Longer Bios

Am I the only person that would like a longer bio than 1023 characters?

I was just wondering if this could be lengthened or if there is a reason why the space to write your bio is so short. I appreciate that there has to be a limit but 1023 characters isnt a lot.

Discuss

Less is more.

Don't double space. Seriously. It takes up 10 characters.

More is TL;DR. Give me the Reader's Digest version. If I want to read more, I'll got to someone's web site or ouroportal.com (when it goes back online anyhow). I don't read bios to read novels.

Obviously just my opinion.

For whom is the bio?

When I pull up someone's info in-game, I don't have the time (nor the inclination, tbh) to read anything I have to scroll.

When it's back online in a few days, the Ouroboros Portal is a place to put up lengthy character bios, pics, stories, etc.... Put a link to it in the in-game bio space.

That space is for your character's bio, not their life story.

Well, it seems it's already LESS that it was sometime prior to I21. I've gone back recently to work on some of my character bio's and found that what I originally wrote will no longer fit. Maybe that has to do with doublespace=10 characters? I double-space after sentences by force of STRONG habit because that is how I learned on the typewriter. Maybe I'm imagining things.

Yeah, it's disappointing and I have always run up against the limit again and again with various bio's. I also desperately wish it behaved better just for purposes of entering and editing that text, but that is likely to be SO far down the list of priorities I hold almost no hope it will ever be addressed. I furthermore wonder just what orifice they pulled that particular character limit from.

However, I take it as a CHALLENGE to fit a description or bio into that meager space allotted - especially if I'm hitting the limit. What information do I NEED to put down? What can I leave out? How can I phrase this more efficiently without losing important pieces of what I want to say - or better yet fitting even more meaning into less space.

And for my characters it's NEVER (okay, almost never) just a dry, boring recitation of major events in the characters life story from birth. It appears as a page of entries from a journal; it's a police or government agency report excerpt; it's florid prose by the character himself; it's a few paragraphs describing the moment of the characters discovery of her mutation; it's a poem that fits the characters attitude; whatever. I try to exercise as much creativity with every bio I write - but hitting the limit only tells me I'm being too long-winded and need to re-write it, tighten it up, make it BETTER - not just longer.

I've always liked the idea of multiple bio pages. Basic page for main information, and extra pages for character progression, next issue, etc.

I CONSTANTLY hit the character limit on my bios. I don't tell a life story, but I usually explain their origin, how their powers work, why they're in Paragon City/Rogue Isles, and what their ultimate goal is. I'd prefer if they doubled it, to like 2048 characters. And me personally, I love reading a good bio. If it's good, the length really shouldn't matter that much to you.

If you don't like reading long bios, or won't read a bio that scrolls. Then don't.

Let us enjoy our longer bios. People do appreciate longer ones as well as not.

Perhaps the Bio doesn't need extending, but let's have a "Backstory" Tab in the bio between Bio and Badges.

If you don't want to look in that tab, it'll never offend your TL;DR senses. For those of use that like to write and read longer pieces, we can look there.

I used to want more space for the bio myself. But then I realized that such would increase the temptation of turning what should just be a quick and concise overview of the character (with little hints of personal background they may reveal) into an extensive life story. It reminded me of my old days on various RP oriented MU*s. I would do a look at a character, and instead of just a quick description of what they looked like, I would get pages of info that no one would ever really know unless they asked.

Now, I find I enjoy the challenge of whipping up something useful and informative in a very limited space. I imagine heroes and villains all having their own little PDA type thingie to access their city's databases to look up information on others. With some of my characters, there will be some history explaining why he or she is doing what they do or how they got their powers. Others may just have decided to put a song or poem quote in their database entry. While yet others may have decided to withhold any info for the time being...

Examples: