imvu?

Hi I can't help seeing ads for imvu on nearly every site related to second life, and now I'm curious: how many SL creators are making products for imvu also? Does anyone here also participate in imvu, and if so, how does it compare to Second Life?
I would love to hear from anyone who has sold merchandise in both games.
Do you find it is easier to create for one than it is for the other?
Is one more or less rewarding?

One of the things that intrigued me about imvu is that it appears creators have much more flexiibility with the avatars, being able to edit or create a new mesh for various body parts. I tend to think of this as a huge advantage, but do you think it requires too much knowledge for the average content creator? Is it so intimidating that it discourages people from trying their hand at making products?

I have been on imvu before and the outfits on imvu (in my opinion) are a lot more uglier than on SL. Also it's very limited as what you can and can't do. No in world building per say... you must have 3dmax in order to build your own objects then it does take credits to upload what you have made, however it is a lot of credits.

Also there is a lot of limited activities in which you can do on imvu. I enjoy SL because you can walk and explore but in imvu you are stuck to one room and in order to stand somewhere you have to sit on a pose dot.

SL is much better in my opinion.

I researched IMVU pretty extensively while I was the art director for a certain multi-virtual world project that got canceled when a certain VW solutions company laid off practically its entire staff a year and a half ago. I can't breach NDA, so I can't say much about the project itself. I'll just mention that it would have spanned literally every virtual world in existence, and its title rhymed with "bar check". Hey, isn't there a movie about to come out that also rhymes with that? But I digress. You asked about IMVU. I'll get back on topic now.

Here's what I remember. First, in order to create content, you have to register for a special kind of account. It's not like SL, where anyone and everyone can make content instantly. You have to be a registered creator.

You also can't just open up your own shop somewhere and start selling. You submit your creations to IMVU's catalog, and people buy from there. You have to pay a fee for every item you submit.

The IMVU world itself is not actually a "world" like SL is. It's a collection of 3D chat rooms, nothing more. If you and your online friends want to hang out, you all log into the same room, and chat away while watching your avatars sit there, or in some cases, watching them do things with items that are in the room. There's no walking around to explore the environment. There really is no environment to explore.

Certain elements do allow for a larger degree of freeform creation than SL allows, such as making an avatar mesh from scratch. But to do that with much effectiveness, the artist needs to be familiar with how to use 3DS Max 7 for 3D modeling and rigging. (Why version 7, and only version 7, I have no idea.) The novice can't just dive in and figure it out with built-in tools like one can in SL.

However, even with that allowance of free form, the aesthetics of IMVU for the most part are highly cartoony. There's not much there in the way of realism, or even illustrative realism. For whatever reason, 'cutesy-wootsy' seems to be the style of choice.

Also, they've got some extremely restrictive rules in place about what's not allowed. While they do have an adults-only section, their rules within it are quite puritan. Genitalia must not be "aroused" or "of inappropriate size". (There goes half of SL's audience right there.) They even go so far as to provide a measurement diagram for precisely how big a penis is allowed to be in relation to the rest of the body. It's a bit draconian.

What's that you say? How big? Well, let's just say Dirk Diggler wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the place.

That said, marketing of products in IMVU can be quite lucrative, from what I understand. In my research, I learned of several well known SL content creators (again, I won't name names) who actually make more money in IMVU than in SL, even though the things they make for SL look a thousand times better. Sometimes, simplicity is an easier sell, I guess. SL, for all its richness as a compelling world, does have a lot of barriers to entry. IMVU is more you sign up, you're in, and it's pretty obvious what to do (since you can't do much more than chat).

That's how it was a year or two ago, anyway. It's possible it might have changed since then. I haven't looked at it recently.

It's too bad about that project, Chosen. I had mixed feelings about some of that companies SL activity, notably the "beepshot" situation, but being a big Bar Checker myself, that did interest me.