Avatar(s): So Ugly It's Cute?
When I first saw that ghoulish thing lumping away on my profile I left myself a mental note to never visit my own (or anyone else's) profile.
But after seeing the little savage grow and evolve in my inbox, I've come to care for it, like the owner of a Sim that finally learned how to use the bathroom instead of peeing outside of it. And also a bit like my first cat, who I realized was not actually a female. (Is it possible to change avatars???)
Please, share your story about your yellow lumps.
8 years ago by frohawk
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9 comments
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I personally love the little yellow lumps as you describe em, but then again I'm biased since I was partially involved in their creation! The concept behind them is to add a little humor and visual progression for each member here, but there is so much more to the idea that we didn't really elaborate on.
Here are a few things worth knowing:
1. It took over 200 hours from the initial sketches to final designs to have these little lump avatars created.
2. The level 1 avatars look sweaty and scared because most of us feel that way when we interact with a new and unknown environment. As the levels progress they get progressively less scared and more advanced.
3. The progression is meant to signify evolution in a colorful and humorous manner with even a little satire sprinkled on top. We felt approaching these changes in a humorous way was best, and liked how effective the visualization of levels was.
4. In the alpha we only had one version of the "lumps" but we received feedback that they looked too male, so we had our designer work on a 2nd set of 50 more feminine versions to correct this glaring mistake. Interestingly enough we now have complaints that we don't allow a choice of "other" when it comes to the little lumps, so we aren't exactly sure what to do next. We might just kill them off, who knows... 100 little critters though, will feel like a massacre.
At the end of the day we wanted something a little different, we figured these little guys would be fun. I guess you either love it or hate it as /u/bogdan stated :)
I'm still getting mixed signals from mine. It's some sort of a love-hate relationship.
I wake up in the middle of the night fearing that mine is hiding in the shadows watching me... waiting...
Don't worry, if he was there, you would most likely hear his horse first :D
Unless it was a Ninja Horse
I like them..Some look rather ambiguous, which I also favor. I do like the idea of there being ad ons to the avatars,which could be a fun way to add funding to the site. An avatar store could also be provided so people could buy avatar garb and and give it to members they favor, or themselves.
Not at the moment, but we might make a chance possible sometime in the near future!
It may be a huge undertaking, but customization of the avatars would be cool. Users could perhaps even purchase visual items (sword, guitar, sunglasses, clothes, backgrounds, hairstyles) for their avatar, which would be unlocked at certain levels and reputation scores. This could be a very bad idea, but I'm just throwing it out there.
Personally, they're a little too goofey-looking for me (albeit very fun), but if I had a different style to choose from I would probably become invested in it. Just another 'gamification' idea.
They remind me of minions, but with hair. Mine looks like a pirate now. I wish I could keep her that way.