Longer Bios

To argue this...I read once that one of the reasons people move is for more storage or closet space. So arguably more space is better in general. So, that being said, you could still do your more poignant bio as you suggest, but it would be through your own control.

So...Im not sure why more space is bad?

The point I was making is that you are speaking for you. Thats cool. It's fine, but if you don't want space, or require it, it does not generally effect you in the least if someone else has it.

If you don't write bios, prefer web pages or read other bios, then it wont effect you if they did decide to increase the size.

Unless it somehow blew up the servers or destroyed game play as we know it...it really does not matter.

Isn't the person desiring more space speaking for themselves?

I'm not opposed, I didn't even use the word "argue". I think it's just kind of a creative writing 101 thing coupled with my personal moving experience that created a reaction in me to your response.

This aside I think I did a decent job offering some reasons as to why things are the way they are (space, not what a bio is intended for, significant percentage not using bio's) and then went on to provide some ideas for how a writer can express themselves beyond the 1024 words (independant website, social media page, request a new paid CoH feature, etc).

And “storing” it yes?

The 101 I was referring to.


Good TV Show Intro.


Great TV Show Intro!!

Greatest Metallica song!

That goes without saying, yes. Are you trying to suggest that storing/transferring it upon query would be....expensive? If a bio is 1,023 characters, that is effectively 1Kb. Doubling it to 2048 is 2Kb. These are stupid small numbers in today's computing, especially considering the smallest file size in most modern file systems is 4Kb....i.e., there's room in the space reserved to store the bio.

No there isn't, because the bio isn't a separate file on the server, it's a field in a database. That means for every character ever created in game, there is 1Kb of space in the database reserved for a bio, no matter how much text the player actually put in the field.

Doubling that would mean having to reserve an additional 1Kb for every character that exists on the servers currently, including those from Trial and banned accounts, and redoing all the estimates for "how many more characters can our databse hold before we have to get a bigger HD". It's a lot of work just to let a small segment of players write a little more about their characters.

First off. I was merely wondering if it mattered at all. Nor did I mention I was for, or against extra space. Nor do I care if one person writes a single blurb about their toon or something like Homers Epic Poem.

My main thing is that it just does not matter. If the fields were increased those who enjoyed writing would use the feature and those who didn't use the space would never know or care that it existed.

It is not like we are talking about powersets, content or game play, but a feature that would be used and enjoyed by some, or ignored by others.

So when something like this crops up in "For Fun" as opposed to the "Suggestion" Forum, I assume that it would be "Fun" for that person, and regardless of whether their writing is complete trash one must remember that one mans trash is another mans treasure. (Maybe like some of that stuff you threw out when you moved)

Im just curious that someone wanting more space turned into a debate about good writing, and smacked full of snobbery. (Not directed at you with the snobbery comment, or anyone in general)

If it's not game breaking...who cares?

Well, the advantage of the short form is that it pushes the author toward a conclusion, unlike an infinite blank slate. A short bio at least concludes, instead of rambling on. You'll probably find more people willing to appreciate a short bio that has a definite arc (beginning-middle-end) than you will find people who want to read the Unabomber-Manifesto-like outpourings of everyone they team with.

That said, I'm not against creativity...

This seems like a much better approach. Good idea! Perhaps the original 1023-character Bio space could even be renamed "Blurb" to emphasize it's the short, snappy version?

I'm sure Superman was an icon of his time. Even though I'm not a Supes fan, I still see him as... Well, if not THE original super hero, then at least one of the grand daddies who started it all. Back in the day when people being faster than a bullet was amazing and Superman freaked people out by lifting a car, that sort of character would be perfect for his audience.

The problem is that this kind of simplicity is often lost in modern day fiction, for the simple reason that almost anything you come up with has been done before and said before. I've had much praised over the years for my original ideas both in character writing and in costume design, but the truth of the matter is I DON'T have any original ideas. I never have. The original Samuel Tow was, at the time of his creation, a mixture of Zero from Megaman, Samurai Jack, Konoko from Oni and I forget what else, if you put them all behind the wheel of speeding tractor trailers and smashed them into a single pile at enough speed so that a single character walks out of the wreckage.

