3D Chat

The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also, differing denotations.

The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real. Colloquially, 'virtual' is used to mean almost, particularly when used in the adverbial form e.g., "That's virtually almost impossible".

The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It was created by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons ("Sims") in a suburban household near SimCity.

The Sims was first released on February 4, 2000. By March 22, 2002, The Sims had sold more than 6.3 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling PC game in history; the game has shipped 16 million copies worldwide as of February 7, 2005. Since its initial release, seven expansion packs and a sequel, The Sims 2 (with its own expansion packs), have been released. A third game, The Sims 3, was released June 2, 2009. The Sims has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's "Game of the Year Award" for 2000. 'The Sims' franchise also holds the record for best-selling games franchise of all time, with more than 100 million copies of Sims 1, Sims 2, all expansion and stuff packs being sold worldwide to date.

IMVU is a graphical instant messaging client developed by IMVU Inc. It currently hosts over 20 million registered users, and over 600,000 active monthly users, as of June 6, 2008.IMVU Press Release 2008-06-24 Fresh Look At IMVU, Mini-MMO With Big Numbers 2008-06-24 Currently, it is in public beta, and has been available since April 2, 2004. IMVU was founded by Will Harvey, a video game developer and founder of There.

IMVU has the world's largest catalog of virtual goods with over 3 million items, produced by over 100,000 content creators. It currently generates approximately $1 million in revenue per month, 90% of which comes directly from in-game consumers.

Meez is a social networking website where people can create 3D avatars, play games, make mobile greetings, make their own worlds and visit them, connect with friends in a virtual world, and create a perfect life for themselves. It is a PG-16 website due to chat room language. Meez is based in San Francisco, CA.

After registration, users choose the genders of their Meez characters, customize them with appearance options, dress them in MeezMaker clothing, and add animations and backgrounds. After creation, Meez can be exported for download in JPEG or GIF form for use in websites, social networking profiles, blog posts, and forum signatures. Meez can also be used alongside games where the gameplay drives the emotions of the Meez, on in games where a Meez becomes the main character.

In June 2008, Meez launched MeezNation, a browser-based virtual world composed of a variety of neighborhoods. Meez Nation offers a range of places, including public hangouts and personal Roomz that owners can custom-decorate and share with friends.

Meez was launched on March 28, 2006. One of a small group of "online entertainment" web services developed by Donnerwood Media, Meez's founder is Sean Ryan, former VP of Music Services of Real Networks, and the CEO is John Cahill, a former Yahoo executive.