While many of us point fingers at Microsoft and accuse them of "ripping off" Miis with the New Xbox Experience's avatar feature, perhaps we should not be so hasty. Xbox boss Don Mattrick is putting his balls on the table right now and claiming that HE is the sole creator of the avatar, and he did it in 1991 ... BITCH!
In an interview with OXM, Mattrick made his boastful claim, and tackled the interviewer when questioned on the legitimacy of his claim. Here's how it went down (and take note of what a debate stallion Mattrick is):
DM: I’m claiming to have invented avatars! I did 4D Sports Boxing! Do you know what 4D Boxing was? Hey, you should be writing this! That was me.
We know what 4D Sports Boxing was. It was published by Infogrames, wasn’t it?
DM: Accolade was the first to publish it, and Infogrames published it in Europe. But write this down! "Don Mattrick invented avatars for the industry."
Does creating 4D Sports Boxing really count as "inventing avatars", Don?
DM: C’mon! It’s human, it’s in 3D, it has a face… it was genuinely the first time there was something human-shaped in 3D! Look it up!
Proof incarnate, if proof was ever needed, that Don Mattrick invented the avatar long before the Wii was event a glint in Nintendo's eye.
Of course, given the comical enthusiasm of Mattrick, I doubt he's being serious here. In fact, it almost looks like he is deliberately giving crazy soundbites in the hopes that some bored blogger will use them in sensationalist headlines for a quick weekend post.
Wait ...
... Well played, Mattrick.
Contest:
9:20 AM on 11.09.2008
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http://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/14/mii-nes-prototype/
Boosh (for those too lazy to copy/pasta).
(Also, he totally did it for the lulz.)
Mii's weren't the first ones either. I recall getting bombarded for ads for 3d Chat rooms with your own lil' person for YEARS.
Sorry, but the mii's suck. Sure, they look like you - but it's really not hard when there's barely any customization anyways.
look it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mii
Where the hell is J Allard these days?
He made the little man that represents us in-game?
I'd like to see the patent number on that. But games have always had avatars.
In fact the Ultima series' hero has even been known as "The Avatar". Can't get much more blatant than that!
"OOoooh I invented avatars because mine were in 3d, and made of blocks, that were apparently in human shape!"
Breaking News: Sony claims to have invented waggle, after they saw Crazy Ken shake a controller wildly during a caffeine and cocaine fuelled binge of Crash Bandicoot!
Which you have to at least give Nintendo credit for that. Nintendo was the first to have system based avatars on a video game console. In every respect Sony, and Microsoft have now copied that idea where you have a avatar in which it represents you across different games, and features. So at the end of the day Nintendo was the first to use avatars on a system level not just on a in-game.
People talk about how simplistic the Mii's are. Well on the Bonus Round this week they talked about this, and said avatars on the XboX have less customizability than the Mii's do. Microsoft charging people for extra items to put on your avatar is ridiculous. The Mii's might be simplistic, but at least Nintendo isn't charging for a virtual Nike hat, and stuff like that. Where your being charged to be advertised to even more.