It was back in 2007 when I first considered developing virtual content for sale online.

My first experience with digital content for virtual worlds was through IMVU, a very simplistic 3D virtual space which revolves around chat rooms rendered in 3D. IMVU does not have the expansive scope of other 3D worlds, such as Second Life, OS Grid or the recently released Blue Mars.  Never the less, I found the prospect of real sales of virtual products as something worth exploring. IMVU may be overly cartoon-like and very limited in its feature set, but we all need to start somewhere.

The products I developed for IMVU were essentially texture work. Meaning, some other developer had done the work to create the 3D object and what I was doing was providing the paint job. I ended up working with a 3D mesh artist that specialised in armor and assorted accessories. The entire IMVU developers system works from a concept of derivable meshes. In this model, a 3D artist can create the basic framework of the object and sell the mesh to other developers who want to focus on texture designs. I didn't limit my designs to only armor and swords, although they were, and continue to be, some of my best selling IMVU products. At the top of my sales list is The Sword of Elements, a virtual object that I crafted specifically for ritual use in 3D virtual worlds. Since IMVU does not support voice chat in any way, I decided to build in a set of recorded voice samples that could be used to open and close a ceremonial circle for magic practice. The voice samples are my own and the texture work is all unique. This item still gains a fair amount of attention and sales. Just recently, I received yet another message from a happy customer thanking me for the detailed work in creating an item for a specific purpose other than pure entertainment.

I also entered into the "slightly naughty" arena with a selection of "whip cream 'kini's" for both male and female avatars. These nifty little outfits gave the affect of appearing like a itty-bitty bikini made from whip cream. I had similar designs on a chocolate based idea. These continue to be good sales items. The whip cream 'kini and another product, the Captain Cannabis outfit, started to draw some serious attention from the IMVU owners due to a number of "adult related" complaints they supposedly received. Oddly, these items were listed in the adult section of the catalog, however still gained complaints and were eventually stricken from the IMVU catalog. Then they were returned and then removed again. You see, IMVU was looking to sell off to an outside company, the talk was Disney. It was clear that IMVU was going through some heavy censorship in an attempt to align themselves for a potential buy-out. It was these draconian censorship laws and IMVU's ever changing stance on what was considered acceptable content, that eventually drove me away from the platform and back into Second Life. However, like all things digital, the content lives on forever, so long as the servers keep running.

Due to the horrible nature of the IMVU online shopping catalog, I decided to redesign my IMVU homepage into my own shopping boutique. You can see it here, as well as the products I have developed for it. Still going strong, are the Baphomet armor bundles and my top selling product, The Sword of Elements.

http://avatars.imvu.com/Forteetu