Dress your online avatar in black and gold

Posted to Arts and Entertainment by Eric Rees at 10:09 a.m., Nov. 3, 2009

How true of a Mizzou fan are you? Did you stay to the very end of that disgusting Nebraska game? Have you actually incurred an injury to see if you indeed bleed black and gold? If you answered yes to these two questions then head over to your Xbox 360 and fire up the new Avatar Marketplace.

Xbox Live has rolled out a “University Collection” clothing line for your avatar and alongside big name colleges such as Florida, Ohio State and University of Southern California stands Mizzou. But they don’t come free; nothing ever does on Xbox Live.

For 240 points in Microsoft’s fake money system your avatar can rock a very retro Mizzou varsity jacket. Or for the low low price of 40 points you can sport the Mizzou wristband just like Zaire Taylor surely does.

If this sounds a little ridiculous, it is. Paying real money for Microsoft Points and using them to buy clothes for a virtual self is a little out there. I understand if you buy points for maps or downloads and have a few left over, but buying points for buying clothes in the virtual world? No thanks.

I’m much more excited for Avatar awards that will be unlocked (for free) when you do certain achievements in games. Left 4 Dead 2 is the first to announce this partnership and I cant wait for my zombie t-shirt. But until then, I’ll just rock the Frankenstein hat that I bought for my avatar last week.