Meet Your Gamesville Avatar
The first time you enter the Gamesville Avatar creator, your avatar is a fairly androgeous, purple-haired, bathrobe-wearing character. First, let's ditch the bathrobe. To do that, click "Clothes" and then click "Top". On the Top tab, click the red circle with the red line cutting through it. (In the picture below, I'm hovering over the red circle which is why it has the red outline around it.)

Change Body Type (Gender)
Now, let's change the character's gender. To do this, click "Body" and then "Type". The Type menu displays the natural androgenous state, the male state (note the Adam's apple), and a pair of breast choices. Click one of the breast choices.

Supersize Me
I want my troll to be a little heavy, so I scroll a little more to see more choices and click a breast choice with a pot belly.

Change Body Color
To change the character's body color, click one of the colored squares. In this case, I'm clicking the dark green square. Note that when you do this, all of the body types change color accordingly so you can see how the other body types look in this color scheme.

Change Head Type
Under the Body tab, click "Head". I'm going to use the newest head type, with the fuller face and change the face color to dark green.

Change Ears
Under the Body tab, click "Ears". Since it's a fantasy character, I'm going to use the pointy ears and set the color to dark green.

Change Hair
Go to "Hair" and choose, well, "Hair". I'm selecting the crazy, elevator hair and coloring it dark red.

Change Eyebrows
Under the main Hair menu, click "Eyebrows". We released several new eyebrows last week; I'm going with the owlish eyebrows and coloring them black.

Shoes
Under the Clothes tab, click "Shoes". I want to go shoeless, so I click the red circle with the diagonal circle through it.

Change Eyes

Under the Body tab again, click "Eyes". Maybe a sleepy kind of look will work...

Change Nose
Under the Body tab, click "Nose". I'm going to use the longer nose.

Change Mouth
Under the Body tab, click "Mouth". We need some sharp teeth.

Add A Mark
If you want a facial tattoo, a scar, or some other item on your face, go to the "Accessory" tab and click "Mark(L)" to put something on the left side of your face and "Mark(R)" to put something on the right side of your face. I want to show that my Gamesville Avatar is clumsy, so I'm going to add a bandage to my forehead and color the bandage yellow.

Put On A Shirt
Under the "Clothes" tab, click "Top". I'm tempted to put on a winter coat, but opt for the half shirt, colored hot pink. If I wanted a pair of pants, I'd go to the "Bottom" tab... but I like the black boxers, so I'll leave that as is.

Add An Emblem
Under the Clothes tab, click "Top Emblem". Let's go with the heart, colored yellow.

Changed My Mind...
Instead of the sleepy eyes, let's go with the come-hither female eyes.

And viola! That's one way to go from generic Gamesville Avatar to a trollish Gamesville Avatar. Do you have to be a troll? Of course not! You can be whatever you want. Besides the kinds of options we went over today, there are other options, as well, including items you can hold, masks you can wear, backgrounds, and more. Mix, match, and color different parts to create something that expresses the true you!

This Friday we're kicking off a brand new feature in the Gamesville Blog: "Best Gamesville Avatars". If you want to show off your Gamesville Avatar, please email us at members@gamesville.com and be sure to include your Gamesville member name and a little about yourself and/or your Gamesville avatar. If we feature your Gamesville Avatar in the blog, you'll get 500 GV Rewards.

Don't have a Gamesville Avatar yet? Create your Gamesville Avatar now...

This week is "Gamesville Avatar Week" in the Gamesville Blog, and we're kicking things off with an announcement about the new Gamesville Avatar items we recently released including:

• Alien mask
• Skull mask
• Big Brain mask
• Winter jacket
• Leather jacket
• Jean jacket
• Forehead bandage
• 5 new background images
• And more!

Be sure to check them out, try them on, and let us know what you think.

Tomorrow, Gamesville Avatar Week will continue with a look at how to change your Gamesville Avatar's body type and color. Wednesday, we'll learn about masks and how to get the most out them. We'll take a break on Thursday for Best Pets, and Friday we'll kick off a brand new Friday feature in the Gamesville Blog called "Best Gamesville Avatars".

If you have a Gamesville Avatar you'd like everyone to see, please email us at members@gamesville.com and be sure to include your Gamesville member name and a little about yourself and/or your Gamesville avatar. If we feature your Gamesville Avatar in the blog, you'll get 500 GV Rewards.

Don't have a Gamesville Avatar yet? Create your Gamesville Avatar now. It's fun, fast, and free.

Do you make games? Then we want to hear from you, because Gamesville and our parent company Lycos are hiring game developers. To learn more about the job requirements, and to apply, please visit the Lycos jobs website.

This week's Best Pet hails from Ontario, Canada. Interesting fact: Geographically, Canada is the second-largest country in world (after Russia).

