Did you guys ever solve this problem? I am having the exact same issue according to the description. I actually use two separate computers running windows 8 and a surface running RT, all with the same problem with the games app. Once by fluke my avatar loaded properly but then it went back to being greyed out. Here's a screen shot.... it's the same on all three machines, leading me to believe its a problem with my account, and not my windows installations.
Sorry dusty, I've not found a solution to this problem. I have the same problem still :/ It works fine sporadically, mostly never though. Hopefully someone who has had this problem and found a solution will find this thread and tell us how to fix it.
try to uninstall games app
then in START SCREEN type (RUN) without borders and open it
then type WSRESET.EXE this will clear cache of windows store
now try downloading the app