Once you've created your avatar, you can immerse yourself in this digital universe full of color and people to meet. At this point, you won't be able to access any options that require payment, so you can choose everything from hairstyles to shoes from an extensive catalog without limits. The first thing you have to do on IMVU is create your character. You can interact with them and find friends. On this app, you create your own avatar with which you can explore a world full of other people's avatars. Here's the first order of business: What does IMVU stand for? I've tried to sound it out, to figure out what the letters stand for, but I have stopped myself from looking it up.IMVU is a social network that's pretty unusual. Instant Messaging Virtual Universe? What? There has to be a very simple explanation, one that resides right under my nose, something so obvious that I. I thought it would be something more on the scandalous side, not something that sounds like an explanation from a late 1980s futurism flick.Īnyway, I spent a good deal of time in IMVU customizing my character. Really, most of the gameplay is about customization in some form or another. Players make characters that look like they do and then spend countless hours perfecting that look. There are so many designers and different styles in the IMVU cash shop that I literally got lost. I had no idea whether what I was looking at was for a boy or girl or both (some of the categories became mixed), and I began to become a little depressed that I could not make an avatar that resembled my 38 year-old self. In fact, I spent so much time wading through emo haircuts and androgynous looks that I finally had to search for "old" in order to find a decent looking skin for my character to wear. I grabbed some knock-off Chuck Taylors and threw on a black t-shirt and a pair of plain pants. I was also able to find plenty of cheap glasses to represent my real cheap glasses, making my avatar look like an Elf version of my real self. I know that many of you will claim that a social MMO like IMVU is for tween girls only, but I want to take issue with that. First, there are a lot of people who truly find peace while roleplaying someone who is their polar opposite. I'm not talking about creepy old dudes pretending to be little girls, so just skip those jokes, please. I'm talking about disabled players, players who might have a bad case of shyness, or even people who just want to try out something they have never tried before. Being able to immerse yourself into a world of what amounts to dress-up can be quite fun. Second, many players in IMVU would say that someone who spends all night killing orcs is even weirder than they are. After all, there is often no real socialization going on during those epic battles, so what's the point in playing a multiplayer game? I can see both sides.įor those who do lean more to the MMORPG side of things, exploration is pretty fun in IMVU as well. The worlds and rooms are really instanced chat rooms that allow only a certain number of people inside, so we can put IMVU into the "almost-an-MMO" category. As is often the case with Rise and Shiny, I wasn't up on all of the mechanics involved in my choice of game for the week, so I missed the fact that IMVU is not really a true MMO. There are still some great design decisions made in the game, though - decisions that can be applied to MMOs.Įxploring those instanced chat rooms often leads to some pretty cool places. It can lead to some horrible, poorly designed places as well, but more often than not, I found myself in a masterpiece. Players have built entire jungles, fairy lakes, eerie swamps, and more Gothic sets than I could count. The distinct difference between IMVU and most other social MMOs is the fact that players do not actually walk across these areas instead, they click on pre-selected areas on the landscape. I found myself clicking on a stairwell, and my character would flash to the spot and sit down. I'd click on a chair below, and my character would suddenly be in a thoughtful sitting position. Many of these pre-chosen positions come with some nice animations. I even found myself being attacked by a giant gorilla, eventually being picked up by the brute.Īt first I hated how IMVU's "movement" worked. What is the point of forbidding players to move anywhere. Especially in a social MMO? But soon, I started to enjoy how easy it was to explore a new chat room or to find a really cozy spot without having to navigate the scenery.
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