Does anyone know if XNA will be getting access to the new Avatars announced on Monday?  Obviously we won't right out of the gate, but is that something that is planned for a future release?

 

Thanks in advance,

Daniel

Nope, no one knows... and those that do won't be announcing it on the forum. Not long now til Gamefest, I expect we'll hear what else they have planned for 3.0 (aside from VS08, Zune, Sound API) there and then.

It would be nice to find out if it's even a consideration sooner rather than later... as far as I'm conserned Avatars are far more use to this community than Zune support that honestly I don't see anyone actually using.

I can see allowing us early access to this addition, would speed up a number of games that might ordinarily take a while to create. After all the whole animation, characters, clothing attachment, etc.. aspects are already done. What I could see would be developers here making their own game specific content that they could double up and then sell on Live Marketplace as "game theme packs" so say you have made a fantasy RPG (something always very popular) then being able to jump in/out of your game with your avatar looking as he does in the game is something people would like. I mean how often do you see people pimping their World of Warcraft characters?

Would also be cool to be able to program in special walk-around lobbies (a bit like how Playstation Home will have themed hang-outs for games) to either just hang out in, or quickly launch the actual game seemlessly. Can also see it being better with a community like this focusing on something like that rather than bigger developers who might feel it is gimmicky (which it is), where-as more people here would seriously take advantage of such a system.

After all what would you rather show off you're new technology with, one maybe two casual games aimed at those who barely use the console... or a community full of creative people who'd jump at the chance to develop something to pimp it off? As soon as it was announced it, I personally saw some very huge potencial for what could be done with it. Only to realise, it'll probably only be available to "registered established developers with titles currently doing well on the market" for probably the next year... even then we probably won't be allowed the technology to play with. Would be a shame.

Could be wrong though, but after all it took a year for Xbox Live functionality to be added to XNA; even then it's quite limited compared to what the full SDK has. What really gets to me is there is still no "full commercial" version of XNA even packaged with the XDK. Hell despite it showing the XNA logo there isn't even what is available to the community. Kinda weird when registered developers are also in the same boat as everyone here.

Well anywho that's all I wanted to say really.

Leyvin:

What really gets to me is there is still no "full commercial" version of XNA even packaged with the XDK. Hell despite it showing the XNA logo there isn't even what is available to the community. Kinda weird when registered developers are also in the same boat as everyone here.

The XDK shows the XNA logo because XNA is a brand which encompasses the XDK and native DirectX. So by showing the XNA logo, it does not mean XNA Game Studio and the XNA framework; it simply is a branding to show that it is part of Microsoft's gaming technology.

But I agree it would be nice to have access to these avatars. Having that access would be a benefit for all: to Microsoft to show off how much fun and how much use the avatar system is and to us developers for being able to offer the experiences gamers want. However I do see the flip side where, like achievements, access to avatars is an exclusive thing to retail developers to give them incentive to program games for the Xbox.

That said, as was said above you will not get confirmation or announcements in the forum. Never have, never will. The best places to look are the E3 (and upcoming GameFest) reports and wait for announcement. Otherwise you can likely always find the latest announcements on the Creator's home page and the XNA team blog. And of course if you really want to show Microsoft what you think should be added or improved in the XNA framework, the best place to do that is Connect.Microsoft.com. We have an FAQ on using Connect here: http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/414.aspx.

I'm not sure about the avatars. the look to much styled up for me, more like a comic vision of a infamous charakter (the should not have Rare done the styles, MS owns better studios).

But on the other hand they would be great if you could actually access the specific atributes of them, using it as a templat for your in-game charakters (as they probably could use the favorit color setting, but noone dose), or even use them like the figures from this other game company (they probably copieng from MS ;) ).

