NXE Report – Avatars, Thoughts?
I know you were expecting an NXE Report on Netflix but I haven’t had the chance to really dig into it enough to leave my impressions so instead, you’ll have to enjoy a look at the Xbox Avatars. Judging from the messages I’ve received and some of the responses I’ve seen, it’s as hot a topic as any to dive into.
Naturally, Microsoft has made it possible for you to carry your Avatar with you on various message boards or MySpace accounts. Here’s Little Deacon and the way you can carry him with you or the way you can carry yourself if you’re not much of a fan of Little Deacon. (smile) All you have to do is substitute your Gamertag where you see mine in the links below.
Deacon Full - http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DeaconBlade%20360/avatar-body.png
Deacon Large – http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DeaconBlade%20360/avatarpic-l.png
Deacon Small – http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DeaconBlade%20360/avatarpic-s.png
The first thing I want to make mention of is the customization and concept of the Avatar itself. It’s a little virtual representation of you or whomever you decide to make your Avatar resemble. There aren’t very many options as far as customizing goes right now. You have a few different presets for things like hair, skin color, size and facial features. There’s also a secret way to get a few additional color choices for your hair if you sit idle on the hair tile for a minute or two. You’ll notice the tile spin for a brief second and when you enter the hair options, you’ll have more colors to choose from. Why they decided to make this into some secret feature is beyond my reasoning. Could they not have just given us a color wheel or even made those colors available from the start?
I’m not particularly happy about the lack of items currently available. If you were lucky enough to get into the preview program of the update, then you’d know there were numerous articles of clothing and accessories for you to choose from. That was all stripped away though a few days before the official release of the update. Why this was done is beyond me. I guess we can all look forward to how they implement the Avatar Store next year. Cha-ching!
One of the cool things about the Xbox Avatars is how they’re currently used in a few Xbox LIVE Arcade titles and Scene It? Box Office Smash. I noticed that there’s a definite drop off in quality from the Avatar in the Dashboard to the Avatar in-game. They lose a little in terms of visual integrity. This didn’t matter much in A Kingdom for Keflings for Xbox LIVE Arcade. I can’t count the number of times I laughed seeing my Avatar kick a little kefling across the forest in this game.
The Xbox Avatar is also used with the Party Chat system. I think this is also pretty cool. When you’re in a party, you’ll be able to check your friend’s list and see the whole crew of Avatars chillin’ in the party together. It’s confusing right now trying to find the party leader or even identify who’s in the party but hopefully in time that changes. Right now you simply have to wait until it cycles through each person to find out who is in the party. The first time I saw this though it was pretty cool. I thought there was some funny business going on but it was just a group of Avatars hanging out.
I can understand that there will be some who don’t like the Xbox Avatar system but what I don’t understand is how those people consider it some huge violation that is disrupting the way they play games. Can the Xbox 360 not play games anymore or something? Did the Avatars somehow disable the game playing function of the console? I don’t think they did. The Xbox 360 still has the best lineup of games and the largest community of online gamers for consoles. If the Avatars are a real bother, my suggestion is to enable “Boot to Game” and to use the Guide to do your Dashboard surfing.
What say you? What are your opinions of the Xbox Avatars?
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 am
I like it and am looking forward to getting more time with the entire NXE. I want to see articles of clothing or accessories for completing certain within the game. A perfect example is a WWII brain catcher for beating COD5 on veteran. All in all I have no complaints.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
I want santa’s clothes!
Avatars are funny, especially when you play UNO 
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Millions of Live users, 16 shirts… nuff said
p.s.CAN I GET A HOODIE
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I want a Vault 101 shirt, then I’ll be happy
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
All I can tell you my friend is that everyone in my family loves it. My wife’s avatar looks like she think she could be if sh were not using a wheelchair. My little boy made an avatar exactly look-a-like, but my wife is angry with the clothes our daughter choose for herself (which is always the problem when she decides what to wear when we go out!). But both of my women love how my own one looks.
I agree with the fact they should have left the full color palette for the hair, and at least for shirts, pants and skirts. I’m not so much with the idea that they charge us for it afterwards.
Everything else, I’m fine with it. I also loved how the avatars look in Uno, Bomberman and Kingdom.
Peace.-
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
it’s a big hit with my family too. i think my daughter and my little brother change there’s everytime they play lol.
but yeah the hair color choice thing was pretty ridiculous in not just offering all colors from the start.
and the selection HAS TO INCREASE SOON.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I hated them at first, now I like it. LOL
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Need moar cl0thes! kthxbye
Seriously, I’m loving my avatar and of course it’s fun to look through your friends list to see who actually looks like their avatar. (If you know them in real life, that is)
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I’m still waiting for my ninja outfit.
I also have to add that I agree with HazyCloud: “Need moar cl0thes”
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Looks like your prayers are soon to be heard, Deacon. Xbox360Fanboy is showing a screen of the avatars with winter clothing (?!?)
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I love NXE, just wish there was a little more customization for avtars.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I like the Avatars more than I thought I would. I like seeing them as the gamerpic, and I like seeing how people create themselves. The lack of options does suck. But I gather they stripped down the options off the start to give out some free stuff later on before they hit you with the store. They better have cool stuff in the store. Like costumes and uniforms. Since I was in the Marines, I would love to have my Avatar in uniform. I’m sure others would too. What about sports teams or game costumes. An Ninja, Spartan, COG, Pirate? If they don’t have game costumes Microsoft and developers are dropping the ball big time. How about a avatar outfit with a premium theme?
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
@tyrone, oh yeah i know more clothes are coming. they just need to put some speed behind it lol
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’m all about a COG avatar.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
and I just noticed that our avatars are missing from the replies here… I was just about to drop my GTvatar on this piece. What up with that?
December 4th, 2008 at 11:32 am
In general I like the Avatars a lot. As for items in the Male Area, I feel its lacking and some of the stuff looks like it should be in the Female selections. As for the new stuff just released, I like the Hat the most an could pass on the rest. I wish we could change the colors of certain items, select a shirt and then have about 4 or 5 color/style options.
The Friends List and Parties area I think is great for the most part, what would be cool is to only show Friends Online, I’d select that in the Friends part and then leave everyone under the Guide Area. So when I’m online, I can scroll through and just see the 15 to 30 or so friends actually on and then look to the Guide to message people that are away. I also wish it was easier to view Friends Lists from their Avatars, for now you just have to go to the Guide.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:21 am
[...] all read my other two NXE Reports so prepare yourselves for another dose. This time I wanted to take a look at [...]