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The Business Of Avatars
Mary
Jane Irwin
Forbes.com
October 30, 2008
Burlingame, Calif. -
The first thing the "New Xbox Experience" wants is your
soul, or at least a cartoon caricature of it.
Pick out a virtual Barbie doll from a slew of
hip-looking avatars, then delve into the nitty gritty of
customizing little details--from the shape of its nose
to the style of its footwear. This is the new face (and
body) gamers will present to the online Xbox 360
community. And come Nov. 19, when Microsoft releases the
software update containing the console's much-needed
facelift, you and all your online 360 friends will pop
up as avatars, too.
Avatars are a core part of Microsoft's bid to expand the
Xbox 360's audience from its cadre of shooter fans to
casual game players. Nintendo Wii's Miis serve the same
purpose, and Sony plans to launch an avatar-populated
mini virtual world called "Home" for the PlayStation 3
next spring.
Avatars are cropping up with increasing frequency in
games, virtual worlds, social networks and other areas
of the Web as businesses experiment with them as a tool
to drive sales.
"The avatar is the core of the entire casual gaming and
community experience, which is why the console gang is
chasing Nintendo on it," Sean Ryan, chief executive of
social network Meez, wrote in an e-mail. He noted that
the most popular games on Meez are the ones that let
players insert their own avatars into them.
Although there is no exact count of avatars, the
industry expects their ranks to explode as the number of
participants in 3D virtual worlds is projected to grow
nearly fivefold to 33 million by 2013, according to
Parks Associates analyst Michael Cai. And this doesn't
even take into consideration all the kids and 'tweens
playing in places like Club Penguin and Webkinz or
mingling on social networking hybrids like Meez and Gaia
Online.
Core gamers likely won't care about avatars--they just
want to play games. But for everybody else, avatars help
build community. "It's an accessibility thing to get
people to feel comfortable using the console and
generally promote the feeling that there are human
beings underneath the hood," says Daniel James, chief
executive of game developer Three Rings.
While Microsoft and Nintendo are looking to avatars to
help them sell more consoles, social networks and Web
sites hope avatars will help them attract more users and
get users to stay on their sites longer. And more users
spending more time on sites could boost advertising
revenues and sales of real and virtual goods.
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