Column: 'The Esoteric Beat: The Avatar Buffet'

In this week's edition of 'The Esoteric Beat,' Gamasutra's look at the esoteric side of game design, regular columnist Jim Rossignol examines aspects of the player avatar as seen from different angles, as in the following extract: "Popular science digest New Scientist is following the bloggish trend and tackling tech issues vocally, via a series of podcasts (or 'MP3s', as the un-hip still call them). Their latest technology blog edition tackles (amongst other issues) whether romantic exploits are handled better in person, or by your online avatar. The 'podcast' sees New Scientist talk to the wonderfully-named Boston technology reporter Celest Beaver (11mb mp3), who also reports her findings in full in a feature in the latest edition of the print magazine. Clearly it's not one for the Eve Online players - because who wants to date a mile-long battlecruiser?" You can read the full Gamasutra column for more (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).