That Face Looks Familiar…
Whenever you join a new community, be it game, professional network or social platform, one of the first things you are required to do is to pick a picture or avatar to represent yourself. Obviously, you first pick a name, but let’s leave that bit for another post.
As with more or less everything on earth, people have varied takes on choosing an avatar. Heck, some people have no take on it, and just choose whichever one is provided by default. Other people just take a moment or two to browse the options and pick one that tickles their fancy. And last but not least are the ones who show a genuine interest and upload their own picture, whether it’s a picture of themselves, a picture of their choice or an avatar of their own creation. Some of them even use an online avatar service to create a custom avatar which they then use in all the boards which they frequent.
Slim Pickin’s
Boards and communities are one thing, but games are a different story altogether. While client-based games like World of Warcraft don’t even use avatars (in these games you create a proper character, though you probably have an avatar of some sort for game-related boards), browser-based games often provide the player with a selection of avatars from which to choose. The problem is that while these games usually give you a choice of avatars that are relevant to the game’s theme, they give you nothing more than a choice. And when you have hundreds or thousands of players using the same 10 avatars, it’s not long before things get repetitive. And because each game is rather unique, bringing your own avatar is usually not an option.
Some Assembly Required
What we’re doing in WWWest-Online is a bit different. Do you guys remember Mr. Potato Head? Well, he’s our inspiration; and believe me, that’s one sentence I never thought I would utter. Though we will have some cookie-cutter bits in the avatar creator (like backgrounds and some default male and female head shapes), the fun part will start after you choose from those: you’ll be able to pick and choose from the various types of facial features and position them on the face just the way you want (within reason, of course; we won’t support the creation of Picasso-esqe faces).
This will serve the double purpose of creating more unique avatars while providing our players with some fun while they choose their appearance. Those who don’t feel the inclination to spend any time on it will of course be able to have a random avatar generated for them. And it goes without saying that the whole avatar creation process will have a Western theme to it.
Kraz
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