New Khan Academy Avatars

I think the new avatars are a great addition as well... for the younger learners. Now if KA approached some of the well made avatars popularly seen in user held contests, I believe that would have a greater appeal to the more mature users as well as symbolizing how KA listens to its community.

That being said, I don’t want to look the gift horse in the mouth. The KA community is, I’m sure, very happy to new avatars!

I agree!

I entirely agree Murray!

What is exceedingly disappointing, is the new avatar's lack of stages. I believe the excitement of unlocking a new stage increases one's desire to learn more; and gain the achievement for your own self-esteem. Its a personal thing, and it boosts others desire to learn as well, for many reasons.

One suggestion I've seen much praised, is to incorporate last year's Primavera avatars. Those of Team Terratrice, Team Cloudlark, Team Icicle, Team Mountaintop, Team Mantattack, Team Buzzaw, and last (but really first) Team Pyroach. These avatars mean a lot too a great many users, the community would be overjoyed to have these as their avatars! Additionally, they represent friendship, and various elements from each team, respectively. Having the avatar of your old team would be very motivating! I sincerely hope the Khan Academy board will seriously consider making these much-loved avatars genuine ones!

~ Samwise, a devout member of Khan Academy.

Hmmm, the primavera avatars would be interesting. I will say though, that was a recent contest in the past couple of years, and I'm not sure it'd be fair to use those instead of ones that have been created in competitions in previous years.  Assuming that there were...

I think adding some of the avatars from the primavera contests would be a great idea. The new avatars are a good addition to Khan Academy, but the removal of backgrounds is very disappointing.

I whole-heartedly agree with Samwise. I think they would be a great addition to the list. maybe if you were in team Buzzaw you were awarded a Buzzaw avatar, and so on for the rest of the contestants. And seeing a Primaverra is arguably the biggest contest on KA, it would make sense to host its avatars and usable ones.

VEXCESS #BringBackBackgrounds

I agree with you there, Its pretty bland now, white on white.

If you think about it though, why shouldn't the Khan Academy developers make new avatars that appeal to younger users? After all, the Khan Academy users are composed of both young and old alike, so what's wrong with making avatars for the younger users? If anything, it provides everyone with a wider range of avatars that would appeal to all user ages.

Now, I think the bigger problem is the fact that people wanted different avatars (such as the Primavera avatars) instead of these new ones, and therefore, they hate the new avatars. But you must also consider the fact that the code transition is very time-consuming and the Khan Academy developers have limited staff. To make avatars such as the seedlings, ultimates, etc. would be harder than to make the recently-released 2-Dimensional avatars, which is probably why those were added instead. Furthermore, the Khan Academy developers did state that they made these new avatars because they matched the current design style. I am quite sure that the Khan Academy developers didn't know that what they would do would be the reason for a lot of complaints. They have considered our feedback and have had multiple discussions over them, and I'm sure that they are working to improve our experience, though it may be taking a while because of the limited staff and time-consuming code transition.

Now, I don't think they'll get rid of the new avatars though, because it really doesn't make sense to do so. After all, we all have our own preferences, and our dislike of the new avatars is all a matter of preference. Simply put, some people like the new avatars, some people don't.