Also it realy would be nice if you could create your own clothes for them, send them to MS, they take a look at them and then publish them on Live, just like the community games. This would generate a lot more of clothes than if only licended companys would create thos assets, not to mention that this also would create a greater spectrum and variations of clothes and styls, as MS only owns western companys, but people around the world (Australia, Middle East, Far East, etc.) us the 360 or XNA and may want to contribute something. And thats for all kinds of stuff you will be able to do with your avatar (look, animation(?), AI (Behavior, for example if a friend logs in, he gose to him and greats him, etc.)(?), etc.)

 

... Hey! That with the AI is a great idea ... how can I contact MS ... *reads Nicks post again*

 

Greg the Mad

Greg the Mad:

I'm not sure about the avatars. the look to much styled up for me, more like a comic vision of a infamous charakter (the should not have Rare done the styles, MS owns better studios).

The concept for Avatars is for something everyone can enjoy. Rare did have quite a tough job to make something that might appeal to kids as well as adults.
To be perfectly honest though, Microsoft actually don't have as many 1st party studios as you'd think; in-fact Rare (even when Bungie was part of the MGS family) was the largest development house Microsoft currently own. It also has the largest number of internal teams to work on several projects at once.

So realistically they were the only choice, especially as their titles have had widespread appeal.
This said the Avatar system itself is aimed more at XBLA and Primetime titles, it has to be small for a number of obvious reasons.
Although I do agree a bit that the plastercine style is a bit more child orientated than I'd like... if it was up to me, I would've probably gone more for a Kameo-style. I mean it'd still have the kid-friendly appeal but have enough definition and realism that adults wouldn't feel stupid getting one.

Then again that's just me, and where I work I've specifically moved to a team working on porting old titles to XBLA now; simply cause I got fed up of the cartoon direction of ever damn IP that was being worked on. More over every title seems to be becoming more and more "child friendly"... I don't know why they bother, just play Halo 3, Gears of War, or Call of Duty 4. If you don't get cussed out by some 8-14yo after a game, then my god you're one lucky SoB.

I don't think this Avatar is going to move them away from those titles either. Probably why the titles that were shown using it, are those for adults. Leads to a good point though, about why the Avatars' are so dang well not cutsie; but they look like freaking plasterciene models. Ho hum, guess we'll see over the coming months.

Oh and Nick, yeah I've gone on my Connect Dashboard... but the feedback seems to be more setup for a bug system. So I'm not entirely sure past just leaving a comment and setting it as "high priority", as someone has already made a feedback thing. Guess I'll leave a comment. :)

Leyvin:

Oh and Nick, yeah I've gone on my Connect Dashboard... but the feedback seems to be more setup for a bug system. So I'm not entirely sure past just leaving a comment and setting it as "high priority", as someone has already made a feedback thing. Guess I'll leave a comment. :)

It is set up both for bugs and suggestions. It is the official way to log a suggestion for consideration for future versions of the XNA framework.

Nick Gravelyn:

Leyvin:

Oh and Nick, yeah I've gone on my Connect Dashboard... but the feedback seems to be more setup for a bug system. So I'm not entirely sure past just leaving a comment and setting it as "high priority", as someone has already made a feedback thing. Guess I'll leave a comment. :)

It is set up both for bugs and suggestions. It is the official way to log a suggestion for consideration for future versions of the XNA framework.

It's the same system Microsoft have been using for well as long as I can recall for MSDN, kinda wish it was a bit more nice on the user-end.

Ok guys. the official response is this:

Introducing Xbox LIVE Community Games:

Will Xbox LIVE Community Games creators be able to incorporate “Avatars” into their games?
That isn’t something we’re supporting at the moment, but we’re always looking for new development opportunities for our creators.

And I think that's gonna be the official response for a lot of things that aren't included yet, except for obvious features meant strictly for the XBLA developers. :)

The question was also asked at an XNA session yesterday the answer was something like 'unlikely at least any time soon becuase though its technically possible there are certification type rules about what a game is allowed to do with avatars and community games don't go through cert. POssibly enanbled in fully published games like Schizoid or Dishwasher'.

So nobody can write games putting avatars in compromising positions...