Comments on: It isn’t easy being green

By: Aaron Hunt

Aaron Hunt — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:57:14 +0000

and what can you do for those of us who are lazy about our avatar looks? I have had offers for skin, shapes, hair, clothing because mine is rather dull. perhaps all he needs is a tail.

By: Really » Blog Archive » It isn’t easy being green - The newbie experience

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:05:36 +0000

[...] a nice discussion of the importance of your choice of avatar, which ties in neatly with my first It isn’t easy being green post. Having thus completed the loop, I promise never to use this title for a blog post [...]

By: Jonas Karlsson

Jonas Karlsson — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:57:48 +0000

@epredator of course, games and console environments that target or allow kids have their own constraints regarding “appropriate” content. Limiting avatar customizability might be the safest choice. I remember that it didn’t take long after Spore Creature Creator was released that, er, interesting creations were being shared all over the net…

By: epredator

epredator — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:02:02 +0000

I do agree there is something odd about green and not being “allowed” it
In both home http://epredator.blogspot.com/2008/12/ps3-home-i-want-green-hair.html and xbox live http://epredator.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-epredator-xbox-avatar.html it is tricky to get the creativity you want and that is on a games console, designed for games and gamers! I guess we can forgive the business element for assuming that avatar personalization is really not serious enough. However I maintain it says more about the person you are, and help emote that to people. They know a bit more about your temprament than a stock photo in a work database. That is good

By: Annie Ok : tangent » interesting 1.18.09

Annie Ok : tangent » interesting 1.18.09 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:08:25 +0000

[...] It isn’t easy being green – avatar customization & differentiation in virtual worlds (Thanks for the shoutout, Jonas!) [...]

By: Dave Elchoness

Dave Elchoness — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:54:46 +0000

Yes actually I imagine that hitting the right “button” could have an impact on adoption. Very interesting subject matter, Jonas. Thanks for the entry.

By: Jonas Karlsson

Jonas Karlsson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:08:30 +0000

Dave – excellent point that for many of the emerging platforms, limited avatar customization is a result of feature prioritization, rather than the “humans-only” policy I mention.

It would be interesting to test whether allowing greater avatar customization earlier, before other types of user content, would impact adoption rate. As an example. the invention of prim hair in Second Life seems to have had quite an impact and spawned an entire industry.

By: Dave Elchoness

Dave Elchoness — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:45:50 +0000

I think one has to differentiate among products when you discuss this issue. There are products like Second Life that are largely driven by user created content. There are products that center on brands and brand enhancement. And then there are newer platforms provide certain assets but hold the promise of more.

The photo of the GoWeb3D / VRWorkplace / Trimensions environment above shows two default ‘newbie’ avatars (in jeans and black shirts) and a more customized one with blond hair and a suit. The platform, 3Dxplorer, offers a configurator with male and female avatars and White, Black, and Asian iterations of each along with a variety of hair colors, clothing choices etc. Additional options including non-human ones can be added in, but are not part of the standard configurator. This does not imply that the makers of 3Dxplorer object to non-human avatars, but that you have to start somewhere.

In general, I agree that customizing avatars is important and as GoWeb3D develops its offerings, a more robust customization functionality is planned.

By: irv

irv — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:41:29 +0000

You have to wonder if places that want avatars to look “more like people” are simply afraid that creativity is unprofessional.

There are arguments to be made for putting down limits but on the Internet, especially in realms as new and dynamic as virtual worlds, I’m suspicious of artificial constraints.