Patent ID: 8756107

Claim:
An apparatus for use with a computer-based virtual world, said computer-based virtual world comprising realistic representation of people, buildings and environments as they exist in the real world, comprising: vendor ordering system for preparing templates representing characteristics of a product, said product comprising one or more items for use in a building or environment; vendor template server, operatively coupled to the vendor ordering system, for receiving product templates and for supplying objects based on the product templates; vendor template database, operatively coupled to the vendor template server, for storing product templates; and virtual world server for receiving objects from the vendor template server, making them available in a virtual marketplace in the computer-based virtual world and facilitating interaction between a user in the computer-based virtual world and an object selected by the user by allowing the user to display the object as it would appear in a building or environment associated with the user in the real world as appropriate for the selected object; wherein, when the user interacts with the selected object in the marketplace, the virtual world server uses the product templates and information about the user stored in a user profile to customize the display of the product for the user, wherein, if the user decides to purchase the object, details required to complete the purchase are sent from the virtual world server to the vendor template server, which sends them to the vendor ordering system.