Hey everyone!

Lots of new changes that went live earlier this week! Here’s the latest rundown.

New Female Avatars

We’ve spent a lot of time sprucing up our female avatars, and frankly, we think they look great! Thanks for all your positive feedback. We listened very carefully to your comments and applied much of that feedback to the new version. Guys have a new version coming around the corner, too. You’ll also notice a handful of new clothing items. Some of you also noticed that a few items disappeared (wings, for example). Don’t worry! Those will be coming back soon. We just had to send them back to the shop for some repairs, and you’ll see a new version, in addition to hundreds of new clothing items, coming out in the next month.

Here are a few snapshots of some of our new female avatars.

Who Are You?

Have you ever wanted to learn a little more about the people in the scene with you? Or wanted to easily share your Facebook profile or Twitter feeds with them? We introduced a very simple way to do this. Right-click on any avatar and select About Me to see that person’s scene thumbnail, and also any links they’ve chosen to share with you. You can put any link you like in there to share with your friends. I know you guys are thirsty for ways to learn more about people, too. Stay tuned. Some cool new things coming out soon.

Show a Little Love!

Yeah, we see you Miss Flirty Flirt. Trying out your moves on the boys. Very cute. Well, now you can win each other’s affection by sending hearts to other friends in the scene. Just right-click on an avatar and select Send Hearts to send a cute little flying greeting to your friends. Warning, if you fall in love, don’t blame us.

Rotten Tomatoes!

Love or hate our movies, you can now show how you feel. Just like Sending Hearts, you can also go into the movie theaters and rate them by selecting “I hate this” or “I love this.” Depending on what you choose, the avatar will throw something at the movie screen. So if you’re sick of the latest Twilight clip, just throw some rotten tomatoes to let people know how you feel!

Power to the People!

We’ve given you a couple of new features to help you better control your experience in Vivaty. If that avatar next to you has really bad breath, or is otherwise way too annoying, just right-click and select Ignore User. After ignoring the user, you’ll no longer see their chat and they’ll generally just have to leave you alone. Also, for those of you who prefer to hang out with just an older crowd, you can now put some age restrictions on your scene. Just Edit Settings for your scene to control it. Also, if you have any more significant issue with other users, please just let us know, or send email to help at vivaty.com

Come by the Forums!

We’re listening closely to your feedback, and frequently responding inside our new customer forums. Thanks so much for your fashion ideas, and all the other suggestions. We think about them very very carefully as we’re building our future versions and features. Stop by our forums today. While you’re at it, follow us on Twitter for the latest updates!

See you soon!

Mark and the Vivaty Team

Hi everyone!

Well, it’s been quite a whirlwind these last couple weeks! First, we burned the midnight oil turning on the public beta of Vivaty Scenes in Facebook. We also launched a branded version of Vivaty Scenes for a big partner that I think is really a great showcase of branded content. We also launched an upgraded version of Vivaty Scenes in AIM.

As part of that release, there were a whole slew of new things. Here are just a handful (the feature list contained 21 new improvements and features!):

·         Great new content: New scene templates, and cool things to put in your scenes! Try out the BFF Frame and explore the new Beach Cabana!

·         Moods: Now you can demonstrate that pouty lip when your virtual girlfriend shows you the hand.

·         Facebook Notifications: There are a whole slew of new notifications you can send to your friends when you do things in your scene. This way, your friends can keep up with all your great changes, and know when to come check it out.

·         Invitations: During our private beta, you couldn’t add your buddies. Now, all your friends who have Vivaty will automatically show up in your Friends List. Additionally, you can now easily invite anyone to add Vivaty Scenes and create their own.

·         Better Sharing: We know it’s hard on some services to tell your friends to check out your place, and for them to figure out and find where that is. That’s why with our latest release, we turned on scene linking. All you have to do is copy the URL in your browser of your scene and paste it in an IM or email and your friend can come check out your pad. Heck, try it by checking out my scene here.

While we’re thrilled to bring these to you, we’re even more excited about what’s on the way. Let me tell you a little secret – you’re going to be seeing more frequent releases of new features and improvements. So if you love being the first person with the inside scoop, make sure to make daily visits into Vivaty and this blog to stay up to date! 

 On the immediate horizon: Firefox support! We know there are many Firefox fans, and we will bring you Vivaty Scenes in Firefox soon. (Btw, if you can’t wait that long, you can also use the IE Plugin for Firefox to give Vivaty a shot without leaving Firefox — you can see a snapshot of my Vivaty scene running in Firefox using the plugin.) We also have a great new feature coming out in a couple weeks to make the experience even more fun and social! And wait until you see the little friend you can soon adopt into your scenes.  

Thanks, and see you soon!

Mark Hull
VP Product

The Vivaty crew takes on all laser-tag comers