Character Biographies

[Tiernan]

One of the many things I enjoy about Armageddon are the stories that we share with other players about the characters we played long ago.  The one about your Byn Sergeant who was killed by his own men on a mission, or that time when some evil defiler trapped your character in a stone tower, unleashed a horde of jakhals and watched as your body was ripped limb from limb... ah yes, the memories.

We, as players, tend to put a lot of time, thought, and energy into developing our characters.  We have a background that we construct that starts to tell the story of his/her life.  It's really the first chapter in their biography.  Often there have been times when I wish I had put down in writing some of the really enjoyable moments in my character's life story.  To add another chapter to his biography at a point where everything was still relatively fresh in my mind and the story could be told with all the passion and excitement still with me.

It's with that intention in mind that I've spent the last few weeks working on a fairly robust coding project that would allow us to add new chapters to our character's biography.  I've invested a great deal of effort into getting this system implemented and I sincerely hope that it is welcomed and used in the spirit in which it was designed.

The 'biography' command syntax is outlined in this help-file.

[Delirium]

I LOVE YOU.



That is all.

Edit: Because it didn't look big and bold enough.

[Marauder Moe]

Holy crap!  You guys rock!

It's going to take me forever to enter all the stuff I've already written about my character, though.

[Puppet]

Absolutely fantastic! I've been waiting for something like this. It is immensly appreciated from my end, Tiernan.

[Tamarin]

Wow...amazing.  I'm so glad I've logged 95% of my current PCs game play, so now I can go back and write up a history and put it in.

Is there any maximum character or paragragh length for individual biography entries?

[flurry]

Hey that's really cool.

Just curious: will the bio entries be included in that Wiki history project?

Edit to add:  I think LM just out-Venomzed Venomz (below).

[LauraMars]

THANK YOU, GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ibusoe]

Wow wow wow, muchos gracias.

[rishenko]

Will benders be able to read these biographies?  It would be interesting if they could skim the person's mind, flipping through the mental pages of their past, looking for useful information.

[Hexxaex]

Thanks for giving me a seizure Laura.

[Gaare]

Eyvallah...

[Seeker]

I love this idea.  The best part, if the IMMs choose to read these, is how comically innaccurate they will be from what -really- happened to the PC.


Seeker

[Vesperas]

Snuggly!!!!

[Yokunama]

So, we would write entries as if they were a background?

[Delirium]

I plan to write them like little snippets of flashback stories, myself.

Which I figure you could do for a background as well.

But yeah, you're supposed to write them as if the intended audience was someone learning about your character's backstory.  So, background style.  No using them to keep notes and OOC logs, stuff like that.

[Morgenes]

According to the documentation, these should be written in the same style as backgrounds.   So third person.

[Delirium]

Is there any maximum character or paragragh length for individual biography entries?

Wondering what the character limit is as well.

[Kronibas]

This is an aweosme who to the game.  Yes!

[EvilRoeSlade]

According to the documentation, these should be written in the same style as backgrounds.   So third person.

...

I don't write my backgrounds in third person.

[LauraMars]

Thanks for giving me a seizure Laura.

YOU'RE WELCOME

[Morgenes]

*looks back at the backround text that's shown when characters are created*

*looks at the background examples on the website*

Well, alright apparently there isn't a third-person requirement, that just seems to be the majority of what we get.  So until we make it a requirement, I'd say that just keep it consistent.  If you wrote your background in 3rd person, use 3rd person in your bio entries.  And vice versa, if you used 1st person in the background, keep using it in your bio entries.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Well, thanks for clearing that up.

[Bebop]

Awesome, not to mention this will lessen confusion for an IMM if they pop in and think why is this person doing this?  It helps outline the slow progression of a character from beginning to end.  That's really awesome.

[Cyrian20]

Can mindbenders read them?

[Marauder Moe]

I don't think anyone should ask or tell what mindbenders can or can't do.

[adgohan]

Interesting addition.

When a character dies - are these stored for the immortals?

If so, this may eliminate the need for wiki entries or character story submissions, in time.

[amoeba]

Thank you very much.

I'm looking forward to doing my part to filling the hard disk quickly.  (In a good way)

[bloodfromstone]

Very awesome. It would be nice to have a Read Biography option for dead characters added. (if it hasn't been)

EDIT: It would also be great to get a final prompt (if you have any biography entries, so those who don't want to use them don't have to get bothered) upon death to write a last entry detailing the character's fall.

[Anonymous]

Yes, having the option to make a final entry upon death would be cool.

