Closing out our month of travel with our US user, Elite. Here is his story, Behind The Avatar.
IMVU: How long have you been on IMVU?
Elite: Since December 1st 2005. My account is 12 years old. It turns 13 this year, I think this December. My account is super old. I took breaks in between… but I’ve only had one account, one username. I’ve been Elite since 2007.
IMVU: How do you feel like IMVU has changed since you started?
E: Oh gosh, when I first started, IMVU was two boxes. A box where you had your outfits and stuff on one side, and a whole other box for chat. And we had bobble heads – like legit bobble heads. We weren’t anywhere near as creative with outfits as we are now. IMVU has just changed drastically with outfits and quality in general since then.
IMVU: How do you feel the community has changed since you started?
E: Oh it’s changed drastically from when I first started. When I first started, we didn’t have many ways to meet each other. We had chat now – I met a lot of my old friends through chat now. Chat now has become “nooby” central… you can’t ever actually meet a real person on chat now anymore. It’s always guest avatars that leave instantly…the best place to meet people is to go right into chat rooms.
But the community’s gotten a lot better. People are more active, and the Feed and Instagram helps a lot because you can do community events and award shows.
IMVU: So have you met a lot of people through IMVU?
E: Yah I’m good friends with a lot of people. We talk on IMVU quite a bit. I still have a lot of friends I’m close with. I’m sure you’ve seen Saint VX – he has 15k followers and everything. He’s one of my oldest friends. I’ve also met my girlfriend [Sunni] through IMVU.
I met her three years ago on IMVU. We first chatted for a long time and then we finally met October of last year, and we’ve been together in real life since then.
IMVU: Can you explain a little bit on how you and Sunni met?
E: We just met at a really random, public chat room. I don’t even remember what it was… it was a really nooby public room. And we just started talking. I own Grim [Magazine] and asked her to model for me first. And then it just kind of went from there.
We’ve been together for a long time now, at least for me.
Sunni & Elite
IMVU: So how did you get started on IMVU? How did you find us?
E: I had a friend, and we played some dumb game called RuneScape, and he was bored of [it], and he was like, “Create an avatar here, and come to this room with me”. And I’m like “OK, why not”.
So I just created my account. My first name was something stupid. It was like some name with a bunch of numbers. I wasn’t very serious when I started, I’ll admit.
And then I met some friends and I started getting into it more. And then I became “Elite”.
IMVU: Is there any advice that you’d want to give out to new users, or anything that you want to say to the IMVU community?
E: I always like to encourage people to be themselves. Everybody is so caught up in copying everybody’s outfits. I mean, I’d like people to try to be more original, and try to be themselves, and not have to copy somebody else. Be who you are, you know? There are a million different looks on IMVU – you don’t need to use somebody else’s just ‘cause they might get more likes than you, or something like that.
But IMVU has such a great community and you could always reach out to its bigger members. None of us feel like we’re better than anybody else. People can always message me, I have my DMs completely open and I read every message I get.
Helping people is always something that I love to do.
Want to find out some of Elite’s favorite rooms?
Room: Star Skate
Star Skate Creator: StellaFire
“Such a fun authentic room for skating and dates and over all… parties. There’s lots to do and you will have a great time with friends or a loved one.”
Room: El Chapo Sushi Restaurant
Room: El Chapo Sushi Restaurant Creator: MrDerulo
“It’s an authentic restaurant [that’s] very fun and [has a] great environment and just cool for dates, or just meeting people. It would be fun to have parties or events here with friends.”
Room: Premire Fitness
Premire Fitness Creator: MrDerulo
“[This room has] just opened and everyone’s always talking about fitness and having fun with it. There [are] trainers here and people that could even help you with fitness questions and more.”
