The New Xbox Experience: Avatars Comments by Tom Bramwell

STUPID AND WRONG.

What's with all the Simon Cowell "waistband up to the armpits" style trousers?

Between this and home I despair :(.

I'm about as interested in this as I am about Home or Mii's.

Ok thats a little silly, if I wanted crappy avatar things I would have bought a wii. Can you opt out of having an avatar? And just keep your old gamer pic?

@mkreku

Agreed. Sony and Microsoft's attempts in particular reek of design by committee.

I like the new look dash but have to say the avatars look like a load of shit just like Home and Mii's, utterly fucking pointless.

The whole thing is optional, people. No need to freak out.

is it not free though? both this and home?

These are rubbish, they should have made cool little chibis to cutomize, also blatant Mii rip off

Aren't we just being a bunch of moany bastards? I mean every time someone does something, its shit. New IP? Its shit. Sequel? Its shit. New functionality? Its shit. New hardware revision? Its shit.

digital Shane Kim knelt and beamed and virtual Don Mattrick rocked a cocksure pose

phnarrrr.

Its not an option. Its a core part of the new dash. Say bye bye to all those gamer pics you bought, oh and themes look like ass now aswell.

HOLY SHIT THOUGH LIFE STYLE CLOTHES AND I CAN GIVE MY AVATAR WICKED TATS

Well I like 'em. I like Miis, too.

1 vs 100 is a great idea, as well.

And you still keep your gamer pics...

"Its not an option. Its a core part of the new dash. Say bye bye to all those gamer pics you bought, oh and themes look like ass now aswell. "

Not true. You can keep your gamerpic instead of an avatar.

Board Meeting:

"Nintendo have sold 10 billion more consoles than us, what can we do?!!"

"Well they do have those cool little Mii guys."

"Yeah! Good point! That'll sell consoles! Let's get the guys on the case!"

@Widge

Speak for yourself. Someone tries to do something halfway original with games (Heavy Rain) and you're hating on it pretty much straight away.

A cynical marketing ploy to attract the casual market? Well, that's just fine apparently :|

Me hating on Heavy Rain? I'm looking forward to it!

I did make a few jest-y comments which I suppose could be misread.

Love the Avatar "Lucklaster" in middleground of that first screenshot, nice anagram of lackluster ;-)

@Widge

OK, fair enough, I must have misinterpreted your comments about Heavy Rain. My bad.

Move along, nothing to see here :P

Pointless.

Microsoft grasping at straws in an attempt to grab some Casual Pie. The Avatars look awful, and have no place on a console built upon core gaming genres such as rpg, and fps. Its like they don't know which demographic to go for.

At least it can be said that Nintendo, and to an extent Sony with home are doing something "original" off their own backs. Microsoft show zero originality with these avatars. God they are bad.

Rare - I remember when you were good.

The new interface is welcome but I don't care for this. Funny how they don't mention that you can choose for gamerpics any more in the process.

Do the My-Little-Douchebags scale down to fit on the screen on that 'Community' page. I mean most nights there are probably only 10 - 15 or so people active on my friends list, but sometimes it can be as high as 30+, and might start to spill out of the sides of my television.

"At least it can be said that Nintendo, and to an extent Sony with home are doing something "original" off their own backs. Microsoft show zero originality with these avatars. God they are bad."

I think people are forgetting how these characters are going to tie in the dashboard games like 1 vs 100. Now, that might turn out to be pants, but the whole idea of Xbox Primetime - scheduled events happening which you can take part in daily - is quite novel, and IMO that IS something that could attract the so-called casual demographic.

Granted, Avatars themselves aren't new, and maybe aesthetically they're not to everyone's taste (I like 'em, personally), but I don't think what MS are doing with the new dash features is any less original than Home, which is essentially Second Life with some rather funky media/game integration.

tbh if you must have avatars they need to be fairly abstract like miis or very realistic like sonys home ones these middle ground microsoft efforts just look freaky and dare i say it very american "clean living frat boy like"

@absolutezero
Wrong and err wrong. The first image shows those avatars using gamerpics which arn't just a picture of the avatar - Gamerpics are NOT going if you don't want them to. Yes you have to create an Avatar but if you don't play games that use it you don't need to deal with it at all.
Secondly, current themes will become section backdrops so actually they will look better, already do in screenshots I've seen that are around.

