Wearable Achievements for Avatars? Comments by Robert Purchese

EVERYONE saw this coming.

I want a Vault 101 suit

It was sounding good until they got to the part about Facebook.

Not exactly new ideas.. Albeit on smaller online flash games and avatars the Lunaverse has been doing all those things for some time

You can already integrate them into Facebook unofficially...

http://apps.facebook.com/xbox-live/

So microsofts turn to copy sony and so the cycle continues.

If you dont know what im talking about singstar trophies unlock t shirts for your home avatars, and this is now available to any PS3 developer

"I want a Vault 101 suit "

You took the words out of my mouth. ;p

Is anyone that bothered? Both the missus and I had five minutes of amusement making them, and that was it. Because they DON'T DO ANYTHING. Meanwhile, LOADS of fun has been had with the character creator in Saint's Row 2 because you can do tons of stuff to your character and then - shock - go out and control them in a game!

"So microsofts turn to copy sony and so the cycle continues."

I wish everybody would stop banging on about this. Everybody copies everybody. The entire games industry is build on nothing else but evolution. It's just how the world works.

"If you dont know what im talking about singstar trophies unlock t shirts for your home avatars, and this is now available to any PS3 developer"

Yes and they copied that from live where some games unlock gamer pictures and other gimmicks by getting certain achievements.

This is something that makes sense in Home where your avatar's are actually "out and about". But the avatars on the 360 don't really seem to serve much purpose.

I admit that I still tit about with the clothing on mine from time to time, but that is usually just when I am waiting for a download to finish. Day to day they simply don't serve any purpose, and I never get close to being interested what clothes my friends' avatars are wearing. Would I even notice if the clothing was in some way related to an achievement?

@Xerx3s

+1

NOT paying for clothing. Not ever.

Clothes should be free as currently, but unlocking certain clothing or accessories from getting achivement can work. I would not mind getting Dante's outfit plus his guns and sword! Suprised no one mention Spartan outfit?!

However the problem would become what would third parties publishers get out of this? Their copyrighted iconic features get used for free? No likely just look at LBP for a fee get themed MGS etc.

Keeping it free is a must whatever happen, once the fees start then it would just get tiered up, the haves would be far fewer than the have nots.

Soon as a Spartan outfit comes out, two thirds of avatars will be Spartans, defeating what little point the avatars had in the first place. As it stands the majority of them are podgy men with goatees or guys with short brown hair.

It would be nice to have the ability to edit the scene that stands behind your avatar when you view who is online on your friends list.

I wouldn't mind seeing avatars and those from my friends list intergrated into more games, maybe just hanging around in the background, as spectators or as AI controlled opponents. Only problem is their style and look, unlike Mii's which are easily intergrated into most Wii games, avatars only really fit into games with a very similar matching art style.

I'm normally against paying for crap like themes and gamerpics, but I think that's primarily down to their insane pricing. However if I could grab a unique costume for my Avatar for 50pts I'd be willing to take a punt, perhaps even multiple punts.

Costumes I might be pursuaded to buy would be:
Vault 101 Outfit
Master Chief Oufit
Halo 1 (Aliens style) Marine Outfit
Gears of War outfits, COG and Locust
Chicken Man Outfit
Jedi Robes and Lightsaber (with multiple lightsaber colours and styles)
Sith Robes, makeup and Lightsaber (with multiple lightsaber colours and styles)
HEV Suit (Half Life 1 & 2)
Comic Book Hero Costumes

Ultimately these sort of things should be either free, included with games or unlocked with achievements.

DO NOT WANT HOME!!!

It's the most worthless piece of software ever commited to silicon and I really do not want a home clone, or anything like it.

Avatars work for the very reason that you don't have to interact with them, ever, if you don't want to.... and most don't want to.

However the problem would become what would third parties publishers get out of this? Their copyrighted iconic features get used for free? No likely just look at LBP for a fee get themed MGS etc.

Well in theory it's another form of advertising for third parties. If they make a cool accessory for an avatar, friends are going to start asking how you got it, so people are talking about the game.

