IMPORTANT: Should we require biographies?

[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!