Could this be done by adding the biography command to the character command options that appear after connecting to your account but before entering Arm? That would have the added advantage of being able to update your biography in guaranteed peace.

[Raesanos]

Can mindbenders read them?

Like Moe said, people shouldn't be discussing the specific powers of different guilds outside what the documentation explicitly tells you.

[Oxidised Lizard]

I don't think we should know if mindbenders can read them but it would be very cool if they could.  :twisted:

[bloodfromstone]

There's something that just seems to work better about writing a character's biography in first person. You think anyone would kill me if my background/biography were inconsistant?

[Halaster]

There's something that just seems to work better about writing a character's biography in first person. You think anyone would kill me if my background/biography were inconsistant?

Keep in mind, though, that most people on Zalanthas are not literate, so don't take this as an ACTUAL biography.  It's not a diary, but rather a story about the character.  Look at it as an extended, appendable background.  There may even be stuff in there your character doesn't know.

The main points (but not necessarily exclusive) of this are to:

1.  make an ongoing story available for the Staff so we can better understand your character
2.  make an ongoing story available to you, so you can go back and read it and enjoy the memories

[bloodfromstone]

Fair enough. It seems weird to write events as they happen in 3rd person, but that is probably because I'm thinking of the diary feeling to the biography, and, if I did write one in 1st person, that's how it would come across. 3rd person it is. Thanks, Halaster.

[Moofassa]

Neato... Another thing to fill in...Sounds cool, can help me remember things too.


What would the staff position be on someone who doesn't fill in their biography. (not that I wouldnt)

[Halaster]

Neato... Another thing to fill in...Sounds cool, can help me remember things too.


What would the staff position be on someone who doesn't fill in their biography. (not that I wouldnt)

It is not required information, so if you choose not to use it, that's fine.

[Lazloth]

2.  make an ongoing story available to you, so you can go back and read it and enjoy the memories

Does this information stay visible to the player once the character dies?  (eg., via account menu or some mechanism)

[Tiernan]

Does this information stay visible to the player once the character dies?  (eg., via account menu or some mechanism)

There's an ongoing effort to revamp the website and the way I've implemented biographies should allow for easy accessibility to revisit the biographies of your previous characters.  I didn't plan on building something into the server's menu system to provide access as I anticipate that once there's access via the website there won't be much, if any, use from the server menu.  As for when the new website will go online, I don't have an estimate right now.

[Tiernan]

Is there any maximum character or paragragh length for individual biography entries?

It's big.  Really big.  You won't believe how mind-boggling big it really is.  The server will tell you how many characters max you have when you start the editor, but if I recall it's in the realm of 16k characters.

[Tamarin]

Oh ok.  I figured it was the lengths of the entries that was causing all the crashes.

Je suis wrong.  Je apologizé(e).

[Tiernan]

Oh ok.  I figured it was the lengths of the entries that was causing all the crashes.

No, it was an XML character encoding/decoding issue which I resolved on Sunday.  We just haven't had any reboots since then to incorporate the changes.

[jmordetsky]

Sweet.

[Tamarin]

Are biographies ok now?  Can we use them?  It won't crash the mud over and over?

[Nusku]

Looks like.

[Bogre]

Okay, for those of us who might be playing long lived characters, and for whom the prospect of making a biography is daunting, I'm hoping its okay if the catching up process is a slow one. I know writing a biography for my current char will be a chore, (though I always like reminescing about my char), and just think of those characters who are really old.

[Medena]

If it's going to be a chore, just don't do it.  I don't know about you but I try to spend my non-work time in enjoyable pursuits (except of course for having to clean the toilet, wash dishes & other blecchy stuff that I have to perform just because I'm a grownup).

It is not required information, so if you choose not to use it, that's fine.

[marko]

My char hasn't been that long lived and thus far it's taken three hours putting together a biography and it hasn't caught up to everything that has happened.  I suppose one can say my char is living an eventful life.

The point?  I don't think I have one.  Oh right, I do.

This command is wonderful.  I think it will really help immortals understand the progression and history of a character and help players to maintain that and chart their own experiences.

[LauraMars]

What if you have a dead character and their life was really cool and you wanted to write a biography for them?  Can you send that to the staff for them to put in your files, or are you stuck with just reading the textfile all by your lonesome forever?

[flurry]

What if you have a dead character and their life was really cool and you wanted to write a biography for them?  Can you send that to the staff for them to put in your files, or are you stuck with just reading the textfile all by your lonesome forever?

There's this, but maybe you already know about that.