Since everyone has head shots of their avatars as their gamer pics now, I expect to see plenty of game themed hats. :)

What do I want for my avatars in the future? Hmmm...swine flu with a 99.9% mortality rate?

re .'The survey (reproduced on Kotaku) spills some interesting ideas'

Don't get me wrong, but I don't think you should label

'talk of a virtual world for Avatars to interact in'
'using Avatars more in games, whether people are controlling them or not; one idea has the AI use your friends' Avatars to populate your games with'
'special Avatar clothing handed out for in-game Achievements'

as 'interesting ideas', as they're all patently borrowed from elsewhere. Obviously MS have as much right to do this as anyone else (Sony and Nintendo have certainly learnt a lot from MS over the years - Sony in particular), but credit where credit is due and all that!

I definitely think that MS should go ahead and embrace those kind of things though. Live has already won the hearts and minds of a lot of the gaming audience, further augmenting it would be a good thing for Xbox users and MSs PR.

daft punk outfit

I'd like to know if XNA programmers have access to any Avatar code - meaning, could they make Community Games where you play with your Avatar?

I would also love to see how MS would create their version of Home.

@metalangel: Wait, are you suggesting that Saint's Row 3 makes your avatar a playable character?!? :o ;D

@metalangel

That's probably because the majority of Xbox users are podgy men with goatees or guys with short brown hair.

My first thought at "Wearable Achievements for Avatars" was something like Scout badges! lol

@farticusmaximus
Why the hell are you proclaiming your fear of Home in a thread about 360 avatars and achievements? Not to mention you don't have a PS3, much less is anyone forcing you to use Home.

Oh thats right. Sorry I forgot.

@Xerx3s
"Yes and they copied that from live where some games unlock gamer pictures and other gimmicks by getting certain achievements."

I think that was the point, the cycle just continues on. I agree though - it is a good thing companies just iterating over ideas and features.

I want to be able to teabag my mates avatar

Soon as a Spartan outfit comes out, two thirds of avatars will be Spartans, defeating what little point the avatars had in the first place. As it stands the majority of them are podgy men with goatees or guys with short brown hair.

Which is why the achievements thing could be cool. If you got a Spartan suit only for finishing H3 on Legendary then that wouldn't happen. Maybe an Elite costume for doing it on Heroic. If I could wear a football kit thing that only people who'd 1kd FIFA could get it would be cool.

@smernicki : Yes! Definately.

@Spekingur: XNA does have avatar support- don't know if they're controllable, though.

@zuljin

"Why the hell are you proclaiming your fear of Home in a thread about 360 avatars and achievements?"

May I refer you to this passage of the article, and ask you to kindly read, digest and then engage your brain before making accusations in the future:

"There's also talk of a virtual world for Avatars to interact in (a place they can call Home) "

@Xerx3s

+2

All sounds good. If some people want the option to pay for premium clothing they should be able to. I think most people wouldn't ever choose to do that, though. Exclusive Achievement-based clothes would be awesome, though - show off that Mile High Club cheevo... ;)

I want a T-shirt with "I took that sodding gnome all the way to the rocket ship" printed on it. Not that I did, but I would give it another try if I could get the T-shirt.

@beemoh: Support is good. That means that MS did think about allowing Avatars in Community Games.

Pfft, don't bother. Do something useful instead

When the 350 came out you sometimes got to unlock little Avatar pics and things like that, so I can see this just been a follow on from that. I wouldn't mind a Crackdown suit or when MvC2 comes out a couple of costumes from there.

But LBP or Home style where you are paying over the odds for licensed bits and bobs.

enclave power armor yes? :)

It seems like some of you are commenting on this as if Microsoft said these things are coming. Unless I read the article wrongly, it says that according to a survey, these are some of the things that people would like to see.

The only thing that seems contrary to that is the bit at the bottom about purchasing items for their Avatars...

@Zomoniac: Who hasn't finished Halo 3 on Legendary? Get two or three friends together and it's ridiculously easy.