Web Based Profiles, Matchmaking and Community Tools

The casual gamer market is way larger than the competitive gamer market. Intentionally alienating casual gamers is commercial suicide.

I kinda agree with ayceeem. The avatars in starcraft 2 are garbage if not totally ignored, at best they demonstrate how much you play ladder or achievement-chase. Either plan to have lots of freedom in avatars or don't bother.

Avatars should be about a player's level of recognition within the community.

I am of the opinion that, even though an individual may hold dubious opinions or values that he wishes to express through an Avatar, every individual in a community is worthy of at least recognition.

There is a reason we all have names on these forums and not an arbitrary user account number; it makes you easy to recognise. Avatars are an extension of this principle.

That many users choose to use the same tired meme or image macro as an avatar is neither here-nor-there. My first post in this thread was in jest in case you weren't able to tell; a snide remark on the state of humanity.

I'd like to revise my position, the FAF avatars are (mostly) meaningfully different. Those are good too.

Dear nanolathe, if I didn't hold something superior, that wouldn't be an opinion.
Leveling and experience points are a rudimentary simulation and relic from pen and paper role playing and wargaming, which game developers inexplicably carry over into their modern, sophisticated engines. It's the definition of redundancy: a modern simulation of a lower simulation. Now perhaps if what's being made is a computer-assisted game or another Dungeons & Dragons rules set clone- for whomever is into that stuff- it has a purpose. For almost everything else though, it's horribly misused.

Suggesting the well for competition can never be deep enough is, in the context of this discussion, suggesting ladder play must take precedence over every aspect of the game. Truly contemptibly selfish behaviour; for how deep does a man physically need the well to be before further enjoyment from it is totally diminished? And brutally inefficient, when the practical solution would be to further reach out to your target market.

- Moderator edited due to excessively antagonistic tone.

I feel that this discussion of whether or not avatars should be allowed has moved off topic from the main point of web based profiles. The avatars are only a small part of such a topic.

I think that having visible player statistics would be useful and interesting. You would be able to see the statistics of your enemies and your friends, and it could create friendly competition between people. Steam does something similar with Team Fortress 2, whereby you can view another players statistics and see how long they've played with each class, what's the most points they've gotten, etc. Of course, you should be able to set such information to be private, friends-only, or public. I also have looked up the statistics of some of my favorite youtubers to see how I compare to what they are doing. However, while I think all this will be helpful and I would like to see this kind of thing developed, I do not think that it is an integral part of the game.

As for my take on the avatars, I don't really see why it can't be done. Steam doesn't seem to have a problem with allowing players to upload profile images, and I can't say that I've ever come across one that has struck me as really disturbing or profane. That being said, the avatars are another dispensable part of the game, they don't really matter

However, on the subject of Steam, seeing as how the Alpha will be run, at least in part, through Steam, Uber could work together with Valve to use Steam to create profiles for players, and have such profiles be visible through their Steam profiles.