Microsoft: World of Warcraft led to Avatars, not Miis
“I remember the CES right after the Wii launched and all the [gaming] editors were asking, ‘When are you guys going to do your version of the Miis?,”. I remember going, ‘You guys are going to slaughter us in the press if we ever do it.’ [laughs] For obvious reasons, it’s certainly hard to avoid the comparison with the Mii. You know, it’s a tough one, because it’s sort of like giving them maybe a little bit more credit for [it]…it’s not like Nintendo created the concept for having a virtual character. Really, if you think about your gamerscore, your gamertag, your achievements and your identity online, that’s been a principal for us in the beginning. Nowadays, this is the kind of stuff people do, and a lot of people want to compare it to the Miis but the team, if you talk to Mark [Whitten, XBL general manager], he’ll say his inspiration came more from [’World of] WarCraft’ and seeing how dedicated people get to their characters.” – Albert Penello, Xbox director of marketing
