
thematically, and with a web page search you can find a suitable one to go to.
I went to see some of these. Once you get to a chat room, you are assigned a
spot where you land, and other avatars in succession land next to you. It is
possible to move to other locations by clicking, or by walking. The first chat
rooms I got to were occupied by Dutch avatars and I did not get very far
communicating with them. One of them was clearly looking for female company,
and I heard from other avatars as well that the all too familiar sex chat is a
common pastime on IMVU. At another “Adults only” chat room there clearly was a
couple having an intimate moment, much like on SL’s “A” sims. The chat appears
as lines on the lower part of the viewer window, and also as bubbles over each
avatar’s head. The bubbles float upward with time, and they can be pulled down
for review. Long chat lines get divided into several bubbles, without
hyphenation. Maybe due to the young demographic, the chats I was in resembled
the early days of MS Messenger, with a lot of abbreviated words and “txt tlk”.
Private chats are possible among friends, and upon starting such achat, a copy
of your avatar is transported to another chat room, in my case “My Room”.
Therefore, it is possible that the avatar is in several places, all at once.
I interviewed Nathan, whom I happened to meet on a beach.
Here is the interview as it appeared on the chat log, edited for clarity:
"Guest_nathan87sand
has joined the chat"
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
Can I interview you for my article in the SL Enquirer?
Guest_nathan87sand:
sure
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
Thanks
Guest_nathan87sand:
np star
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
So, how long have you been on IMVU?
Guest_nathan87sand:
3 months
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
And you like it here, obviously. You mentioned a girlfriend, did you meet her here?
Guest_nathan87sand:
yes i did and we are getting married
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
On IMVU?
Guest_nathan87sand:
and in real life too
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
Oh wow... congratulations.
Guest_nathan87sand:
thanks
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
How would you say IMVU responds to your online socialization needs?
Guest_nathan87sand:
i think it’s great
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
What's best about it?
Guest_nathan87sand:
its more entertaning than facebook. You have an avi and you can do most things that facebook does.
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
What do you like to do here, online, on IMVU?
Guest_nathan87sand:
talk with my gf or redecorate my room
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
Do you socialize with other people besides your girlfriend?
Guest_nathan87sand:
yes i do
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
(Well, obviously, as you are with me now) Meet a lot of people from around the globe, huh?
Guest_nathan87sand:
yes all the time
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
Do you have some advice to our readers, about getting acquainted with IMVU?
Guest_nathan87sand:
it’s fun you get to meet new people from around the world and there’s lots to
do
Guest_Stareyesgalaxy:
Okay... thanks a lot for the interview, and I wish you all the best with your
fiance'
Guest_nathan87sand:
thx
Graphically, IMVU is very pedestrian if you compare the
experience to what is common in Second Life. The avatars are much more
cartoonish, with distorted proportions. The scenery usually is done with bright
colors and adequate detail with regard to the whole graphic scheme.
Each chat room change also involves a forced
advertisement. Looking at the advertiser kit, it seems like the content
creation is in many ways tied with real-world products, and embedding
commercial content seems to be one of the major revenue schemes for IMVU.
VIP
members apparently can forgo viewing the adverts. Regarding advertising, it is
surprising how often I see IMVU banners on web pages I visit. Their marketing effort
is clearly much more pronounced than with Second Life.
From the little time I spent on IMVU, I can of course
only relate my first impressions. To me, it seemed to cater to the target
demographic, and I had a bit of difficulty adjusting to this mode of
communication. The frame of reference was apparently the messenger/chat room
culture, and I was solicited for private identity details in a way I would find
unacceptable on Second Life. On the other hand, some of these details were
freely offered in my direction as well. In my private chat with Nathan, we were
able to address some actual topics of interest, although I seemed to write much
longer sentences, which in turn were chopped into pieces to be shown on the
“bubbles”. The cartoonish appearance I was stuck with might improve given time
and proper resources, but from what I saw, most avatars looked quite similar in
style. For anyone wishing to get
acquainted with virtual worlds, IMVU seems like a good place to start. I am
looking forward to exploring other “Parallel Universes” and will return to the
article series in due course.
I thank Nathan87sand in IMVU for helping me in the
research for this article.
IMVU home page: http://www.imvu.com
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