I'm honestly not sure if there even ARE any original ideas left today, but even if they are, it takes a genius or a visionary to find them. What's left for relatively untalented people like me is taking other people's ideas, smashing them together until they stop resembling the source material and then focusing on presentation good enough to hide the evidence. Almost all of the characters I've made, and especially those I've received compliments over become incredibly stupid and silly if you boil them down to their core concept. The truth of the matter is... I got nothin'. So the only thing I have to offer, original ideas having failed, is presentation.

If I can spin an old idea in a new way, that makes for a good story and an interesting character, but if I simply list all the properties of the old idea... Well, it's still an old idea that probably wasn't all that good to begin with. Case in point: Insane Rick. As a gag, he's funny... Somewhat. As an idea, he looks original, but is really just one of a hundred thousand headless character that came out at the time. As a story... There really is no room for any depth, any character or anything that's actually interesting to read about past laughing at a silly caricature. For what it's worth, Insane Rick still exists, as I haven't gotten around to deleting him (if anyone wants the name on Victory, let me know), but he's just a stupid character I no longer want anything to do with.

Granted, his bio isn't short by any stretch, but I could have summed it in a single sentence, and it would have been WORSE. At least when it's long, I can mask the flat character behind jokes and attempted wit, but when I sum him down to his actual personality... He's a joke. And not a very funny joke, at that. Rick, it turns out, is a lesson in writing: Always think before you commit. I will not make the same mistake twice.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The descriptions on NPCs are often horrible, almost always recycled and very rarely interesting at all. Smoke and Mirrors Baron Zoria still has Akharist's old bio, all the Rikti still share the same description and few new critters are given anything more than a couple of sentences to their names. The few that are, like the Tsoo, are quite interesting to read about. The Council may have inherited the Column's vast and varied pool of descriptions for their old enemies, but all Mexican Lucha Libre wrestlers - otherwise known as the Galaxies, and all the Voids have the same descriptions between ranks. Hell, Alexis Cole-Duncan doesn't actually have a description in the first mission she shows up in, instead having the "This citizen has gotten in over her head!" placeholder.

I stopped reading critter bios around four years ago because I'd read all the good ones and none of the new critters were given very interesting bios. Granted, the Pratorian critters are a nice exception some of the time, but even then critter descriptions can really use a lot more work. It took, what? A month before the Galaxy City Shivan bios stopped talking about Bloody Bay?

How much space do you think this constitutes? My PC has a 1TB drive. By my calculator, that's 1*073*741*824 bytes, or a billion characters. Even if we assume every player has 100 characters, that still comes up to 107 million players. I'm not sure even WoW has had this much through all of its churn. And that's MY hard drive.

Additionally, let's take a look at SG bases. One of the original justifications for base rent was that bases cost a lot of space to store, therefore players would have to show some activity, or else bases would be "archived" if left unpaid. Why not do this for the bio space? If so many people do indeed not make use of the bio field, then stop handing it out by default. Make it so that people have to specifically tick an option to make their bio field available to be written in, and until it is made available, simply don't reserve memory for it. That might actually save hard drive space if so few people use it.

Actually, let's look at space a little bit more. A costume file is around 7KB and a regular powers file around 11KB. I'm allowed to have ten of both, so JUST in appearance, I take up, what? 180KB? That's as many as 180 character bios, or 90 bios of double size. When I go into the architect and make a story arc, that story arc can take up to 100 or 200 KB (I don't remember). By default, I can make three of these, and I can buy many more. I'm not even sure if there's a hard limit to them, but I suspect I can buy at least up to 10 slots, and thus take up 1MB of space. Probably more. Yes, those are per account, but have you any idea how many characters I'd have to make to take up this much space with their bios? Over a thousand.

Of all the things associated with our characters, bio space strikes me as the least taxing. Well, probably short of name or title. But I shudder to think how much space just my badge information takes up, and I don't even have that many badges.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I was trying to keep it simple. Given the Kotaku 7th anniversary issue referenced 42 million characters created, we're talking....40gb. That might seem like a lot at home, but it's nothing in an enterprise environment, especially when your business is 100% bits and bytes. And, for reference, that calculation is not difficult for a DBA.

Furthemore, if a 1Kb increase in bio is all that is needed to increase attachment to virtual characters and thereby extend subscriptions, it's probably worth looking at.

With all due respect to the developers, they knew what they were getting themselves into when making a MMO. I doubt adding more characters to bios would be any more stressful than adding new content.