Facial Recognition and the future of gaming avatars?

I know this article isn't directly related to our course but some of the points remind me of yesterdays lecture. An interesting point in the lecture was made about having customizable avatars and this quote makes me think of the avatars in games.

"When Jean-Paul Sartre famously said “hell is other people,” he meant life can suck when others don’t affirm our idealized self-conceptions. Advertisers know this. Translating vanity to the visual, they could go with idealized avatars—slimmer, smoother-skinned versions of their real customers. While flattery isn’t inherently a problem, too much distortion can be dangerous. If idealization sucks the viewer in too deeply, the problem of deceptive practice, already at issue in the controversy over “magic mirrors,” could become a hot issue. Shirts simply look much better on the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie avatar versions of us—perhaps too good."

Do players pick avatars that resemble themselves? Or do they pick them to resemble celebrities or something else. I do think the point made in the lecture that the options for black avatars really is a black version of a white face and that maybe players do want their own faces in the games. I remember when "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland" used the eyetoy for facial recognition and would upload your face as the avatar for the skater but I don't believe it was very popular. Even though race is important I think the previous quote does make a good point that players may not like their own appearance and would prefer to play a better looking version of themselves. That is why I believe games like final fantasy or games with animals as the protagonists are popular as the characters already have their own personality and overall aesthetic and so the player is not limited to one specific race or even too grounded in reality.

Jacob Hui