[Rindan]

Maybe I am miss interpreting this point of the biography command, but I don't think the point is to spend hours detailing everything that has happened in your life time.  I think it is more to just hit the major talking points.  I don't think you have to write your life's story in painful detail.  If anything, I imagine a little brevity is probably preferred.  

I know that if I was an imm who was about to interact with a character or noticed a character getting involved with a plot I might hit up their background.  If when I went to read their background I got 10 pages of spam I would probably not read it.  On the other hand, if it had just a few to the point entries in addition to the normal background, I would likely read it start to finish.

I suppose it depends upon your purpose in doing a biography.  If your point is to archive your character's life story for prosperities sake, you might get zealous and record with greater detail.  If your point is to give imms better insight into your character, I imagine brevity is best.

[moab]

Not saying your wrong, Rindan, but I hate when people equate long with spam.

No useful content = spam
Content (at whatever length) != spam

[spawnloser]

Yes, moab, but if you make it so long that the IMMs will have to take 30 minutes to read the entire thing to understand your character...don't count on them reading it all when it's only to give you 5 minutes of interaction.

[moab]

Not disagreeing, Spawnloser.

[LoD]

Not saying your wrong, Rindan, but I hate when people equate long with spam.

No useful content = spam
Content (at whatever length) != spam

Well, I think Rindan is using the word spam less to describe the usefulness of the content and more to describe the sheer volume of the work.  There IS a limit on how much someone is willing to read, and the length will factor into the rules you set forth in your post.

I mean, apply your rules to food:

Old bananas = bad
Good bananas (no matter how many) !=bad

I think Rindan is saying that no matter how good the bananas were, eventually you'd get sick of eating them and stop.  Same with long bios.

Morale of the story: Easy on the bananas if you want people to eat 'em.

-LoD

[moab]

LoD

Your comparison is faulty.

However, - again - I'm not saying I disagree with Rindan's thesis.  I'm saying that long is not spam and the habit of calling long spam (long being = longer than you want to read or you expect someone else wants to read) is a bad habit.

That's all.

That's all I'm saying.

One might better phrase Rindan's idea thusly: "Brevity is the soul of wit" or "Be concise or be ignored."

I can see we're all itching for a debate so let's jump over to OOC and start somethin' if you wanna through down!
:wink:

[LoD]

LoD

Your comparison is faulty.

Have you even eaten enough bananas to possible know that!!?  If you had, you'd say, "LoD, your comparison is right on.  I ate a ton of bananas and I am seein' what you mean.  I am in the know about banana spam."

One might better phrase Rindan's idea thusly: "Brevity is the soul of wit" or "Be concise or be ignored."

Indeed.  

I can see we're all itching for a debate so let's jump over to OOC and start somethin' if you wanna through down!

Throw down, banana boy!  THROW down!

-LoD

[amoeba]

I think it should be as long or as short as people need them to be. It's an individual thing.

This being said, when reading stuff online, formating nicely is critical.  I haven't done the biography command yet so I don't know if you can put blank lines inbetween paragraphs, but if so, please do so.

Even though the content and length are identical, reading this:

Well, I think Rindan is using the word spam less to describe the usefulness of the content and more to describe the sheer volume of the work. There IS a limit on how much someone is willing to read, and the length will factor into the rules you set forth in your post.

I mean, apply your rules to food:

Old bananas = bad
Good bananas (no matter how many) !=bad

I think Rindan is saying that no matter how good the bananas were, eventually you'd get sick of eating them and stop. Same with long bios.

Morale of the story: Easy on the bananas if you want people to eat 'em.

is a whole lot easier than reading this:

Well, I think Rindan is using the word spam less to describe the usefulness of the content and more to describe the sheer volume of the work. There IS a limit on how much someone is willing to read, and the length will factor into the rules you set forth in your post.  I mean, apply your rules to food: Old bananas = bad Good bananas (no matter how many) !=bad I think Rindan is saying that no matter how good the bananas were, eventually you'd get sick of eating them and stop. Same with long bios. Morale of the story: Easy on the bananas if you want people to eat 'em.

One is spammy, the other is quite readable.

[Cegar]

I've noticed that I tend to like this sort of format. I start an entry with a brief summary of a major event in my character's life, then start another paragraph detailing a certain aspect of that even which was most profound. Best of both worlds. A brief introduction, then some meaty details. Yays.

[jmordetsky]

I just wrote my first Biography.

I am really, really pleased with this. Thank you very much, this is an excellent addition to the game.