Firefox

I've been through the IMVU interface and it's OK. But Second Life is 1000 times more sophisticated. That said, I believe they are looking at expanding IMVU into new horizons, so watch this space!

For the pleasure of looking at them or collecting them, the same way people collect anything else.

Actually most women are much more supportive, on the whole, of the freestyling thing than men are. It is men who become more aggressive because they have this thing wired into them about the male sex being dominant and the status quo of the pack being maintained. So any perceived attempt to weaken the male sex is met with aggression. Women on the other hand empathise a lot more with the male's softer side. Also you have to remember that many people can't think for themselves. There are 50% of people with an IQ less than 100 and that's a lot people! When certain of these people have been brainwashed by society and can't break out of that loop it's pretty sad. You should be taking pity on them, not hating them for an inadequacy they can't help. Hopefully by gentle education a few of them will reach better conclusions eventually. Some are lost causes, but conversion of a few of the ignorant ones is better than non at all.

Why should it make you angry that they want to get paid. They put in some time making videos that others may want to see. And then they offer the material for a price that is determined by the market. It's no different to a film maker, photographer, actor, musician etc. If one doen't want to pay, there is usually similar free material avilable, though it may cost you in time searching for it.

Yes, there are few major virtual reality systems. Second Life's claim to fame is that you have intellectual property rights on objects you create within the game, and you can control how they are copied, transferred or modified. This leads to e-commerce. Say I create a pair of high heel shoes for people to wear on their avatars. I can sell those shoes in my shop (or someone else's shop, sharing the profit). Typical price for pair of shoes is anything from free up to about L$600 (300 Linden$, L$ = 1$US approx). Mind you, building complex objects and texturing them and scripting them is not easy, it's a real skill; you will earn your money! So if I can get someone to buy my shoes for 300, I have just earned $1. If I have a chain of shoe shops with lots of visitors, you can see how real money can be made. Some people actually do earn a living out of the game but most people end up net-spending or earning peanuts, just a few $ a week. Still, the opportunity is there for those who want to spend time on it. It's just another aspect of the simulation.

I played at Second Life a while back, and you do have the option of designing (re-designing) the shoes which are available, by choosing heels, and raising the height. Yes I did try some heels out on there and play with the height and style. I just got bored with it very quickly.

That playing with the height is just the basic 2-3" mode for beginners. The more advanced mode is wearing an avatar heel base and then buying "prim object" constructed shoes. These shoes have special invisble prim prisms to modify your foot shape and achieve 4-5" heels. Also you can get them with scripts to modify your walk and scripts to produce clicking heel sounds when you walk. Then there are special high heel posing scripts which modify your characters animation to produce cross ankle poses, heel rocking, feet shifting etc, just like the real thing. And if you are really advanced you can design and build your own shoes and write your own animation scripts.

I'd agree with the advanced machine comment. This thing eats mchine capacity to get it working properly as the graphical worlds and 3-D animations can be very realistic.

In spite of what they say, you need Pentium 4 2000+, 1 GB Ram, Modern Graphics card with at least 256MB on board, and very fast connection 1MB/s + to get near the potential. And the investment in time to learn the interface is large. (client downlowed/install is about 100mb too).

I still reckon it's worth it though, and the concept will improve. They have just introduced Beta testing on a headset which picks up brainwaves so you control your charcter by thought patterns, further improving the virtual reality concept.

Your English is very understandable. Well done after 23 years Well, your liking for a woman in heels is related for a liking for women probably. I don't care for the pedal pumping or crushing etc, but I kind of understand why. After all an attraction for those things is almost as irrational as attraction for a woman who just wears heels. Ask yourself if there is any rational reason why she should be "better" than one wearing flat shoes because it is the same woman. I think 4-5 inches is the optimum height on an average size woman's foot. Anything higher looks unbalanced. I like watching women wear them (candid, not deliberately posing). That can be sexy. And I prefer bare skin than hose like you. Getting personally closer to the person perhaps? I'm interested in men wearing them too. Not sexually, but just from a style point of view. It can look quite good with the right shoes. So, my views are quite close to yours, but there is no wrong or right. Every person is slightly different

The TV in bedroom shots seem quite popular though. But I agree I'd personally rather see heels in a real life outside setting, preferbly candid. However, if it's a TV or anyone else, I don't mind. Many TV's have pretty good legs anyway.

The environment certainly caters for all tastes. As well as the heels there are people who spend all their time walking around as Klingons, stormtroopers from starwars or various furry/Tolkein type creatures like elves/hobbits etc. I could even be a fox if I wanted

It is like real life in that some people actually work inside the game earning virtual dollars (for example, building things, putting on shows, modeling or dancing with their characters) and then they transfer it to real money (there is an exchange rate $270game = $1real life). Someone has already made $1 million real life dealing in virtual property! However, 95% people just bum around in the world, exploring, shopping, chatting, listening to concerts and shows, so all that activity is playtime really. The difference between this and real life is that someone could wear the shoes of their dreams in a crowded high street or bar looking like any person they chose to, interacting with people along the way. It's great for people who don't have the confidence to wear the shoes of their dreams down a crowded high street, and I think there may be quite few of those here. It's like watching a movie with you starring, and you can watch it from any angle, inside your "head", from behind, in front, to the side, zoom in on the face or the shoes etc. It also offers the opportunity for sophisticated body morphing. Think of the ideal type of girl or guy who would most turn you on, and with practice you can recreate exactly the look of that person. There are 150 controls to change the shape of bodily and facial aspects, each through 100 different graduations. And you can get them wearing what you want too. No more grumbling from the girlfriend she's not wearing the 6" stiletto thigh boots you bought her! It's not a substitute for the real thing but a different kind of experience.

