11 things I hate about vmtv

I've been submitting items to vMTV lately, and I realize that my POV is of someone who has used There and IMVU for a long time and we tend to like what we're used to, but I think even so, other than number 5 maybe, that my hate list is pretty fair. I was going to put these in some kind of order, but I really can't decide what bugs me more, so it's totally random...

11 things I hate about MTV's Virtual World

1. Skin Tones and Spas
I signed up for the vMTV beta in 2006 I guess, and that was a while back now, but I'm pretty sure I picked a milk skintone at the time. It's what I've always used in There and it's closest to my skintone in real life. Well, when vMTV came out of beta, they ended up with something like maybe four skintones. JUST FOUR! MTV is a bit lacking in ways to really customize your look anyway, and now we're limited even more by our skintone choices. Ack! So, ever since they came out of beta, my avatar has had a milk body and an ugly yellow face. I finally went to the spa and changed my skintone to vanilla so that my body AND my face are vanilla, but I HATE HATE HATE vanilla, I always have. I mean, don't get me wrong, vanilla chicks and dudes, maybe you love vanilla it's fine on other people, but on MY avatar it just looks SOOOOO wrong. It's YELLOW. I am not YELLOW. If you're going to make that the lightest shade available, MTV, at least make it a neutral tone. Maybe they got confused because I don't know about all the spas, but the one I visited was bathed in a green glow...HOW are you supposed to choose a new lookset in a place that makes you look like an alien? Heck, I wish I really were picking a green skintone...it would be better than being vanilla yellow.

2. I don't know how many vMTV$ I have!
Seriously, I was submitting a bunch of stuff (about 200 items) and I didn't know if I needed more vMTV$ until I tried to submit something and was told I didn't have enough moolah to submit. I looked ALL OVER the site, in the galleria, in the other store areas, in my profile, in the developer area...nowhere could I find my account balance other than logging into the actual vMTV client, which is not always that convenient when you have about five applications open on your computer! Well, the one other place I did find it was when you list an auction...it will tell you your balance after you've submitted your listing.

3. No Auction relisting tool
Speaking of listing your items in auctions (oh sorry...the Galleria...ooh, la la! Who ever heard of a "Galleria" working like an auction?) I know by September, when my two month auctions all start expiring, I am going to be TOTALLY hating the whole auction system. I have always felt that, while There.com community (and staff) members like KittenKat and Sonblock were total lifesavers in the short term for developers, especially those like myself with hundreds if not thousands of submissions, that in the LONG term they did There and member developers a bit of a disservice. It's very easy for There to keep pushing "build a better auction tool" further down their todo list year after year when members don't complain too much because of these work-around tools that have been developed. Really though, the auction listing page for BOTH There and MTV is a joke! It is more like a demo page someone made when they weren't sure how auctions were going to work and if they'd be popular. They might work okay if you have a half dozen items, but more than that and you'll soon be crying in your coffee as you try to work out what you've listed and what you haven't. Even if vMTV would do such a simple thing as send you an email to say "Hi, we wanted to let you know that your item 'Jinx's Red Kissing Heart' had ended. You sold 12 copies." Or even leave out the how many copies you sold, but even just letting you know your auction ended...and not just by the auction number, but by the item name. Another small change that would help would be, on the buy/list items page, group items by category and include a preview pic as well as the text you included in your last listing of the auction and/or the price you last listed the item at, or a link to the last known listing of that auction. Heck, or allow sorting by just items that are not currently listed! There are soooo many simple changes they COULD make, and although I would have given up long ago without the auction listing tools members created, they've allowed There and now vMTV to be lazy about it for too long. Wake up and prioritize that page!

4. Submission fees not well thought out
Okay, this makes me soooooo mad...I submit a (builder) lamp to vMTV and I pay the equivalent of nearly $5 to submit it. I can also submit a very complicated five person seating group and I will pay the SAME PRICE to submit that. Now wait a minute...a lamp is a very simple little item with no seating nodes or much of anything to look at...who the heck decided that things like lamps should cost $5 to submit? With a seating group, you have to check a lot more stuff on it and last I knew it took an approver more time to approve than a lamp. This has always bugged me in There...it leads to not enough simple decorating items like lamps in the catalog and a surplus of "big fancy complicated" stuff. And it's just not logical. A knickknack is about $2.50 to submit and is usually more complicated to approve. I could probably submit a lamp in the knickknack category and get it approved, but I want shoppers to be able to go to the LAMP section of the Galleria (ooh la la) to find my lamps! Is that so wrong? Couldn't somebody just maybe um...ASK AN APPROVER OR TWO how long it takes them to approve different items on average? I think THAT should dictate the submission price!

