IMVU

I think IMVU is very fun! It's an awesome way for ADULTS to interact with each other online. There are many rooms that allow you to be yourself or be who you'd like to be. The main problem I have found, is there seems to be no age limit as to who can join. I've ran into children as young as twelve. This site, like every other poses a risk of children running into a situation they need not face. Since there are no children avatars, except the ones you can buy, (but not BE) it is obvious that this site is directed at adults. Therefore it needs a minimum age limit. Having Access Pass only chat rooms does not keep children from seeing things they need not see, or interacting with people that may be harmful.

As a frequent user, I have learned that IMVU is just another social world, much like New York or California, where you must float into your own section of IMVU. In real life, you wouldn't just walk down an alley at night and decide to chat with the guy in the corner, holding a rusted knife. In IMVU, you wouldn't blindly chat with the default guy standing in the corner, because odds are, he will ask you for sex or your address. What I'm trying to say, is that IMVU can be potentially good for you, so long as you are smart about it. Its not going to be a simple join and have friendly chatter for hours on end and you get to learn about other cultures from people who actually live in a foreign place, inless you resolve to find that sort of place.

Tip 1: Know what you want out of IMVU.
I mean, if you get on there to cyber and gawk at the scantily dressed pixels, then you should know that walking into a General Audience room that is marked," ~Kids Play WaterPark!~" isn't going to get you that kind of wanted attention. Same thing with people who want to learn or share their culture. Don't go into," XXX-strip-n-fun" just because a swedish guy is hanging in the room. Odds are, he WILL share his culture, but not quite the kind of culture you may be into.

Tip 2: Knowing the IMVU stereotypes( YES, every social thing is GOING to have stereotypes!!)
When you click on a safe looking chat room and you find yourself surrounded by friendly people who make your experience the perfect thing you planned on, make sure you take note of what they are wearing or how they type. Then, when you wish to find other people that nice, then you can simply judge by their clothing, room style, and speech (typing skills). And, if you want to start your own room to attract more people to you, you'll know who you are looking for, and who is simple looking for free credits. Oh, and don't forget to also change your appearance to suit as well, else you'll have people wondering about you and waiting for you to ask," i cn haz creddz, pweas?"

Tip 3: What impression are you giving out?
Simply put, it's like wearing a face covering and a hoodie into a bank. People are going to assume you are there to rob the place. Simple Fact. Stereotyping is a type of survival in our social worlds. However, if you want to attract specific attention, be sure to know what you should wear to get it. Like, if you are wanting to learn about Germany, buy a German Armband and wear it into a," ~Culture-Chair~" room, and soon enough, people will ask," Oh, are you from Germany?" and you can say no, but I would love to know more about Germany since I'm madly in love with the Country and its Culture. Just be smart about what you wear, and make it easier for people to read what your intentions are.

Tip 4: WHICH GROUP?!?!
Most of the Groups on IMVU are just a picture gallery, meaning most members of the group never post nor even get on but once a year, but you can tell which ones are active and inactive just by paying attention to the small things. If someone invites you to," Cuddling Culture" and you prefer the group to be a fast-paced group, then look at the Threads (Main sections specifying what to post in them) If you see that every thread has at least half the pages in it as the days ago it was started, than you are all set for the perfect group. But, if you see there are only 7 or less posts in the threads, be prepared for a long response time to your German questions. Last of all, and sometimes even I get tricked on this tip, Look at the Member count. If you are unsure that this group is for you and you just need another reason to stay away from the galleries, see how many posts there are divided by the number of people. Lets say you are invited to a group of 200 members. If there are not at least 250 posts, I wouldn't bother even trying to seek their attention. However, on the occasion, I have found that there could be a group of 20, and their posts are numbering into the thousands. THOSE groups are limited in knowledge, but boy do they love to flaunt what they DON"T know. XD


To end, let me explain my rating for this review. Though I state that you can have a wonderful time on IMVU so long as you work at it, I've rated IMVU a 2-star due to their "Beta" hideyhole.
If Beta means that a program can simple crash in a low kb setting, then start up without a friends list and your avi with no clothes, then perfect, I think we shall rename IMVU as " BETA".
I can't recall how many times I've come into a room and sit next to someone I know, only to find everyone is on the other side of the room. Sometimes, my inventory will go blank, as if a robber came into my IMVU inventory and stole everything, leaving me with a giant head and only default clothing. BTW: HUGE TIP!!:

DON'T EVER WEAR DEFAULT CLOTHING!!! Trust me, everyone on IMVU has those EXACT clothing, so we will know if you are a no0b, simply by walking out into public with them. Even though, as a creator, I HATE promo credits, use them to buy an Avi ( the whole Avatar body) or maybe even a head with a few outfits. That way, you can be taken seriously while chatting, and not laughed out of a room.