For those of you who don't know "Second Life" is a massive virtual real life simulator with millions of members.

Basically, you customise your own character and then make your way through the huge world spaces interacting with the other members, buying, selling things, building and chatting just like in real life.

How does this differ to the old MUDs, MMORPGs or even Twinkies? In a word, the shoes!

http://shinythings.wordpress.com/

http://yourtoes.blogspot.com/

These two URLs give you a taste of the fantastic virtual reality that can be achieved. And the shoes can come with sounds and scripts to make your character's feet and legs behave just like real life feet and legs wearing such shoes. These scripts can be automatic or partly user controlled using gesture commands.

Some of the features have to be seen to be believed! And it's getting closer to the real thing all the time as technology advances. I was never into these RPGs but I would highly recommend this. Be warned, because of the high levels of functionality, the methods involved in building your character and getting hold of the shoes/clothes are not easy to learn. I would put it on a par with learning a big package like Excel or Paint Shop pro. The user interface has tons of controls and it's not exactly intuitive either. Also, getting hold of the shoes and honing them to fit your character is not completely simple. You either have to know where to go to get them free, earn money in the virtual world to buy them, or make your own (advanced 3-D modelling skills required).

But, give it a try. If you have any questions, I'll try to help.

Here's the main URL: http://secondlife.com/

I actually found that when I wore heels in public I didn't lose any friends. And I've made lots of new ones since then too. To be honest, If I had have lost certain friends over it, they wouldn't have been worth keeping anyway. Something to think about.

Women who see me wearing 5 inch heels have said, That's a pretty shoe, but I can't wear anything with that high of a heel.

Exactly. Some women aren't flexible. There's no anatomoical difference in the ankle joint between male and female. Flexibility is due to practice and stretching. Many more women have the reason and opportunity to practice hence you'll see many more women who have developed that flexibility. But it's wrong to conclude from that evidence that there is an antomical difference betewwen the sexes.

Well, by bowing down to fears of rejection or facebook campaigns you're helping to perpetuate the foundations of such fears. Now in 1950 there may have been place for a facebook campaign (if they ever had had facebook back then!!) about a certain guy wearing earrings. In 2005 the campaign for such a matter would be laughed off facebook. The reason; because guys have been brave enough in the intervening time to claim earrings for themselvbes if they wish to wear them. You need to think the same way about shoes. Think of what you are doing for the movement of fashion acceptance. The time will come when "Someone says, Haha, guess what, I saw a guy wearing heels today." And his mate says "So what, I saw one yesterday. Must be a trend" End of conversation. Facebook smear potential = 0.

^ Yes, what he said. Anyway, I'd think I'd go crazy if I started worrying about CCTV and the like. Just accept it. If you're not comitting a crime, you'll be OK.

Nope, doesn't worry me at all. By the way, if the picture are presented in a defamatory context, you have the right to have them removed, and the webhosts will do this, so the "facebook" scenario shouldn't arise if you know what you are doing.

The problem with a lot of the "men in heels" sites is they are bedroom pics and bedroom wearers ie The guys have no intention of wearing them outside. That doesn't really interest me very much.

being indiffeent doesn't necessarily mean they don't have a negative impression.

It does mean they don't have an negative impression. That's what indifferent means. It means they don't have either a negative or positive impression ie They don't care either way.

I suppose you are right in one sense originally saying people "don't approve" in that they don't actively encourage it, but the words "don't approve" can also be taken to mean positive oppostion. The latter doesn't generally ocurr, but many people are insecure in themselves. They have a constant need to seek approval, and confirmation from other members of society. Heels for guys are not for the sheep.

While every male high heel wearer on the face of this earth knows that the general public really doesn't approve of their practice.

This is wrong as a general global statement. It may be true in certain parts of the States, but in many other parts of the world, the majority are actually indifferent.

Probably. I think I should be OK. Funnily enough though, I'm the exact opposite to you lot. I prefer to wear heels in daylight. There's so many groups of feral drunken yobs around town centres after dark these days.

Wit the best sentiments in the world, I don't think anyone would describe Xaphod as very tall, but otherwise the description fits (It wasn't me either )

Razors never used to have a gender label until they realised they could sell more to women if they made them pink and called them femshave or something. Otherwise it's exactly the same product.

LSB closed down about three years ago now I think,

I wouldn't say it's common in England. It's still something of a rarity but it does happen. The problem is that shops don't sell heels in the mens section. You have to get them from the women's section. Unfortunately the majority of the size 39-41 size male population is unable to think for themselves. They don't go by the motto of "if the shoe fits, wear it". They go by the motto of "I can't wear it because it's not marketed for me". Most people are just like sheep; sad but true.

The first. But only because I don't like the heavy platform on the second. I don't really think my opinion matters though, it is what you like that counts. If you prefer the second pair, they will be worth saving up for.