IMPORTANT: Should we require biographies?

[axiom]

I voted no and for many reasons.

Like Sky, I too have been on many sites that use this system, and many of these sites have failed and eventually were shut down because of this system and how it repelled people from joining. Our community is so used to not having biographies as a requirement so this WILL make people leave and our community will just get smaller because we decided to randomly implement this rule out of nowhere. And the thing with staff approval: staff aren't always on, and people just want to jump into the rp and not have to wait for someone to approve of their character. Also, getting staff approval for having to edit a bio of your own character is awful. You would have to notify staff for every small edit you make, and that will get tedious fast. And not just for the member, but also staff. Roleplaying is supposed to be fun, and I think this would take a lot of fun out of the playing experience for people, and they'd find somewhere else to roleplay that doesn't have this form of restriction. Just let people make their characters and hop in, because it's more fun that way for people who joined this site to get away from real life for a bit.

Like I said in the beginning, I’ve been on sites that used this system and had a small community and were doing just fine the first month, but as it continued to run, it wasn’t working so well in their favor after the grace period. The community dwindled, and eventually, people stopped joining because they were intimidated by the fact that staff approval was needed in order to roleplay, and staff took a while to even approve things on most sites because staff have a life too, they get busy. People would get impatient, and just leave after a while because it was just too much of a tedious process. Some sites can use these systems and have no problems, but sites like these are few and far between.

Another reason why I voted no was because I want creative freedom. When I create a character, I shouldn’t be forced to make a bio for them when I don’t even have a basic personality down for them yet. I’m one of those people that like to roleplay my characters so I can get a basic feel for them and then make a bio for them now that I know them better. I know I’m not the only one like this on the site, so I think you guys would be making a huge mistake in implementing this idea and end up repelling more people than attracting them. There’s also people that make new characters ALL the time, and that would get tedious for staff eventually, and for the members as well that just want to make a new character and have fun. I again want to stress the fact that roleplaying is meant to be fun, and this just has an air of professionalism hanging over it like a dark rain cloud. Roleplaying shouldn’t have to feel like it’s a professional thing, and that we have to fit some kind of standard just so we can play our characters.

I can see why this would make things easier for people, don’t get me wrong. It really helps to have information about a character so people don’t go in blind when interacting when someone else’s character, but this really isn’t the way to go in my opinion. People on this site are already used to hopping straight into the action, and forcing them to make a bio just to be able to roleplay in new areas just sounds.. scummy to me, in all honesty. Sites can make it work, but it wouldn’t work for BoB and its community.

I genuinely believe that implementing this would kill this already dying site, and we should just not go with it.

This kind of got rambly, but I’m just very passionate about this site (and care about it a LOT) and I don’t want to see it die completely because of a new rule change that just seems really forced. It just wouldn’t work for BoB and that’s my honest opinion.

[align=center]

^^ this is basically why i voted no.

[COSMIIX]

I voted no and for many reasons.

Like Sky, I too have been on many sites that use this system, and many of these sites have failed and eventually were shut down because of this system and how it repelled people from joining. Our community is so used to not having biographies as a requirement so this WILL make people leave and our community will just get smaller because we decided to randomly implement this rule out of nowhere. And the thing with staff approval: staff aren't always on, and people just want to jump into the rp and not have to wait for someone to approve of their character. Also, getting staff approval for having to edit a bio of your own character is awful. You would have to notify staff for every small edit you make, and that will get tedious fast. And not just for the member, but also staff. Roleplaying is supposed to be fun, and I think this would take a lot of fun out of the playing experience for people, and they'd find somewhere else to roleplay that doesn't have this form of restriction. Just let people make their characters and hop in, because it's more fun that way for people who joined this site to get away from real life for a bit.

Like I said in the beginning, I’ve been on sites that used this system and had a small community and were doing just fine the first month, but as it continued to run, it wasn’t working so well in their favor after the grace period. The community dwindled, and eventually, people stopped joining because they were intimidated by the fact that staff approval was needed in order to roleplay, and staff took a while to even approve things on most sites because staff have a life too, they get busy. People would get impatient, and just leave after a while because it was just too much of a tedious process. Some sites can use these systems and have no problems, but sites like these are few and far between.