So, that is a few of my tips for future and current IMVU users who maybe confused as to whats what and how some people love it and other don't. Its just like how highschool use to be. Treat it like that, and you will survive with little damage. Anyone wishing to learn indepth about IMVU's social world or if you have questions, Please find me at [email protected] , or find me in IMVU, username " FrauBlue" Thank you for reading, and I wish you all the best of luck!

-FrauBlue

This review is based on over 4 years experience with IMVU Inc. My standing with IMVU is as a developer, customer, and parent. The most recent activity I have viewed that impacts all levels of my experience as a user is what I will review here.

The sheer amount of neglect and direct disregard for their users needs is only surpassed by the incredibly disconcerting customer service. I have logged customer support requests for several reasons and some have yet to be responded to. There are three still pending from two years ago. One more recent customer service request I made was in regards to their Daily Outfit Challenge in which a naked avatar was on the second page. It took 6 weeks for them to respond and the only comment made to me regarding the matter was that it was being looked into. Six weeks is a great deal of time for small children to view such nudity.

IMVU claims to be in Beta yet has been open to the public for more than 5 years. This is a clear misrepresentation to avoid potential charges by users in regard to their false claims pertaining to their services.

Recently, November 2009, IMVU imposed a fraudulent program without notifying any of their user base as to the intentions they had. They added products, which they chose from their business partners, and propagated them to wishlists of those users that had no products on their lists. They hid this fact from the users to prevent them from removing the said business partners products. Many users purchased these items with IMVU Credits, the IMVU virtual currency which is purchased with real world money, for friends and relatives not realizing that the user did not wish to own those products as the wishlist indicated that the user had chosen the items.

This was a deliberate action as they indicated 4 days after the fact that it was an intentional move to 'avoid anyone not having a wishlist'. The products are poorly made and several of the products on the list are NOT general audience as they go against the very Virtual Goods Policy that IMVU claims to enforce. There was no way to contact anyone at IMVU Inc. as they implemented this program on a weekend, which most of these types of things they do, so that nothing could be dealt with until the following week. This is a consistent method that IMVU Inc. uses to ensure that they receive at least a few days of monetary income from programs they know will upset their users.

These products have now been forced to a new location with a tag that states they are recommended by IMVU, however, they have not removed the products that violate their own Virtual Goods Policy.

To add to this issue, only specific products are on this list and not rotated between the hundreds of other developers on the IMVU website which create content for them. This is a corporate monopoly which misrepresents the goods available in the product catalogue. These products can also be purchased repeatedly as, although the product may already be in the inventory of the user it was purchased for it is replaced repeatedly until the recipient added other products to their list. Many of the complaints made in the IMVU forums regarding this matter were that not only were users receiving items they did not wish to own but also receiving it multiple times. Clothing items cannot be used more than once at a time so this means that any additional purchases of said products only manage to waste the givers money.

Approximately a year ago another such program was implemented where IMVU Inc. changed the retail pricing for new users without informing them or anyone else that they would be doing so. The fluctuation they used could charge someone anywhere from 300% above or below the actual retail price of the product the new user was viewing in the catalogue. They did this without any warning to anyone and claimed later it was a test to see how new users would react to varying prices. They did not warn the new users of this fact, allowing them to choose for themselves if they wished to participate in such a 'test'. They did this as a blind test which caused many new users to not return to the site due to the sheer cost of purchasing the IMVU credits with real world money to afford the products they wished to own. This hurt the user based development community financially as well as implied that many of the user developers were grossly over charging for their products which prevented many of them from getting future sales from the new users signing up.

