Guild Wars 2

Any chance we will ever get a small box to write our characters’s bio or background? it would be pretty cool for RPers and those interested. I know many people won’t care but It could help those who are interested a lot

I was wondering about this. In FFXIV, we have a box that allows us to put in about 60 characters (plaintext, all characters count as one character, even unicode japanese) to write in a blurb for use in player searching. It would be nice if we could have something similar (and equally small in terms of character limit, since anything bigger than 256 characters would be too big for my tastes.)

That is however, assuming GW2 devs allow us to actually inspect people (Which they don’t currently.)

Plenty of us have been asking for it for years and other games have it. I have bios written up in a word document but it would be great to have them online where everyone could see them.

I would argue for more than 256. That is less than two tweets. I typically write up a good size paragraph with everything from their backstory to what music they like.

Menadena.7482:

Plenty of us have been asking for it for years and other games have it. I have bios written up in a word document but it would be great to have them online where everyone could see them.

I would argue for more than 256. That is less than two tweets. I typically write up a good size paragraph with everything from their backstory to what music they like.

They could always make a community portal with a website API that reads character information, etc. (Both WoW and FFXIV have this, while GW2 does not.) Your character is then tied to that login session, and the character has a unique profile page with all of its stats, equips, etc.

here’s an example:

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character/11102797/

You are now leaving a judgment free zone.

The worry with fully customisable bios is that they can be a tool for abuse, and thus require extra support or moderator time.

So although it would be a lovely feature to have, there are some problems it could cause and will require some “running costs”.

Of course if someone wants to abuse someone or the game there are plenty of ways to do that already. Are they reportable? Sure, but people still do them.

Sure, I have seen abuse conducted via profiles elsewhere. You can not stop it. The way you handle it is via the reporting system.

I would LOVE to see profiles like we have in Second Life. Multiple pages for different categories of information.

In order to provide a Character Bio they also have to provide a way to view that bio on other characters. Otherwise it serves no purpose. From there the question becomes, what else will they allow to be viewed about your character now that they’ve linked this one thing?

I’m not against it, I think it is one of the best aspects of a few games I’ve cherished. I just worry about what else might come out of it.

how can it be a tool for abuse?

coso.9173:

how can it be a tool for abuse?

Plenty of ways.
People could write cruel things about other people, groups and players including anything sexist, racist, or derogatory.
People could write explicit content in their bio
Others could use it as a form of advertisement

Basically, anything abusive that can be communicated through chat could also be communicated in a bio. It’s another area to moderate, which would mean more moderators and resources.

Kal Spiro.9745:

In order to provide a Character Bio they also have to provide a way to view that bio on other characters. Otherwise it serves no purpose. From there the question becomes, what else will they allow to be viewed about your character now that they’ve linked this one thing?

I’m not against it, I think it is one of the best aspects of a few games I’ve cherished. I just worry about what else might come out of it.

There are all sorts of possibilities, basically name a stat. Although hopefully all but the most basic things will able to be turned off if you do not want something broadcast.

This reminds me of how you could write your sims bios in Sims 1. I was really young and would always type in “butts”.