Another reason why I voted no was because I want creative freedom. When I create a character, I shouldn’t be forced to make a bio for them when I don’t even have a basic personality down for them yet. I’m one of those people that like to roleplay my characters so I can get a basic feel for them and then make a bio for them now that I know them better. I know I’m not the only one like this on the site, so I think you guys would be making a huge mistake in implementing this idea and end up repelling more people than attracting them. There’s also people that make new characters ALL the time, and that would get tedious for staff eventually, and for the members as well that just want to make a new character and have fun. I again want to stress the fact that roleplaying is meant to be fun, and this just has an air of professionalism hanging over it like a dark rain cloud. Roleplaying shouldn’t have to feel like it’s a professional thing, and that we have to fit some kind of standard just so we can play our characters.

I can see why this would make things easier for people, don’t get me wrong. It really helps to have information about a character so people don’t go in blind when interacting when someone else’s character, but this really isn’t the way to go in my opinion. People on this site are already used to hopping straight into the action, and forcing them to make a bio just to be able to roleplay in new areas just sounds.. scummy to me, in all honesty. Sites can make it work, but it wouldn’t work for BoB and its community.

I genuinely believe that implementing this would kill this already dying site, and we should just not go with it.

This kind of got rambly, but I’m just very passionate about this site (and care about it a LOT) and I don’t want to see it die completely because of a new rule change that just seems really forced. It just wouldn’t work for BoB and that’s my honest opinion.

dittoing this cause ain't nobody got time for that

[toboggan]

here’s my way of seeing things.

for one, it would eliminate the characters who want to be vague, and mysterious.

how could one write a mini-snapshot about their new character if their character’s traits are supposed to be as bleary as possible?

characters like that develop icly, not oocly. it allows the community to learn about the character over time.

to force someone to play a character in a way that’s not up to them, such as make a biography for someone if they don’t want to, is a big no-no. bob’s one of those sites where people should come to write their feelings away and express themselves - and even as small as this change would be, it’s just a needless extra-step for everyone’s creativity.

this change would not have an effect on me. i love writing bios for my characters.

but i know this to be not the case for everyone. and for the sake of that, i’ll be a no.

[Orion]

Agreeing with all of the statements above in support of no requirement. I’ll keep my post short because I don’t want to just keep repeating what’s already and instead offer some of my own insight.

I feel like requiring these puts a block on creativity. Having staff approve characters would seem as gatekeeping and cause people to run, especially when their applications aren’t peered through quick enough. For those of us with a larger amount of characters/OCs, this would be troubling. Writing 1000 essays on why your character is mischievous or about a tragic past might just be beating a dead horse at that point. Sometimes developing things ICly through reveals over time is more developmental like Toboggan mentioned. The mystery aspect is lost.

Speaking from my own experience, I had more fun developing a character that was just an idea within my head. This is how I ended with two of my favorite and most well known BoB characters, Stryker and Guru. Along with another OC of mine known as Fragilepast also started out that way.... but what about the character’s that have biographies? I have 13 subaccounts. Two of those are no longer used human roleplay accounts and the other two are the characters I mentioned previously with no biographies. Out of those accounts that have biographies, I have yet to play them. Perseus, Rambeau, Flaw, Abraxas, and more are practically untouched, despite their nicely developed biographies. I don’t know why I lost the appeal, it’s really a mystery to me tbh. Biographies =/= well-made characters.

To sum it up, what I’m saying is that not everyone functions the same. While some of us prefer biographies, it’s not idea for others. That is why I’m against required biographies as a whole.

[Mobile, please excuse me for any errors]

[Quill]

I have a question about issues that could arise dependent on how detailed the biographies have to be. As most places were I have seen biographies required the bios are never updated so players go to plot and get incorrect information because things changed about the character and the bio was never updated to reflect that. Would there be a way to remedy this here?

In our perspective, the bios would not have to be very detailed. They're essentially the Tags system that we already have on site, only with a provided code so they're more standardized in information and or slight layout. It wouldn't be a drastic change from what we already have on site.

Also, we wouldn't be judging necessarily on quality or depth, only to make sure that the character is legal (ie, has all the powers they say they do, and don't have powers or colorations/mutations that don't exist), and has some sort of personality developed. It wouldn't be that restrictive at all,nor would it limit the creativity of a player. It's the exact same thing we already have, in a sense, just more standardized for the whole site! I would imagine that updating as plots go along would be an essential element of this bios- think of it like a regular plotting thread with an introduction paragraph, for a lack of a better analogy. It wouldn't be anything too drastic.