Over the past year the sheer amount of users that have had their accounts disabled without explanation as to why has been beyond comprehension. When asked for information as to what caused their account to be disabled it can take weeks, even months, to get a response from customer service, when a reply is actually given. There were many that were improperly disabled due to a 'bug' in their programming which falsely indicated that the user in question either posted or approved an 'Unfit for IMVU' (otherwise known as a UFI) product to the catalogue. There were no apologies or restitution made to those that lost business and products due to this incident. Unfortunately, this activity is still going on to this day.

I do not recommend IMVU to anyone, of any age. The issues I have mentioned here are only a small portion of the poor business practices shown by IMVU Inc. over the years I have been a member.

IMVU can be fun, if you're 13 or 14 and stick to your clique and have never, ever been on line before and have an IQ under 75.
If you expect anything other than chatting dress up pixel Barbie dolls then you're SOL.
Customer service is at an all time low. There is no service. Customers file help tickets that sit in queue for days or weeks then suddenly their tickets have been deleted by staff.
Customers have very little protection from the cyber bullies that troll the site. From public homepage to public forums, the atmosphere borders on a feral feeding frenzy. At times the cyber bully bloodbath is so vicious that IMVU loses customers. Complaints to staff result in indifference and outright denial.
The packs of wild dogs in the form of supposed young adults reminds one of National Geographic specials that end with images of bloody antelope pieces and growly fat lions.
Content creators who sign up to texture or make 3d products pretty much sign away any rights they should have as a customer.
IMVU used to cherish the members who added to their extensive catalog however, the corporation has removed any support these major contributors once had.
IMVU hides behind the guise of 'safe harbor' in regards to uploaded content however the staff routinely reviews products before publishing.
In theory children are protected from sex and violence but in reality, IMVU is a hotbed of scantily clad 38E vixens, the most overwhelming collection of bondage gear on line, and amazingly realistic intercourse in all varieties.

Between the bondage, the sex, the cyber bullies and the lack of interest on IMVU's part, I would not recommend this platform to anyone with any feelings or morals.

If you think you might like a wild wild west of anything goes and love bad service and being abused, then IMVU is the place for you!

imvu is a discrase.people can go on there and get you. any age). it put a virus on my computer. when i went on there and talked to some one. they tried to get some info about myself from me. it's a good site if u wanna take a chance at being killed! so dont go there.
the virus on my computer was -i could'nt send e mails , and my internet stoped working. my computer was brand newwhen it happened.

I'm a long time user, and even tho I like the place, the customer service is sinking into the worst possible scenario. Virtually, there is NONE. I wouldn't spend any money there unless they get it together better than now. Everything is buggy, nothing gets fixed and they are constantly adding more buggy stuff. The place needs a complete wipe out of the current staff from top to bottom and they need to get some one to drive the boat who understands how to make a business run on something other than scamming customers for quick cash. They aren't growing for a very good reason

IMVU is NOT appropriate for anyone under 18. You can read what adult users of IMVU have said about what really goes on,on imvu,and view the shocking evidence by going here:
http://www.blogsafety.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1100 000166&start;=0

My friend and I downloaded this one night when we were bored after seeing the ad on myspace. The graphics where good, but we did meet alot of morons. Our avatar was asked out a few times (yes really) and was begged for cyber by one person. It seems to me that alot of people on it either dont have a gasp on relatity or they're living the life they want through it.

I wouldn't reccommend this site to very many people. Yes the graphics are nice(no bar scenes, just a boring coffee shop, you have to buy the rest of the scenes), but it's still in the BETA stage and very disorganized. The IMVU staff doesn't handle issues well at all and I get tired of having to update IMVU, then finding out it contains some type of virus or bug. There are many other sites out there that I'm sure are better. Don't waste your time.

I saw a demo of IMVU last night, and it is pretty unbelievably cool. IMVU lets you set up 3D avatars and customize your ID with thousands of clothing and accessory options. But the neatest thing is the blind chat they offer. During the demo, the guy clicked a button which launched chat with a random person from somewhere else in the world who also had their settings set to "chat." A table appeared on the screen with a couple of beers - I think it was a bar setting. Both avatars came to the table, and started chatting in bubbles. There's all sorts of actions you can do during this chat - for example, the presenter stood up and did a karate kick on the screen, and asked the person he was chatting with, "can you do that?" The person's response was to get up and walk away. It was sort of a 3D, live Sims or something... incredibly cool. I can't give it 5 stars as it doesn't support Macs, but this is a service to keep an eye on.