Lest we forget, avatar toolbars are glorified binary, enabling users to create icons in their own likeness, or in the likeness of others. Zwinky is pretty lame, but some systems offer the capacity for avatars to get XX-naked, and some can be quite fantastic - in a lewd Lord of the Rings fantasy way!

But remember, no toolbar can force sober souls to deviate from the straight and narrow and create bare-fleshed icons - unless, of course, you want to.

Second Life avatars get naked

Having said that you cannot "accidentally" create a naked avatar, It seems that Second life, (the digital Other world) had an accidental bout of naked avatars in town. Naughty naked nude digital flesh barged its way into the consciousness of hundreds of shocked Second Lifers. According to AP

On Monday, hundreds of avatars were naked and hairless - a software glitch resulting from so many users trying to participate at once. In September, the San Francisco-based company that runs Second Life, Linden Lab, warned that a security breach may have exposed subscribers' data, including credit card numbers and passwords.

As long as it was only a software glitch and no embarrassing hardware was on display, that is OK!

So how could an avatar suddenly get naked? Well, by way of explanation, on another occasion, there was outrage when Newt Gingrich arrived in Second Life for a look around and was met by a dishy avatar whose clothes loaded a few seconds after she did! Shocking naked avatar news indeed - the avatars load body first, hair and clothes second! Oh, just like in real life!

Hmmm, the programmers will have to rejig the page-loading process, if they are to maintain credibility with the 2.6 million users with no life.

World of Warcraft naked avatars

Whilst the family-oriented Zwinky and Second Life avatars bumble along modestly, some virtual world inhabitants have deviated, and gone the adult avatar route via World of Warcraft.

I wouldn't even know how to turn on WoW myself, but it is a high profile example of an adult environment where purveyors and fans of nude digital images hang out and let their swinging imaginations run wild. Plenty to discover and on my journey I discovered loads of bizarre factoids about naked avatars. Much to my surprise, I have developed quite a following for Naked Zwinky is so lame compared to naked avatars from WoW. Wow indeed.

And if you are in any way fascintaed, check out the whole naked Zwinky and naked avatar show on The Pisstakers!

Con-clusion

Please remember, every cent from advertising revenue here goes towards a PC so I can actually access the Zwinky toolbar myself, rather than watch voyeuristically on my wife's computer, at night, in the dark, while she sleeps.

Naked Zwinky offers the rudest avatars on the online chat scene, but - they are so lame when compared to the dark, orgiastic, digital characters populating the swinging World of Warcraft community.

Trying to keep it real, this image shows what happens when a happy housewife is tastefully morphed into a sinister buxom skinny thing with a thong and horns. What do you think?

I think it is technically clever, very creative and totally in line with the values of swingers in the WoW community, but as a more square observer - this avatar is evidence that technological progress is a double-edged sword!

Naked male avatars in WoW?

Why should straight guys and kinky females get all the fun? Good question. But if you are in search of kinky male nude avatars, you are s.o.o.l. Even if there is a huge behind the scenes demand for male nude avatars, the somewhat skewey members of mainstream US society dictate what is and isn't acceptable. Therefore don't expect to ogle a mainstream naked avatar hunk any time soon.

On the bright side, if depravity sweeps the Americas, or MMOrgy developers break out for the sake of their art, or Obama instils enough European socialism into the mix (ie persuade the US to adopt Dutch and Scandinavian sexual attitudes) perhaps there will be some racy male-oriented videogame Porn developments coming your way.

Japan male naked avatars

In the meanwhile, if you really need a virtual hit of XX avatars, head off to Japan. They seem to have extraordinarily liberal attitudes towards sex and violence (emphasis on the sex and violence). Japanese "artists" produce material that would make even repressed puritans with a gimp in the basement blush. Inquisitive grannies and teens alike should head east to feast on digital depravity.

Zwinky is PC correct

As a Mac user I don't have access to Zwinky. Undeterred, I continue to live in the hope that the many readers of this post support my blogging efforts so I can go buy a cheap PC. (However at $3.66 advertising revenue, so far this month, the suspense is killing me.)

More naked Zwinky and naked avatar material

Thanks to gamer Wonderland I have been inspired to follow the development in all things categorised as naked zwinky-ish. My horizons have been broadened and hopefully so have yours - and there will be more to come.

For instance, I am investigating the themes of naked avatar skins, and Naked Avatars (Who would have thought they raise awareness of intellectual property rights!) Life is a rich tapestry once you get under the skin of a topic. Why not subscribe to this page and keep uptodate.

cheers

As an accidental world leading authority on naked Zwinky, I feel it is my duty to bring you more digital nudity.

Over at Siliconera, I was engrossed by an article on a Nintendo nipple oversight. Shock horror, in Kid Icarus there is a Syren with no top on.

The article is a bit gamer nerdy (ie way over my head) but the comments are heated and well worth a read.

My opinion, for what it's worth

Run for the censors, people, this could corrupt the minds of millions and ruin the right hand action of millions of impressionable gamers.

On the plus side, it could be quite educational for the mal-educated and sheltered. A bit like the phenomenon of city center kids who think milk comes from bottles, not cows, this Nintendo oversight could quash myths about what a nipple is. ie it isn't a heinous blurred out body part exclusive to physical freaks like Janet Jackson. Everyone, digital or real, has them.

(Your mileage may vary, of course! If your name is Scaramanca, the man with the golden gun, you have 3 nips, and if your name is Ed you had one of yours ripped out by a doctor at birth.)

I would love to review Zwinky first hand, but this mother of all avatar makers is so universal it doesn't work with Macs. Despite my desire to join the party and dress myself as stylishly as the Mom reviewer to your left, it just isn't going to happen, at least not till I buy a new computer.

Therefore, all I can offer by way of a review are a few links to my own Zwinky tool bar discoveries, which comprise sad second-hand insights, plus first-hand in-depth knowledge of the homepage only.

If anyone could hack Zwinky for Mac, let me know and I will be all over it like an illegal rash and review it indepth.

And for those naturists who Google Naked Zwinky, I wish I could help you in your quest for knowledge, but I can't.

Zwinky on, dudes.

Scary to think that 2 million people downloaded the Zwinky drag n drop toolbar on day one of its release. Why is that scary? In case you didn't know, Zwinky is an avatar creator, ie the tool of preference for social MySpace networkers who, not content with simply inventing on-line personalities, can also now create 3-D versions of themselves.

Now that is scary and we would advise you to drag 'n drop Zwinky straight into the trash and at least keep some semblance of reality in your real-world life.

Tags: Zwinky tool bar

Zwinky, the mother of all avatar creators has had a mixed review. For a balanced satirical viewpoint, we found the negative comments.

Keep on reading, dude

Tags: Zwinky tool bar

Not a unit of currency, nor a candy bar, this is the new word in avatars, those pointless badges that you see in forums alongside usernames. Needless to say, the latest social network avatar idea will be all the rage for about three weeks, till the next must-have feature spams us into submission. Still not sure what the hell we are talking about? Get with the program.

Keep on reading, dude

Tags: Zwinky tool bar

The wonders of pop-under ads, this avatar-creating all-in-one toolbar of fun was found on my desktop by mistake. Once I had got over being tricked by Zwinky, I would like to thank them for the delightful ideas on how to dress for any occasion.

Tags: Zwinky tool bar