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Do people read descriptions?
zalkenai
Posts: 11 Arc User
Hi, I'm a COH player (although I bought a lifetime sub when CO came out). I've always spent a lot of time working on character concepts, biographies and costumes.
What I'm wondering is: Do people even read Character Descriptions here, or am I wasting my time? I mean, I do it more for myself, but I've had a few people compliment my costume already, which lead me to wonder if they read the background behind it.
What I'm wondering is: Do people even read Character Descriptions here, or am I wasting my time? I mean, I do it more for myself, but I've had a few people compliment my costume already, which lead me to wonder if they read the background behind it.
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I found another thread where people were discussing formatting, so there must be at least a few people interested!
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Sarcasm aside, I used to include a decent bio for my chars AND their nems. However, no one can see the bio of a Nem unless it is your Nem. Still, I firmly believe these backstories really enrich the character.
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Agreed 100%. If I like how your character looks, I'll punch my /targetinfo bind and take a look for a bio. There's a surprisingly large amount of RPers out in CO it seems, or at least those who put something into their bio.
Just FYI - the formatting system is NOT WYSIWYG. You'll have to use HTML codes to space things out.
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And I like to keep mine short and sweet, who, why, when. :B
=^ _ ^= Kitty Lives!
But it does feel like at times most people simply don't bother to read or write.
Almost all my CoX alts had a bio, so my CO alts get one too. We get html formatting here too! Colors!
Oh really now. *strokes chin thoughtfully*
Cheers
'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
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My own toons get their bio around level 20 once I have a feel for the character, unless the idea for a Bio was what made me create the toon then it will start with a Bio.
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If it sits there and says 'Now Loading' or whatever, that means there's no bio (or someone used that for their bio for some weird reason). For some strange reason, they used that instead of, "No Bio" or whatever.
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Really!?
Thanks Man!
I've spent the last two years thinking something was wrong with my game:biggrin:
'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
I actually put about a year and a half of research into Chernobyl's bio, about the accident and some of the science involved in a nuclear meltdown. I've seen similar research quite a few times, the physics nerds in this game can come up with some impressive things. Some of us take bios pretty seriously. It's actually a shame you can't read nemesis bios, I've seen some really detailed bios randomly in nemcon and wished I could see how they got their enemies.
RIP Caine
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Darn it!
What about the Team Fortess 2 engineer monologue?
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Wait? Whaaaa..?
And I still have no idea why people don't...
I don't check for bios anymore because the VAST majority of characters don't have them. I like writing them because a fleshed out character is way more fun. Case in point, my Soldier AT, Frontline, was just "ex soldier who now fights crime". I was totally bored with this character. Deleted and replaced her with another Soldier AT: Wild Bill Tick-Tock, a cowboy robot from Snake Gulch who was in Millennium City for system upgrades when the invasion struck. Exact same power set, a million times more fun to play.
If there is something interesting in characters name or costume, they do.
Though some bios are really too long. I rarely bother with reading bio which is longer than one scrolling in target info panel. People need to learn that beauty lies in simplicity.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
I try to write descriptions that explain the character's powerset and reason for being a hero, and I sprinkle some jokes and puns in there too whenever I can. I tend to stay on the more concise side, but sometimes I can get pretty wordy (Gammaroo's bio is four paragraphs long, because I figured "She's like the Hulk but like, magic?" wasn't going to cut it).
As for "do people read descriptions?" well, probably not most of them. But I write for the people who DO read, not for the people who don't.
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...me too. :biggrin:
However, the lack of one on just about every bio I check except for people who clearly RP regularly is sometimes depressing. Some days it makes me actually go inside Club Caprice and just... listen to people. That makes me slightly happier as Club Caprice is a pit of scum and villainy, and one should tread cautiously in there because drama. So you don't think about the lack of bios in the vanilla populace, as I sometimes think of them. The ones without flavour text.
Then again, today I saw Vegeta talk to Ghost Rider then both got berated for being clones by Superman. I'm not sure what the heck is going on with other people as I suspect that that was actually intentional and was a brilliant form of in-game sudden street perfomance. A PSA done with characters in game about the perils of cloning (namely that Superman will swoop in and threaten you and stuff which was apparently effective or something I'm so confused aaaa)
I interact with them without having read their bio. If I need to cheat, I read the bio.
Visuals > Conversation > Experiences > Bio(if all else fails)
I find it helps out interaction when you know as much about the other character as your character might in that situation, which is not much at all until he gets closer or has talked with them for a while.
But that's the default bio for all wolf/demon-looking toons
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I'm all for people playing what they want to play, but I don't waste my time reading over Uberwolf #508 or Huge Demon #721.
It also, as a roleplayer, tells me whether or not I should waste my time. A bio can usually tell me if the person is illiterate, rolling a glamor toon, or just otherwise not worth me being around. I've noticed several things. Below is a list.
1- There are a LOT of lesbians. Oddly enough, most of them act like juvenile males.
2- A lot of people somehow think demons are created by a chick being kidnapped and used in a ritual.
3- I didn't know what a futa was until I started playing CO, but when I found out I took a shower with all the lights off and threw up in the tub.
4- I still think 'furry characters' are horrible, and I won't ever even take the time to acknowledge them in RP, much less read their bio. (Note I did not say furries, because apparently those are a new ethnic group or something).
5- There's this one guy with like 7 accounts, and they all revolve around the same type of fetish girl.
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"Stop doing that you'll go blind!"
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
"My dad can beat up your dad!"
Wait? Whaaaa..?
I used to have bios on all my alts as I could type them up my phone while I was not in game and then use the my character page and paste them in. But then many of them got broke with weird formatting and then the my character page went away so no more bios.
(I know i could paste directly into the game but I always forget)
I don't like to play characters that don't have descriptions either, so I try to make sure I have a reasonably sized one that fits into the game world.
I don't feel the description field is a place for a full bio. I'd rather talk to someone IC to learn about them.
Well no, let's not be too hasty here. Of 25 characters, I have one that would classify as a 'furry'. However, she's a manimal, and I hope that her bio is in line with the established lore.
I'm very fond of her and would hate to think that people write her off without even looking at her bio .
As far as bios go, I love to read them. I get a kick out of people who put so much effort into their charcter's look as well as their identity.
Keep writing them people, I'll keep reading them!
You're a lunatic with a mad man's dream of a milk proof robot!
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That's my philosophy on bios as well. If you want a full bio, go to Primus DB, where you can read Thundrax's bio (or you can go elsewhere and read "War and Peace" if you want something shorter.) Mind you, I sometimes get people who look at "well-known Canadian superhero" and declare they've never heard of him, but the issue of what aspects of a person's bio should be accepted in RP -- whether, in a world of movers and shakers, it's okay to give yourself a reputation or whether it has to be earned through interaction and RP -- is a separate one.
On some of my less-played characters, I do put in a lot of extra info, mostly to remind myself about the guy when I pick him up after a long absence. I should stop doing that.
Like several others here have mentioned, I like to read bio's when I see a great character, or when standing around waiting for an alert, hanging at Club Caprice, or at a costume contest. Sadly, most people don't approach bios as stories, if they think about them at all. But I love it when I find a well written one, especially if they have incorporated Champions lore, or anything else that reeks of creativeness.
I have come to the conclusion that people like at least some of my bios, as I do get the occasional compliment on my character's bio. So far, the one with the most compliments is my newest toon, who gets several comments per hour when I play him. His name is SuperMayan, and his story lays the premise for how he got to 2012's Millenium City from the ancient Mayan times.