No, not that Avatar. Join in as one intrepid real person gets made over by fans of EA's online action game, All Points Bulletin.
Okay, this is kinda weird, and kinda awesome in equal parts. As part of the ongoing promotion for Electronic Arts upcoming* multiplayer action game cum MMo, All Points Bulletin, EA's kicking off the Human Avatar Project.
What is it? Well, EA's hired some poor real person to be completely remade in the image of an in game character from the game's setting of San Paro - and that look is completely open to the gaming public to shape!
On Monday 5th July, www.thehumanavatar.com will go live as will community voting on the first stage of the activity: the identity of the Human Avatar. Throughout the weeks to follow, members of the public will be responsible for shaping the subject's appearance, starting with the hairstyle and subsequently where they are pierced, where they are tattooed and finally what clothes they wear. No faking. The Human Avatar will be a real person undergoing a very real transformation.
Where. They. Are. PIERCED. Like we said - weird and awesome at the same time.
Over a three week period the whole process can be tracked online via shortfilms of each stage of the transformation, and at the end of it all game designers at Realtime Worlds will transfer the human avatar's look into the game.
So follow the whole strange journey online, or on twitter. It's sure to be... interesting.
*And by upcoming, we mean hopefully getting release locally sometime soon. Though there's no plan as yet.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012