Wii thought of it before yuu!

[jurph]

A few months ago I posted an idea to LJ about a "universal character generator" that would let you import your own custom persistent avatar into multiple games. It turns out that the Wii will support such a feature, called the Mii Channel:
This morning, Nintendo also took the wraps off the machine's final feature, which it calls "Wii Channel".

Comments

[jurph]

I think you're only saying that because you primarily play WoW. You see Link's face in every cut-scene in WindWaker, and in sports games all of the replays could show your face. In arcade-style games you might see your face several times per level, or every time you execute a particular move. Because the Wii is internet-enabled, I'm sure that eventually people will figure out how to share their saved replays via YouTube; persistent custom faces could create a "hey I know that guy" moment when playing online/head-to-head. There are some cool implications for machinima, too.

I agree that for the WoW-type RPGs it doesn't make much sense, but it's an easy feature to implement, and I think lots of folks would use it with WoW if it were an option. Many users would do it so that other users could see their face -- more exhibitionist than narcissist. You do get into some tricky questions though: how do you convert a human face to fit e.g. a Tauren or a Troll? And of course Blizzard would want to prevent people from wearing a face that

[geistesblitz]

The "channel" concept is there because the controller is a remote. It is an interaction paradigm that people already have stored in their head meats.