Modeling Toy Soldier’s Avatar Awards
Toy Soliders is a fun game. The simple objective of defend your fort set to the cast of 1940-esque, vintage styled, tin toy soldiers is addicting and visually appealing. Even better, Toy Soldiers hands out a couple of Avatar Awards! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. I love the Avatar Award gimmic. It’s goes hand-in-hand alongside the gamerscore concept and geeks like me eat it up.
To earn the Gas Mask: Start the game, and finish one level.
To earn the Helmet: Finish the game you started.
Toy Soldiers - Gas Mask
Toy Soldiers - Helmet
Avatar awards are far more appealing than buying them. The epitome of the how absurd the prices can be for avatar clothing can be found in a Gears of War 3 competition. Whoever buys more shirts of kill or live for a specific character will determine their outcome in the game. Buy this virtual shirt to cast a vote…. no thanks! As great as it would be to give my avatar a lightsaber, Jedi robes or even dress as a Big Daddy, I refuse. It would be awesome, but contradictory to the principle of the issue. Wouldn’t stop me from letting someone buy it for me though…
I agree, marking a game changing decision based on the amount of point of sale transactions are made feels a bit… hollow. (Curse you American Idol!) However; that being said, I’ve been know to shell out a few bucks here and there is I think the Avatar Gear is worth it. I won’t go “fan-boy” crazy, and I hope that someday there is more implementation options for my Avatar and his gear (I’m sure there will be) but for the time being I can appreciate it for what it is.
I think that the Avatar Awards for unlocking in-game milestones are genius, and I hope game makers keep them coming…
On Second thought…
Looking into the marketing for Gears of Wars Avatar Item, the money spent on that item will be donated to Child’s Play — a charity I happen to strongly support. For 80 MS points you can grab yourself an Avatar item and support a really worthy cause.
At least make the item you’re purchasing cool, like the full armor for humans or horde. That would be an improvement, not a lousy t-shirt!