You can shoot your friends with all sorts of awesome and painful weaponry across Microsoft's Xbox Live service; you just can't give your virtual representation a digital gun?that's a no-no.
According to a post by Epic Games community manager Will Kinsler, Microsoft is allegedly eliminating any and all gun avatar items from the Xbox Live Marketplace at the start of the new year. There's been no official word as to why, or how, this new policy came about, but there's a bit of a silver lining for those already sporting a virtual arsenal of digital accessories: You get to keep your firearms.
"Heads up! Starting on Jan. 1, 2012, the Lancer and Hammerburst avatar items will no longer be available on Xbox Live Marketplace," Kinsler wrote, referring to the iconic weaponry of Epic Games's Gears of War series. "If you've purchased the items prior to Jan. 1, you will be able to keep them. A new policy goes into effect for all gun-like avatar items on the Marketplace, so get them while they're hot."
We should note, however, that the alleged policy does indeed only refer to gun-like weaponry. Xbox Live avatars will still be able to swing lightsabers around all they want, for example?ignoring the fact that a blade of superheated plasma could do just as much damage as a digital bullet or chainsaw attachment.
Microsoft currently lists a number of actions avatars can't perform within Xbox titles that incorporate a user's digital persona into actual gameplay. The company currently prohibits violence that results in "blood, gore, dismemberment, decapitation, maiming, or mutilation," which would presumably prevent an avatar from running around in an actual game with a working, "gun-like item."
Since those who already own guns will be free to keep them as part of their avatar's look, it's unclear as to what Microsoft hopes to accomplish by prohibiting the future sale of decorative avatar weaponry. Perhaps the decision is in some way related to the Kinect's ability to map avatar movements to real-life gestures or the digital meeting grounds built into Xbox Live's Avatar Kinect application?
Be sure to check out the NeoGAF forums for a list of items that could suffer the gun ban.
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Source: http://feeds.ziffdavis.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/mnZvEtyM1_0/0,2817,2398050,00.asp
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