It's I think a nice idea without the pointlessness of home - you can use it as much or as little as you want really. None moaned about having to have a Mii and they are so limited really, this has more options and is just as ignorable.

"Rare - I remember when you were good"
I'm afraid this was when I use to see your Lamborghini Jalpa when walking to schooll, and your parents (relatives?) sold copies of your games in their sweet shop....

ooooooo look at all the moaning Micheals around here

degville: ..these middle ground microsoft efforts just look freaky and dare i say it very american "clean living frat boy like"

I understand what you're saying.. but, isn't that a goth in the background of one of the screenshots? Maybe there's more potential for customisation here than we've seen so far. I mean, if you ask a bunch of MS execs to do a presentation and you want their avatars to look like them you're going to get a bunch of middle-aged guys wearing comfortable slacks, aren't you?

From the comments in this thread you'd think Microsoft and Rare had gravely offended you with this optional free content.

I like 'em.

I always liked Miis, and my biggest complaint with them was how they aren't tied into games well enough or into user profiles. The Avatars look like they'll do what I wanted the Wiis to do, with the added bonus of having actual arms.

This reminds me of when Epic released a free map or something for UT2003 out of the blue and it wasn't very good.

Everyone acted as though they'd just been raped.

thank goodness this is optional. Still least its free.

Still lame and ugly. How lovely that you HAVE to pick one...

we've travelled 90 minutes north of London

Why is that of any relevance whatsoever? Frikking south-eastern biased media.

I've said it before but unless you can replace my Idolmaster Yayoi gamerpic with the exact 3D equivalent, then this whole concept can fuck right off and go die in a hole somewhere.

I also think the whole Avatars thing is going to be quite a lot of fun, whether it is laughing at the Avatars created by your friends, or having gangs of your friends all dressed up the same, perhaps whilst playing the same game, or just being motivated to 'achievement' style clothing rewards in future games.

Who wouldn't want to try and unlock a nice Agent 47 suit-and-tie?

""When you create a new profile or sign in with an existing profile on the new dashboard, you're presented with the ability to make an Avatar," says Chris Sutherland, pad in hand, and if you can't be bothered, three clicks is all it takes to pick a random model and forget about it"

So I HAVE to have one?

If so, do I get a refund on the gamertag pics that I bought (I know it was only about 80p or something, but its the principal of the thing)?

Can I turn my Avatar into a weirdo or an alien etc. They look to bland and boring for my likes

Look face it, you all love wearing your Henleys clothes, and you're going to stick them on your avatar at first chance in giant letters.

"This reminds me of when Epic released a free map or something for UT2003 out of the blue and it wasn't very good.

Everyone acted as though they'd just been raped. "

this wins my vote for post of the day

Can I dress mine up in a GRAW outfit? Complete with guns.

I'm not really that bothered with these, I'll probably play around a bit but it would be cool if devs were allowed to include new clothes with games, a bit like unlocking gamerpics. So after finishing GoW2 you get the Marcus Fenix gear. Or Sam Fisher. Riiiiight...

@Mem

DON'T SHOUT!

wtf is this shit! Pathetic!

"We have the ability to develop multiple things at once."

"We have the ability to develop things that look exactly like Nintendo's implementation." /fixed

but when

Chill out people. It's a free update for christ's sake, it's not like they've just face-fucked your mum.

You don't like it then just avoid it, it's not difficult.

and if you've got something you want to wear for a particular game, you can do that.

Anyone who would actually do that needs to be put down for the good of humanity. Thank fuck for the just pressing a button three times and being done with it, only even vaguely positive thing I've seen about it.

Also if this makes the console start up time any worse than it already currently is I'm going to switch all multiplatform title purchases to the PS3.

"tricked our apartment"?

This is all Nintendo's fault. Bloody casual gamers market !!!!

Can't see many people changing clothes depending on the game they're going to play. I suspect this is the sort of thing which once you have your avatar you stick with it. Like Mii's then.