Also briefly (because I'm catching a bus in an hour and don't have a lot of time to go in depth), I don't see how it would limit personalities that are intentionally vague or mysterious- the same platform still exists to write a character how you want to write it- IE, examplefriend doesn't tend to show his emotions on his face. People may get the inclination that he's stone cold or a 'bad boy', but his personality never quite seems to match up with his actions...." and so forth. I realize that this might be a deal breaker for some, and the concerns around biographies daunting creativity may be valid for some, but this is also more or less a trial run. We can enact it for a time, and if something doesn't work, we can fix it as we go- this wouldn't be a one and done deal.

When considering the idea of 'staff approved', It's more in the sense that we're making sure that characters are legal and nothing more, as well as getting a better sense of what sort of characters are already on-site so we can better develop plots and ideas!

[toboggan]

in my honest opinion, if someone is unsure if something is legal or not, they should just ask.

if someone is unsure of someone else’s legality, they should just ask staff.

it saves a lot more time and resources in being a responsible person, rather than instating a forced “staff approved” system.



in my eyes, the proposed system isn’t the exact same thing that’s currently on the site. right now, nobody is forced to write tags for their characters. the tags from premade shops are a luxury available for our use if we want to, and i’d feel much more comfortable if this was kept at a “if we want to” level.



i understand where this concern is arising from. you don’t want stuff to get out of hand power-wise, and you want everybody to understand everyone else for plot convenience.

but honestly, it’s just unnecessary. i’ve never experience trouble plot-wise when roleplaying with a character that didn’t have a bio. and i have never thought little of someone for not having a bio.

when i’m in doubt about my characters (such as the use of a power), i just ask instead of implementing whatever i’ve thought up into my character.

maybe just remind people. remind them that, when in doubt, ask. easy.

[pallid-i]

What tobo said, and if it's like the tag system that's on the site, then why even implement the feature? Most people write tags for their characters already, it's just a small percentage of the community that doesn't. It seems kind of redundant.

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

There is also the high chance that required personality doesn't work without enforced punishment for not keeping it updated or playing different than is written. Plus like some other's mentioned OOC focus can take away from a game like this one, for instance Jiyu's crush on Rosemary started out as a completely IC thing that I may not have explored otherwise, something amazing that could have been lost had I been strolling through plot threads for a romance for her instead of happening to find she IC found rose attractive and that rose was persistent enough to break through her barriers enough for Jiyu to fall in love.

Plus Jiyu is literally the only character I've ever had who legit had a developed personality I could write down when I started playing them. So this system would completely eliminate the player base who don't like to go through setting the character's persona in stone before playing them, which is a massive limit on creativity in my opinion. I wouldn't have made Masie if this was a thing when I made her.

[spacexual]

basically dittoing everything said before me about why i voted no + a little addition from myself (which i know some points have been touched on but i tried to make mine still different)
people roleplay in different ways. there will be people who make bios for their characters before playing them because that's how they work. if someone feels better planning out their character(s) before beginning to write them, then that's on them. that's how they function and that's how they WILL function, whether there is a system enforcing them to make biographies or not. the same can be said for the other side - the people who feel better jumping in with characters without too much planning or thought behind them. they will post with the character and develop them based off of that, because this is how they function. making them create biographies will, i believe, just make it harder for them to create characters they can stick with.

i actually function better this way - figuring out a character as i write them. i always have VERY basic ideas before i begin, but they change based off how things go. the ONLY time i've ever stuck to a planned character was with goldenluxury - one time. i've tried to many times plan out characters for roleplay, even after sticking with goldenluxury, and this is the first and only time i have ever been able to keep at it.

forcing people to function in a way they normally cannot will harm the site.

i absolutely see where this idea is coming from. i know it is just an idea to hopefully help the site, but in my eyes, it will do more harm than good. i understand entirely that these biographies can be vague, have incredibly little detail; maybe not even have a personality attached, but this does not change the fact that they can prove to be a problem. plus, it feels a bit redundant to require biographies but then only have people write out very limited details. that isn't planning (which, from what i understand, is a big part of why this idea is brought up), that's describing the very basics of a character and it only wastes time both for the staff and for the roleplayers, in my opinion.

[Orion]

This poll is now CLOSED. Thank you for voting! We will continue on as per usual and not require any biographies, especially to the overwhelming vote against it.