5. No bunny slippers, hoverpacks or hoverboats
What? No bunny slippers? I love my bunny slippers! Actually, my favorite pair is painted to look like frogs...I forget who made them but they are so cute with this green bathrobe I like to wear around There. How can vMTV not have these? I really would like to know...are they just trying to differentiate themselves from there.com or do they have something against bunny slippers? Meanies! And why no hoverpacks or hoverboats? It's like they don't want us to fly! Who ever heard of a virtual world where you aren't permitted to fly? Hey, I've got a great new advertising slogan for them! "vMTV: the virtual world where we don't let you fly around even though we could."

6. The site is totally whacked out
No seriously...it's really hard to find anything. I'm surprised that anyone can find the Galleria at all, and there are all these little stores for different advertisers or reality shows or whatever that may only have five items or may be in some really random place. It's obvious that they just tried to slap vMTV on top of a copy of the There.com site and then stick a bunch of extra stuff in it, and I guess sometimes it works, but there are plenty of places where the title bar says "welcome to There" or there is a category of items that don't actually exist in vMTV. It's also very hard to find the developer section of the site and to figure out where you list your auctions and where to go to see how many you've sold.

7. Stop the music, I want to get off
I was downloading and installing the latest version of vMTV, and I wanted to watch/listen to something on YouTube while doing so, but this proved impossible because while the program was installing, MUSIC was playing...with no way to turn it off! It was the most invasive install experience I've ever had. I had to take off my headset and go use a different computer until vMTV was done installing. And then in-world they always want to play me music, too. I turned that "feature" off, but still, it's there on my screen every time I log in or teleport until I'm done loading in and the system figures out that I've got that set to "off". Would it really be so terrible to make it "off" by default? Or keep it, whatever...it's the install music that really makes my blood pressure rise...just get rid of that invasive b.s. and I'll stop hating on you.

8. Developer approvals submission communication
Okay, I think people that approve stuff for MTV or for There are nice, I really do. The communication with developers needs a bit of work, though. I don't think it's the people, I think it's the system. Let's say you're getting a rejection. You'll get an email that says something like...

We regret to inform you that the following submission was not approved:

91612136
Here are the details

Reason: Copyright Violations

Details: This design incorporates copyrighted materials.

You will have been automatically refunded a percentage of your
submission fee for the above item. We encourage you to review our Submission
Guidelines, rework your design and resubmit.

Thanks for participating in the Developer Program. We look forward to seeing
your work!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at
productsubmissions@vlb.there.com.
See you in There!

There Product Submissions

Let's see...what's wrong with this email? Well first, it says that submission "91612136" was rejected but I have NO idea which submission that is because when you go to your "my submissions" page, it only shows them by name, and when you receive an email saying your submission was uploaded successfully, it only shows them by number. Never do they actually tell you the number AND the name at the same time. You have to go into your list of submitted items and kind of guess based on what you can see has been rejected. Second, it says "this design incorporates copyrighted materials". Well, this is a real submission I'm showing you, and I managed to figure out they were rejecting a pair of hightop tennis shoes...a pair that has been approved and listed in auctions in There for four years. Since they don't say what the copyright infringement is, and as far as I knew I hadn't infringed, I was stumped. I had to email them to ask them and then it turns out...they rejected it by mistake or because they were confused or something! (I seem to have that power of confusion over people...especially approvers.) Okay then finally, they sign it "contact us at productsubmissions@vlb.there.com" but if you email them there they tell you to use Fuze instead (I hate, hate, hate the fuze system, I probably should have made it number 12 in 11 things I hate, but it's hard to find, totally inefficient and like talking to a robot instead of a person). They also say, although this is vMTV product submissions, "See you in There!" and sign it "There Product Submissions". I have to think it has said that same thing for what...two years now? Is it REALLY so hard to make a few changes in the email template? Argh!

Oh yeah, and it says "we have refunded you a percentage of your submission fee." WTH? 1%? 50%? 99%? Would it really be so hard to say "we have refunded you 50% of your submission fee" or "we have refunded you 400 vMTV$ of your submission fee"? Why so mysterious? I actually have NO idea if I REALLY get ANY refund at all! If there's a transaction history on the site, I've never found it.

9. Hey, that's MY pool!
I rented a beautiful house in vMTV. Okay, I should say the house was a bit drab and ugly, but I thought it was still worth it because it came with a big beautiful back yard with jacuzzi and pool! Then, after renting it, I felt soooooo ripped off. Not only does the house have no decorating nodes, so I can't change the wallpaper, floors, ceiling or hang any pictures, but the pool, jacuzzi and yard aren't REALLY mine. I can sit in/on them but so can anyone else AND I can't decorate them. Seriously, a total rip-off. False advertising!!!! I honestly think I should get my money back.

10. Garnier Fructis Hair
Okay, there don't seem to be that many hairstyles in vMTV and some of them are rather ugly. I think part of the problem is that the mapping on them is a bit weird but they want to make the hair "textured", but whatever the reason for the original vMTV hairstyles being weird, there is some hope, because Garnier Fructis has some special promotional hairstyles that don't suck. The thing is though, it's limited edition hair (I guess, although who knows how seriously they take that) and they release it like, one hairstyle for men and one for women each week. Well, they SAY one hairstyle but it's really one COLOR of one hairstyle each week. And there are only four different colors...so if you want to be blonde you can only be ONE shade of blonde, and same with red and brunette and if you want to be really picky then you might complain that there is only one shade of black as well (instead of blue-black, natural black, etc) and nothing that looks at all "punky" with cool highlights or anything...not as far as I've seen. Is it too much to ask for some strawberry blonde hair? I guess they're supposed to be like tamagotchi...gotta collect them all. The only thing is, it's NOT tamagotchi, it's HAIR. I know it's a virtual world and all, but in my experience most of the time people pick ONE haircolor and ONE skincolor and then they may want to change the style of their hair but not necessarily the color.

So, I'm just thinking if Garnier Fructis were SMART about it, they would first of all make eight colors instead of four, and second, instead of making you visit the Garnier Fructis empty building each week to click on a link and nothing ever changes, they'd have you sign up on their website with YOUR preferred haircolor and then each time they released a new style (in ALL eight colors) they'd email you and say "Hi, it's Garnier Fructis and we have a new hairstyle for you!" and have you go to their website to pick up your claim code which you could then use in vMTV to get the new style in YOUR color. It would make a lot more sense, and they could learn more about the people buying their hair. Even if that means they only release hair once a month instead of every week...so what??? Do you REALLY need to go to a hair care products building/website EVERY WEEK? Yeah, I didn't think so.

11. Against TOS to sell vMTV$??????
What??? Apparently it's against the vMTV TOS to sell vMTV$ (What are they really CALLED anyway? I've seen them called vMTV Bux, vMTV Bucks, vMTV Credits, vMTVs, vMTV Dollars and even vMTV ThereBucks. Personally I call them vMTV Dollars because of the dollar sign after the "vMTV" part, but who knows? I'm guessing MTV doesn't even know. What? We have to name our currency? Um yeah, I thought everyone knew that...it's just like having your own private island.)

What is vMTV afraid of, anyway? I guess they will even enforce this policy if you advertise anywhere on their site (like say, in your Galleria - ooh la la listings) or anywhere in-world or even by TALKING to someone in-world to say "hey, I sell vMTV-whatchamacallems, want to buy some?" Nice, way to encourage developers to submit new content to your virtual world! "vMTV: pay five dollars to submit a small lamp or table to our virtual world and get nothing in return!" Put that together with your outrageous submission fees for lamps and tables, your horrible auction listing/relisting system, the way the Galleria (ooh la la) is buried on the website and the way MTV has given out vMTV$ like candy at a parade and it's a wonder anyone ever submits any new content at all!

So, just for the record...I am definitely, positively, certainly NOT selling my big pile of vMTV$, but I will be giving them away, so check http://vmtv.jinx.tv for more info soon!

See you in There! Oops...I mean vMTV!

Chinese Gold Farmers have a Silver Lining

A while back, there was a credit reseller at IMVU who was very distraught because chinese gold farmer/scammers were causing her to lose huge amounts of money, and whatever she did to try and stop them barely seemed to slow them down. She lamented about it to other resellers and to IMVU, but nobody really knew what to do to help her and the response was pretty much, "that sucks."

I don't know why at that time she seemed to be the only one with this problem, but somewhat more recently it seems IMVU itself was the target of, if not the exact same people then at least the same type of fraud.

Basically the fraudsters have some kind of credit selling site. The ones I have seen all sell currency for a bunch of games...just name an online game and they probably sell currency for it. There are a lot of these sites, but after a while they all kind of look the same, like they are made from the same template. In fact, after reading up on the subject my best guess is that somebody is in the business of churning out template sites for this very thing and charging some mom and pop operation in China a fee for setting them up with one of these sites. So the mechanics behind them all is basically the same, but the people behind each site are probably different. This is why there are so many and why probably, if you managed to shut down 20 of the sites, 20 new ones would probably be in their place tomorrow.

So what happens is Joe Q IMVU User ends up on one of these sites and gives up his credit card or PayPal info (or other payment info) and hopefully (but who knows?) doesn't expose any personal info when doing this, to get some credits being sold at an amazingly cheap price. Woo hoo...cheap credits for Joe Q!

The next step is the people running this site use stolen credit card or paypal info or some method of fraudulent payment to buy credits from a legitimate credit reseller at a much higher price. (Doesn't make sense, right?) They buy these credits but not to be sent to themselves, they have them sent straight to the person who purchased from them on their site at the AMAZING REALLY LOW PRICE using a bogus email address in their paypal information.

The scammers don't really know if the credits are actually sent or not, at least not until someone complains they didn't get their credits, but I'm sure they're hoping the transactions will go through. They also sometimes buy credits directly for their own dummy IMVU mule accounts, but IMVU has made that rather difficult lately since it's so hard to transfer much of any credits if you aren't a developer.

THEN...this is where paths diverge...either the transaction is caught before payment is made, OR it is paid. If the trusted reseller misses the transaction and it is paid, then a day or several days later they will receive PayPal investigations, credit card chargebacks and PayPal reversals. This results in the reseller contacting IMVU and trying to retrieve the credits which were stolen from them, often times resulting in some very angry credit buyers who blame the trusted reseller for their woes, and not the site they originally purchased from. I think this is probably due to the fact that until recently it was IMVU itself that was the target of these scammers and the email that IMVU sends out to the buyers/victims has wording that makes sense if IMVU is selling the credits, but makes the trusted reseller sound complicit when sent out WRT third party transactions.

Whew, yeah so...it's a scary world out there for people looking to buy discounted credits right now. I think IMVU is working on a way to get these sites shut down, but I'm thinking "how in the heck are they going to do that?" I mean, these sites sell 20 different kinds of currency...if they were shut-downable wouldn't one of the other 20 games tried to do that already? Maybe not, since most if not all of them probably don't support third party resellers, in fact selling their currency is probably against their TOS, but if I'm right about some main company selling mom and pop entrepreneurs in China the template for these sites, then you can shut down all of them and tomorrow there will just be a bunch of brand new ones anyway.

So right now resellers are all reacting to this in their own ways and trying different methods to stop these transactions, stopping new user registrations to their site altogether, writing new code, whatever. Of course I'm implementing my own strategies but I think it is probably going to take nearly two months to properly implement a new system. TWO MONTHS!

This means that for most of the summer I will probably be glued to my computer, examining and paying each transaction by hand. It seems like a long time, but it's the best way to get a really good system in place. I COULD make some easier and quicker changes that would allow SOME people to be paid automatically, but that would just make the full and proper implementation take longer. *Le sigh*

The "good" news is...this couldn't have come at a better time! I mean, if there had to be a two month period where I can't leave my computer for long periods of time and I live in fear that each transaction is bogus and is going to result in chargebacks...it might as well be now! My bf has his younger daughter here for the summer and is going to be spending most of his free time taking her to softball tournaments and softball practice and sitting in the hot sun watching her play. Plus, my (post?) cancer kitty is on antibiotics for two months and needs those meds every 12 hours, so I wouldn't be able to go anywhere for more than 12 hours anyway.

And finally, the really surprising silver lining for me is that, through examining each order that comes in, the PayPal and order confirmation emails and all they contain, and visiting home pages to compare data, and searching to find past orders and even order attempts by users, I feel I've grown a lot closer to the people buying credits from me. I now know a little bit about them...where they're from, if they're buying a gift for someone. Sometimes I can tell someone is buying credits for their sweetie, who maybe lives in a different state, or a kid is visiting their father for the summer, or stealing their grandmother's credit card. Usually it's just an avatar name working its way down my gmail inbox, but for the next two months, IMVU credit sales are my own personal soap opera.

(Hey, for more info on sites that are fraudulently selling IMVU credits, please go here!)