December 17, 2008

Emote’s Gavin Rummery talks about social networking with Participate
By Michael Lafferty

“We want users to have characters that they can build up over time”

Imagine if you could create an avatar and then keep that look and appearance across platforms and games? That is what the folks at Emote Games are trying to achieve with a new software program and games that support the characters players create. The idea is to create an avatar for social networking and Emote Games is the driving force behind it. GameZone spoke with Gavin Rummery, technical director at Emote Games, about this software.

Question: Do you think, outside of integration into some real-life type games, that there is a viable need for persistent avatars in the game world?

Gavin: For the types of games Emote is making, this is very important. We want users to have characters that they can build up over time and use not only in game but also represent them on the social networking features of Participate. Most games have human characters at their center, so it is not very restrictive to the types of game that we can support.

How will you integrate these avatars into products, forums or chat areas, or products from other companies?

Gavin: The technology is stand-alone, so can be easily integrated into wherever characters are needed. For www.theHunter.com, the characters represent your avatar in the game and on the social network, and the technology is used to produce images for the player showing their character receiving trophies etc as the achieve things in the game.

How detailed is the creation process? Does it use adjustable skeletons or slider features that have been employed by some games (say the body shop in The Sims 2) or products like DAZ or Poser?

Gavin: At present, players select characters from a random choice (which they can randomize as often as they wish). So they just choose a character that appeals to them rather than spending ages pulling sliders about. Once they've done that, they can customize the character with different clothing, makeup, hairstyles, etc, but the base character stays recognizably the same.

How outlandish can the creations be? (You have shown some excellent human examples, but can a person go a bit more exotic?)

Gavin: The system can create whatever we allow it to. At present we've purposely restricted our data to produce "good looking" individuals, but we'll add more variety as time goes by.

Do you foresee this product being used in association with voice-altering software to protect user identity, or do you see it as applying an extension of the person and generating that into gaming arenas?

Gavin: It is not really meant for building a virtual copy of yourself, but for creating a character that you can use in different gaming environments and as an avatar on social networking / forums associated with the game.

What was the impetus behind this product?

Gavin: There were several, but one was allowing people to connect to a game via their old PC or mobile phone and still receive high-production value imagery, even if the device in question wasn't up to producing it itself. We wanted to allow players to create a character that they could keep and develop over time, and which they could take into multiple Emote games and on the social network. This means the character has to be able to be updated to show them kitted out for different activities and scenarios.

What do you like the most about the capabilities of Participate?

Gavin: Allowing players to mix social networking and gaming, and have characters that can build a history for themselves.

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