Pet Name:
Blackie

Pet Owner:
Gamesviller "Kam1212"

View Kam1212' Profile
Get Your Free Gamesville Avatar Today

Distinguishing Personality Traits:
Kam1212 says: "This handsome fellow is named Blackie. He was abandoned as a kitten and became almost wild. It took me two years to gain his trust and it was worth it. Blackie is now the biggest baby in the house. He loves to sit on my lap while I am on the computer and help me by placing his paw on the mouse and nudging it. Sometimes he enjoys smaking the keyboard and adding his own comments to mine in chat rooms. He loves the sounds of Magic 21... except for when I have to clear a column. Blackie lets me know that I am not doing well at that time flipping his ears back at the "thunk" sound."

Want to share photos of your own favorite pet with the Gamesville community?

Send photos to: members@gamesville.com

In addition to your pet's picture, please include:

• your member name
• your pet's most distinguishing personality trait

Please note: All submissions become the sole property of Gamesville, which reserves the right to hold, reject and/or edit submissions without notice and without limitation in perpetuity.

Congratulations, Madeleine059! Last night, this lucky Gamesviller took home $4,999 cash playing Three-Eyed Bingo. Everyone, please give her a warm round of applause.

Pictured to the left is Madeleine059's Gamesville Avatar. Don't have an avatar of your own yet? Create your Gamesville Avatar now. It's fun, fast, and free.

Good news: Gamesville Avatars and Member Profiles are now live!

Avatars

For those of you who are just joining us, your Gamesville Avatar is a representation of yourself that is connected to your member name. Here are some are key facts about Gamesville Avatars which we humbly refer to as "the most fun way to express yourself online":

• Mix, match & colorize dozens of avatar parts to create the look that best suits you
• Change your Gamesville Avatar whenever you want to reflect how you're feeling right now
• Best of all: Gamesville Avatars are available to all Gamesville members, FREE of charge because that's how we roll

And if you haven't created your Gamesville Avatar yet, what are you waiting for... an invitation? Try Gamesville Avatars now!

Member Profiles

You can view your Gamesville Avatar and the avatars of other members through our new member profiles!

Now, when you're playing a Gamesville game with chat, simply click a member name in the chat list to launch a "mini member profile" that contains information about that member and displays his or her avatar. Check out Maryellyn2'smini-profile below:

Currently, member profiles on Gamesville display information on your GV Rewards status and favorite games. In the near future, you'll have the option to display more personal information about yourself and more... 

Everyone at Gamesville hopes you dig these new features--and, as always, we look forward to your comments and suggestions on what you'd like to see next.

Sincerely,
Chris Cummings
Manager, Gamesville.com

At the Gamesville Blog, our team of crack reporters (or is that, cracked reporters?) keeps an eye out for weird stories that come across the news wires. Here's one from our friends at Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald:

The Longs don't often see rattlesnakes in their manicured backyard behind a yellow farmhouse near Masonville. But last week, a rattler slithered onto the rocks in their yard and into the path of their 1-year-old grandson, Booker West.

As Booker splashed his hands in a birdbath in the yard, and as his grandfather, Monty Long, watched him, both unaware of the snake, the rattler poised, standing tall. It rattled and then it struck.

But the family's Chihuahua, 5-pound, mellow, blond, 1-year-old Zoey, threw herself in front of Booker, taking rattlesnake fangs to the head and face. [...] Zoey's yelp brought Monty running to scoop up the baby.

"(Zoey) took the bite for him," he said. "If I hadn't been paying attention to her yipe telling me something was wrong, (Booker) would have been next."

And for her efforts, Zoey earned a face the size of a grapefruit, a trip to the veterinarian’s office, antivenin and morphine shots and a scar that cuts vertically across her head. She almost lost an eye.

[...]

"These little bitty dogs, they just don't really get credit," Denise said.

This morning, we launched a few changes to the My Gamesville box on the homepage that we think will answer a lot of the questions coming into customer service; namely, "How do I edit my account information?" and "How do I switch users?"

Here is a screenshot of the revised My Gamesville box (using my new Gamesville member name, "Cinemachris") with callouts explaining the new features: 

This week's Best Pet is from Salem, Alabama. Interesting fact: Alabama is the only state with all the major natural resources required to make both iron and steel.

Pet Name:
Penny (a.k.a., "Bay Bay")

Pet Owner:
Gamesviller "jodie0511"

Distinguishing Personality Traits:
Jodie0511 says: "Penny is a minature Daschund. She is two years old and has four beautiful babies (three boys and one girl). They are so little, but so cute! Penny (or Bay Bay, as we call her) is such a sweety and is turning out to be such a good mom. She loves to be loved on, and looks so innocent even when she is doing things she shouldn't. She and her pups are a great addition to our family."

Want to share photos of your own favorite pet with the Gamesville community?

Send photos to: members@gamesville.com

In addition to your pet's picture, please include:

• your member name
• your pet's most distinguishing personality trait

Please note: All submissions become the sole property of Gamesville, which reserves the right to hold, reject and/or edit submissions without notice and without limitation in perpetuity.

Today, lucky Gamesviller "ladioo" won $3,475 playing Magic 21. Congratulations!