Xbox 360 Avatars.....T&C's/Usage policy?

cokecan · 2 Jun 2009 at 11:50

Hey Guys

I'm currently working on a project at work thats based on auditory testing/training and have been asked to try and make what is essentially a very child-based testing/training game into something a bit more adult friendly.

The current version of the software is very (VERY) basic. It uses jpeg images to display various things onscreen during the auditory testing/training. So at any given time there is some kind of background image and then upto 3 characters/avatars being displayed.

At the minute the characters are aimed at children (think sonic the hedgehog and other animals) so my idea to make it a bit more adult friendly without being too serious was to use the Xbox avatars. They are cartoony but generally look more adult than whats currently being used.

My question is, am I actually allowed to use any avatars I create in this way? I know MS provide links for you to save your own avatars to host on websites, social networking sites etc but would it be acceptable to use them as avatars in this testing/training software considering the software isnt licensed or distributed in anyway, just purely used in-house in our sound booths/test rooms?

I've gone through the terms of use etc on the xbox webby but there isn't really anything specific, I also can't find a contact number or email addy I can use to ask them my self?

~J~ · 2 Jun 2009 at 11:51

<offtopic>
Happy Birthday.
</offtopic>

cokecan · 2 Jun 2009 at 11:52

lol derailing the thread in the first reply! also thankya very much

~J~ · 2 Jun 2009 at 11:55

On a serious note mate, I don't think you'd have any problems providing you adhere to the following:

There's no commercial gain with the avatars in,
The 'project' isn't displayed to a large audience,
There's a disclaimer saying where the graphics have come from and "without permission".

Usually if you put that, you should be covered.

Short term I wouldn't worry if you're using them in an internal testing environment, but definately, without question, get some other graphics (why not look in the HTML/Graphics/Programming forum and ask) as soon as you can.

TheMagicPirate · 2 Jun 2009 at 11:57

I would assume that as long as you aren't making any money from using their avatars then it would be ok. If its for in-house testing I'd say go for it, if your planning to sell the software, I wouldn't.

cokecan · 2 Jun 2009 at 12:06

thanks guys. It's definitely not being sold and is only for the research being conducted here.

I liked the idea of the avatars because its so easy to customize the look/clothes of it. The idea other people on this project had was to try a round the world style thing where after each auditory test you would move to a different part of the world. Using the avatars with this I could try and customize the clothes of them to match the location.

Also due to the limitations of this software, to get anything to move its basically 2 seperate images, as an example: one image for standing and one for jumping which it will switch between depending if you got something right or not. so as you can imagine, not the prettiest thing around lol

I nearly asked in html/graphics/programming but we need about 20 characters/avatars (each one with 2 poses, one standing and one doing something else)