Post-Clippyism (Score 1)

The movie "Until the End of the World" has an entertaining scene where a Russian search agent took on the shape of a Bear that was prowling around 3D representation of different buildings, which in turn represented different agencies and thus different databases, while muttering in a bearish voice: "Searching ... stiiiillllleee searching". This was in 1991. It was hilarious! There were other avatars, as well, and they all had different personalities that matched the person using them. This is not, some irritating marketing guy deciding what persona that you would like, along with the rest of the world. Think Tamaguci with a difference; collaborative filtering on a personal scale.

For instance, my avatar would be a cockroach that I could squash with a satisfying crunch - before it would wait and skitter away. Even better if I could fry it with my iPhone G4's sonic iLighter. But, that's merely my own preference. Your preferred skin may be a bash window, Paris Hilton in prison stripes, or both.

To each their own.