ReStarted: 04/18/2001 Updated: 05/13/2002
Virtual Places Chat --or VPChat-- is a place at Excite! where you can talk in a chatroom. But unlike most chatrooms, you are in a room on your screen, and you have little pictures, called avatars, that you use to represent you in the room. When you talk, a cartoon-style "speech ballon" appears near your avatar with the words in the balloon. There are many rooms you can go to, and you can even create your own room.
Avatars come in three sizes: Regular (about the size of a postage stamp), Megaheads (larger), and Gigaheads (Even bigger). Regular are the most common type of avatars. The avatar can be anything, from a picture of yourself (not really recomended) to pictures of inanimate objects (cars, toys, food, etc.)
Megaheads, while nice and attention-getting, should really be avoided. Too many of these large avatars tend to clutter up the chatroom, usually burying the smaller avatars underneath them. If you want to go Mega to play a game, move to a private room.
Like the Megaheads, Gigas should be avoided, for the same reasons as Megas.
There are also special avatars:
You may notice that I have several pages with these little avatars --I use them for buttons on many pages. In the Main Hall, for example, I have two little pictures of a comic-book boy and an Anime girl. These are just two of the avatars I use to represent Drak or Draka in the VP Chatroom. I have a few of these "avatar buttons" in my Wonder Woman Room, my Anime Room, the Hero High Room, and the Peter Pan Fanfic Library. They make great little buttons, being the right size and all. But these are not part of an avatar collection to be used by other chatters. I did not make these avatars, nor do I make any such claim. I just discovered another use for them. If you want them, you should go to one of the links below, and search for them in the galleries.
Were to go first...
Excite!: Start here. It's not necessary to register in order to chat, but if you don't, you'll only get a mug:
, and you can't upload and use other avatars.
Free Downloads: Download Excite Chat! It takes a while to download and set up, but it's worth it.
Once the Excite Chat! program is downloaded, you can go in and chat whenever you want. You have a set of "Stock Avatars", which is a wide range of avatars that come with the program, and a "Personal Gallery", where you store avatars you've collected.
Collecting Avatars:
When you enter the VP Chat, go to your "Personal Gallery", and --if you've done everything right-- you'll have the avatar you saved in your gallery. Just choose that avatar, and that's the one that appears on the screen!
If you've had the earlier VP Chat --the one that uses the older versions of Netscape or Microsoft Explorer-- then the download mentioned above will replace the old one. Only the "Stock" avatars, tours, gestures, etc, be replaced. You'll get to keep your "Personal Galleries".
VP AV How To: How to make your own AV's. Step-by-Step instructions on making Regular AVs, Megaheads, and Tours, as well as making a Gallery for your website.
Disclaimers:
The mug is the old mug AV from the older VP Chat.
Note: Most of these are from pictures that I have collected on my computer. Over time, I've forgotten where the pics orginally come from. If you see something of yours that I've made into an AV, do not ask me to remove it. I'll try not to use anyone else's stuff. I also make AVs from art of people I know. Those are for private use, only (like the AV of Death made from an Animated picture of Death someone drew, or pics of ReBoot characters someone else made.) These art AVs won't show up on in my Gallery. If you want them, you have to catch me in VP Chat and ask nicely for them. If I give them to you, I ask that you not put them in your website Galleries, either. They are for personal use, ONLY! Thank you.
Links: Link Centers:
Ing's AV & Gesture LinksLinks: Individual Sites:
DARKGIFT.COM: Vampire and Goth Avatars and Gestures.I'll add more links when I find them. Happy Chating! ^_^