Avatar Kinect

 Posted by (Visited 10015 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , , , ,
Jan 062011
 

New World Notes calls our attention to Avatar Kinect, which basically brings graphical chat rooms to the XBox Live platform.

This is indeed a powerful development. The Kinect has been selling like hotcakes (8 million of them in sixty days), and as a result, there’s now a pretty substantial install base that could get into this.

It’s clear to see the potential for sales of virtual goods and the like; right now, they offer scenes in which you can conduct your chats, but over time, adding in the features to make those into virtual apartments is not at all hard to picture. Add in robust enough objects to buy and the ability to customize your space, and you start getting something that feels like, well, Metaplace.com or Second Life with voice chat and kinesthetic controls. But for now, it’s more like IMVU or Lively, probably, and we shall see how it goes.

One thing that is interesting is that Live is centered on avatars that are pseudonymous but strongly identifiable; there’s an intrinsic extant reputation system there that this system will effectively plug into and leverage. This may reduce the amount of prurient chatrooms and the like (which something like the Kinect surely invites!). It is also telling how little the video centers on technology and how much it centers on women.

Given the connectivity, I cannot help but ponder why avatars as an intermediating technology, rather than video chat.

  • Avatars intermediate; this lets you put all participants in one environment, rather than stitching together disparate couches and living rooms
  • There may well be plans to leverage the pseudonymity into synchronous social game experiences
  • The avatars do allow for a more radical expression of personality that video would, essentially making for a richer profile; I can’t have my weird pet from Limbo cavorting around me in a video call, but I could here.

All in all, an interesting development; I look forward to trying it out.

XBLA marches on with avatars

 Posted by (Visited 5361 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jul 172009
 

Are you ready to pay $2 for a new jacket for your Xbox 360 avatar? It’s coming this fall… and there will be more than just clothing, it seems:

The range of virtual goods Microsoft is rolling out for avatars includes branded apparel, animated items called props, and items only earned by playing specific games called “awardables.”

— Virtual Goods News: Microsoft To Launch Avatar Marketplace This Fall.

Is virtual item gifting far behind?

UGC comes to Rock Band

 Posted by (Visited 7077 times)  Game talk, Music  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 172009
 

Rock Band® has announced that the game will support user-created tracks, creating a completely new indie distribution channel for musicians, one that potentially rivals iTunes in importance. They’re promising a cut of every sale, and help with promotion.

  • Mix your multi track recordings.
    • You will need to mix them to fit the standards for Rock Band.
  • Create MIDI gameplay info.
    • Reaper is a Digital Audio Workstation. We have been working with Reaper’s creators (Cockos, Inc.) to add a number of specific Rock Band Network additions that will make creating MIDI song information simpler and more intuitive. http://www.reaper.fm
  • Create a song package with Magma.
    • Magma is a PC tool that we are creating to allow authors to build Rock Band Network song packages.
  • Audition your song package within Rock Band 2.2
    • We will release a patch to Rock Band 2 that will enable “Audition Mode.” This will allow you to test out your song packages in game with features like speed up and slow down cheats and autoplay.
  • Upload to creators.rockband.com for Peer Review
    • Once your song is ready, upload it here. Other members of the community will try out your song, give you feedback, and submit reviews. Once your song has passed the review process, it is automatically approved for sale on Xbox Live.
  • Sell your song on Xbox Live
  • When the store opens, later this year, songs will be available for others to download via the RBN store ingame.

Probably the most interesting part is the mandatory peer review for publshing tracks up to the network. You’ll need to be a member of the XNA Creators’ Club to participate.

There’s a Wiki up with the full spec.