I registered on BGG on Dec 27, 2002…back when avatars were first getting started and you could buy one for 10 Geek Gold and we were given 10 Geek Gold to do it with. Badges didn’t exist. UberBadges didn’t exist. I bought a badge on September 2, 2005 for 50 Geek Gold and I now have enough to get an UberBadge for another 50 Geek Gold. However, I’ve been struggling finding just the right badge image and I figured while I was at it I’d change my avatar from the Yellow Clans Hut that I’ve grow tired of. I really like playing Maharaja, a game Lisa got me for Christmas, and I really like the artwork.
So…I’ve spent hours and hours working on the stupid avatar and Uberbadge that in the end don’t really mean squat. But, here’s where I’m at in the process and I hope to finish up and buy the Uberbadge soon.
The avatar is an animated image that cycles through the 7 Governors from the game. In the game the Governors are depicted not only in the role tiles players vie for but also on the tiles placed on the Governor’s track. On the tiles, the Governors are color coded by setting over a background field of color. In my avatar I’ve taken an image from the box, split it in two pieces so that the image continues up onto the Uberbadge. The Governors have had all of their colored backgrounds removed and then they’ve been layered onto the avatar box image. Sprinkle in some effects like shadows, buttonizing, text overlays and coloring, and some edge effects; splice them all together in an animated gif and Voilà! …time from your life you’ll never get back!