Today I'll be looking into a personal little gripe of mine, the Avatar Marketplace on the Xbox 360.
I guess you might say its a little geeky to care about my Xbox avatar but I see it as a fun little feature of the Xbox dashboard. However I also begrudge using Microsoft points to buy items or clothing for my little character when I can use them on a decent arcade title or expansion for a game.
Nowadays games will get a section of downloadable items within the marketplace before they've been released, for example Gears of War 3. There are also some games which offer the chance to unlock items by getting certain in game achievements or progressing so far within the story, for example Fable 3 or Left 4 Dead 2, which are called 'Awards'.
In my opinion more games should follow this 'Awards' approach because the list of games that have awards is quite sparse. If I'm paying £35 to £45 for a brand new game, which will probably release expansions somewhere down the line, then why not let us unlock it's avatar items for free instead of, for example, paying 400 Microsoft points to get the Prince's outfit from 'Prince of Persia'.
I know its not a major debate issue but I'd love to know if anyone agrees with me or if people are happy to pay for items for their avatar?
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| Game Styles on the marketplace |
I guess you might say its a little geeky to care about my Xbox avatar but I see it as a fun little feature of the Xbox dashboard. However I also begrudge using Microsoft points to buy items or clothing for my little character when I can use them on a decent arcade title or expansion for a game.
Nowadays games will get a section of downloadable items within the marketplace before they've been released, for example Gears of War 3. There are also some games which offer the chance to unlock items by getting certain in game achievements or progressing so far within the story, for example Fable 3 or Left 4 Dead 2, which are called 'Awards'.
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| Left 4 Dead 2 Awards |
In my opinion more games should follow this 'Awards' approach because the list of games that have awards is quite sparse. If I'm paying £35 to £45 for a brand new game, which will probably release expansions somewhere down the line, then why not let us unlock it's avatar items for free instead of, for example, paying 400 Microsoft points to get the Prince's outfit from 'Prince of Persia'.
I know its not a major debate issue but I'd love to know if anyone agrees with me or if people are happy to pay for items for their avatar?
Awesome write up! You seem to have great knowledge and grip over this industry.
ReplyDeleteLove reading your blog! Keep the Good Work.
Thanks.
Marketplace B2B