With the advent of the ‘New Xbox Experience’, we naturally set out to capture the clean look and feel that the new Dashboard provides. What began as a little software test a few months ago and put on the backburner has quickly exploded into a full theme over the past couple of weeks.
As you can see, Avatar support has come to MGC, along with some sexy reflection effects. This is a perfect opportunity for those in the NXE Preview program to put those Avatars to good use! In addition, we’ve also changed the normal GamerCards to display your Avatar picture ahead of the Xbox.com overhaul that will allow everyone to see them.
For the rest of us that still have a few weeks before getting the new Dashboard, there’s a default (Microsoft-made) Avatar in place.
I’ll be tweaking things based on user feedback over the next week or so; placements, sizing, etc. We think it looks great as it is, but if you feel strongly about seeing something modified, let us know!
Special thanks go out to Dynamo Matt for his help, as well as the Xbox MVPs for their crucial feedback!
With NXE do we HAVE to use the avatars? I think they look completely retarded. I would rather use my gamerpictures.
The new card design looks awesome though.
Is there a way to use these with gamerpics instead of avatars? I love the look of the card, but I loathe avatars.
You are not forced to create an avatar. Butif you do I don't think you can go back.
Now, no one is gonna replace your gamerpic unless YOU want to. There's an option in the avatar creation menu that allows you to take a picture of him to use as gamerpic. So... Unless you go there and take a photo no one will replace your pic.
PS: Be aware that there's no button that allows you to quit the avatar creation process. You need to access the guide and then quit to the dashboard in order to skip the process.
PPS: There's no reason not to have an avatar, you'll find that out as I did.
Actually, you are 'forced' to create a starting point for your Avatar. However, you can just pick an auto-generated one and never touch them again. However, as mentioned, you have a choice of whether you want to use your Avatar as your GamerPicture or keep your existing one. Edit -- I was wrong, you are not 'forced' to do anything. But there's no fun in that.
Nobody's asking you to play dress-up with it, although being in a 8-person party with someone yelling out things to put on your avatar (like hats or suits) and watching them change in your party group is kinda fun..
Avatars really aren't that bad once you get your hands on them. Sure, it's silly and what not, but everyone is silly together, which cancels out all the macho 'I don't want an avatar' stuff..
Long story short - give them a try. Everyone else on your list is going to have one (at least a default one), so why be the odd man out?
This theme was built around Avatars, so at this time there are no plans on replacing it with the GamerPicture. If, on November 19th when everyone has the NXE, people still feel strongly about using their GamerPicture, we can think about releasing similar themes that incorporate the GP.
TCF - I would love to get info on the current user's theme. Unfortunately, there may be licensing and privacy issues (probably more-so the latter), so I'm not holding my breath.
We're certainly not limited to grey, it's just the default NXE dash color, and was the easiest to emulate. If you have any suggestions or are handy with the Photoshop - we'd love to see any ideas you may have.
Thanks for your wonderful feedback so far. We think this is the most bold GamerCard we've made to date, and it's nice to see the work paying off. Keep the feedback coming!
I'll give the avatars a go, why did they ask rare to make them? Someone like monolith would have been soooooo much more interesting
Would the new card still work with an avatar even if I chose to display my normal gamerpicture?
Indeed. If you have an Avatar, it'll be used and updated accordingly.
OK cool, 1 more question (promise), does it mess up your personal gamer picture (do you even get one with NXE)? Because I have noticed your personal gamerpicture changed for the first time... ever. When I look at my friends list through my system your personal picture has changed to the one it would be if you were an xbox1 user. Or is that just because my dashboard isn't full 'synced' with the new one and it would be displaying the avatar its just that my system doesn't recognize it?
Edit: and testing
Very nice, it also looks very different to the others as the picture, or avatar is on the other side of the card to all the other cards.
My personal GamerPicture hasn't changed - it should still be the MGC logo. My public GamerPicture (the one I've had for nearly 3 years) has finally changed.
You don't have to touch any of your GamerPicture settings if you don't want to. If you look at Major Nelson's card, you can see he has returned to a Marketplace picture.
The old Dashboard doesn't know how to handle the Avatar GamerPics, so that's why original Xbox logo is presented.
Ah, it just seems that for now it can't handle the personal pics for those with NXE, I'm looking at your card now in dash and I see the old xbox one, although I'm sure that when I get NXE it will rectify itself.
This looks great! I can't wait until we can get our own personalized Avatars.
So good, Morgon!
Turns out I was wrong, you are not forced in any way shape or form to create an avatar. My apologies.
But again, what fun would that be?
Can we get a vertical one?
Can we get a vertical one?
There's one in every crowd.
No, I still have my original gamer pic. I have not even changed it once since powering up my 360 and creating my tag.
I am sure that I do not want to go to the avatar things, but if they are forcing me, then I guess I will have to do.
And I do understand that I am not being forced now, but I am sure that it will be a necessity sometime soon as soon as the update is pretty much integrated in for everyone