Earlier this week, I mentioned that the Xbox 360 now sports full-featured commercials (video and sound) on the dashboard.  Whatever you may think about that, Microsoft is clearly pioneering advertising models in console gaming.

Today, Ars Technica reports that Microsoft has filed for a patent on "advertars," which are advertiser-generated avatars available for players in an MMO or vitural world setting.

Ars' linked source, Siliconera, describes how this would work:

MMO players or virtual world netizens may wear an advertiser-generated avatar and interact with other players, sort of like a walking billboard. Why would you want to do this? Microsoft plans to offer "compensation as payment for interacting with other avatars."

OK, so why would a player want to interact with a walking sales pitch? Participants can also receive compensation for interacting with an in game advertisement. Advertars will run through a list of questions. The amount of compensation a player gets may depend on the number of questions he or she correctly answers. Make a mistake and you might have to see a "brand-accurate message" to continue.

"Compensation" isn't set in stone, but Microsoft gave a few examples. It may be real world currency, virtual currency, points, or even virtual world objects.

Siliconera offers an interesting point of debate, as well:

Imagine playing a MMO. Now imagine playing the same game with a color changing Zune avatar and the Trix Rabbit shouting "Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!" during a raid. 

I'm a little wary of schemes like this, but then again, Microsoft has only filed for a patent.  There's no guarantee that "advertars" will actually be implemented, but the fact that Microsoft is even thinking about advertising models like this one for consoles is a little unsettling to me.  Video games are one of the few relatively commercial-free entertainment experiences available these days, and I rather enjoy it that way.

But what does bitmob think?