Avatar (Xbox 360)

From Xbox Wiki

Xbox 360 Avatars are avatars that represent users of the Xbox Live service on the Xbox 360 video game console.^[1] Avatars debuted on the Xbox 360 with the release of the "New Xbox Experience" system update on November 19, 2008.

Contents 1 Creating Avatars 2 List of games using Avatars 3 Avatar Store 4 Tips and Tricks Within the Avatar Editor 5 Technical details 6 See also 7 References 8 External Links

Creating Avatars

Users are able to customize body shape, gender, facial features, hair style, and clothing.^[2] They can then display a 2D head shot of their Avatar on their Gamercard (although they are still free to use their previous picture should they so choose).^[3]

Microsoft has indicated that earning Achievements in future Xbox 360 games can reward players with new clothing for their Avatar.^[4][5]

Xbox Live GM Eric Kilgore recently stated that the avatars will only be available for games that have a E10+ rating or lower only (featuring content that is considered suitable for children under 10 years of age).^[6] This may change sometime in the future, though presumably in Microsoft's own games if it ever happens, to monitor their usage in mature games.

List of games using Avatars

This is a list of games on the Xbox 360 video game console (both retail and Xbox Live Arcade games) that use Avatars. Some games (marked with an asterisk) will be updated to support Avatars when the New Xbox Experience dashboard update is released on November 19, 2008. The player must be signed in to Xbox Live to receive the game update for those games.^[7]

Title	Developer	Publisher	Genre
1 vs. 100	Microsoft	Microsoft Game Studios	Game show
A Kingdom for Keflings	NinjaBee	NinjaBee	Strategy game
Bomberman Live*	Backbone Entertainment	Hudson Soft	Puzzle
Hardwood Hearts*	Silver Creek Entertainment	Silver Creek Entertainment	Card game
Hardwood Spades*	Silver Creek Entertainment	Silver Creek Entertainment	Card game
Scene It? Box Office Smash	Krome Studios/Screenlife	Microsoft Game Studios	Game show
Small Arms*	Gastronaut Studios	Microsoft Game Studios	Fighting game
Uno*	Carbonated Games	Microsoft Game Studios	Card game
Uno Rush	Microsoft	Microsoft Game Studios	Card game

Avatar Store

Microsoft has announced that it will be launching an Avatar Store sometime in 2009 allowing users to buy clothes via micro-transactions. ^[8] They have also hinted that users will be able to buy branded clothing from said store for their avatar, as well as game-related clothing. A player can also update their avatar's wardrobe by achieving certain goals and unlocking different clothing.

Tips and Tricks Within the Avatar Editor

While using the Avatar Editor that's in the Xbox dashboard you can make your avatar

• Burp {right stick click} lift your head up give a higher note…point your head down gives a deeper note
• Open its mouth {right button click}
• Display various emotions {left button click}
• Turn left {left trigger}
• Turn right {right trigger}
• Spin 360 degrees (look left...hold then look right rapidly [and vice versa])
• Dizzy (hold left/right trigger to continue to spin and release)
• Angry {shake the right stick from left to right/right to left real fast}
• Bang its head and hear bird chirping noises{while taking your gamer picture in the avatar editor, if you zoom up to close enough for a headshot, if you hold its head back than snap it down the avatar will bang its head}

• Have additional colored hair options (green, pink and etc)

If you go into your avatar editor, and select change features (where your hair, and nose, and things are), then don't select any option for exactly 60 seconds and after you have done that the hair icon should spin around. If you click on it you will have pale pink hair and if you go to change your hair color you will have 9 new hair colors to add to your hair color collection.

Technical details

Avatars were created by a Microsoft Game Studios internal development studio, Rare Ltd. "before Miis were part of the gaming scene,"^[9]

Avatars are a collection of data describing character details such as clothing and facial features, propagated to Xbox.com. These avatars can be as personalized as the player wants them to be, detailing all the way down to the size. However, players can also create an avatar that does not represent them at all. Like a roaming user profile the Avatar will follow the player wherever he or she logs on.This makes the avatar the actual player in the virtual world.

The Xbox 360 System Software will include a renderer and animation system that creates Avatars as they are seen in Microsoft's own titles. It will also be possible for developers to use the data and process it with their own software, allowing Avatars to be easily integrated with a game's engine.

Developers will be able to use the data to create random Avatars to populate their game, or to create specific Avatars for specific roles.

Avatar bodies are animated using skeletal animation, whereas Avatar faces are animated by changing the eye and mouth textures, similarly to how traditional animation works.^[3]

Avatar images are available for use on Internet forums, social network services, as an email signature, or on a blog. They can be accessed by using the following user-specific URLs (replacing GAMERTAG with the Xbox Live Gamertag)^[10]:

• Full Avatar: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatar-body.png
• Large icon/gamer picture: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatarpic-l.png
• Small icon/gamer picture: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatarpic-s.png

See also

• New Xbox Experience

References

External Links

• Official Site
• Free Your Avatar: Official Custom Images Site