Yeah I'm struck by how mii the xbox avs are. And my mii is a mii of Sox's past. though tall male monster is le tempting.

I've been in or around a couple discussions lately about 'personal avatars' vs. 'rp avatars' - ie ones that represent you (on wii, xbox, etc.) vs the characters you may play. To me, this doesn't seem so different from playing a board game in character but arguing about something else when you get up to get drinks. But it seems to skeeve others.

Any thoughts are welcome.

I don't get the source of skeeve -- is it that there's something deceptive about an RP av? Or that there's something too personal and uncanny-valley about a self-like one? I guess I can see either side, but neither one to the point of actual upset.

PS: everyone please respond prolifically, as I'm off to a very boring meeting!

PPS: My avs are mostly female and they all mustmustmust wear glasses, but other than that they're not especially me.

I only have one Mii, which I tried to get to look like me.

My Mii parades are very sad.

I have historically had difficulty gender-bending with avs (including tabletop RPG characters). My current Rock Band av is one notable exception.

I maintain that it's easier to have an avatar that doesn't look like me when I am a) not "inhabiting" the avatar but "observing" it (like Rock Band) or b) need it to do things that are more correctly done by a not-me (like if I'm playing a soldier in WWII I'll use a male avatar).

Where do the skeeved place non-human avatars? You know I'm occasionally a moth or a griffin in Second Life; is that more or less acceptable than if I were a bald black guy?

My Rock Band avatar doesn't look like me at all but that's mostly because I found the controls that change her appearance to be too confusing to mess with for very long.

I love that the wii has ranked me as an amateur at "Penguin Slide". This implies that somewhere there is a professional league of people who dress up in penguin costumes and slide on ice floes to catch fish in their mouths for the amusement of an all-penguin audience.

I don't know, Laga, I'm ranked a professional penguin slider, and that troubles me even more.

As it should.

Just stay away from those avian growth hormones.

BackGames = Videogame plots in reverse:

Doom: A space marine brings demons to life, locking colour-coded doors behind him before falling asleep, as his colleagues close a portal to hell.

Katamari Damacy: A prince must hide the stars, by rolling them across the earth’s surface, until they break into small everyday objects.

Lemmings: The player drags Lemmings out of their home, makes them forget their abilities & sends them back to the previous level.

Tetris: The player must break apart a giant rectangle, sending the pieces into space.