A note about the new BIO command

[Jirato]

I saw some chat earlier today about concerns about the new command. I just wanted to address that.

I totally respect that, for some players, they wish to keep their character backstory private and only wish to reveal it through IC interaction. If you choose not to use this command, that's totally fine. However, I do feel it does have some uses and overall is a useful command for CLOK.

First, a character's BIO is private by default. This means that after it is entered, it can only be viewed by GMs. This is handy for a "let us know about your character so we can have some insight to why/how you may act during certain events." kind of thing, and also for some cases where a bio is required (joining one of the Church of Light guilds). In fact, expect the wording when you ask to join the Monastic Order or Knights Templar soon to change so that rather than being directed to email your character story to the CLOK email, you are instead told to ensure you have a BIO for your character. Again, this is private by default. It's your choice to make it public.

As far as making it public. Some people actually do like sharing that stuff (See the Character Stories and Histories subforum on the BBS). I figured that having the option to make it public and opening the view subcommand to work on public bios would be a nice perk for these people. A quick grep of the command logs even shows that bio is one of the more frequently entered invalid commands entered by new players the first time they try out CLOK.

So, please enjoy using the BIO command at your discretion. Fill it out if you want us to know about your character. Make it public if you want others to be able to look up info about your character at any time, or keep it private if it's just for us. Or just don't fill it out at all. The choice is up to you.

[Bryce]

Thanks, Jirato! Would it be possible to add a little note in the results of the PROFILE command if that character has a public bio set? Like a little line that says, "This character has a public bio which you can view by typing BIO VIEW BRYCE."

[Kiyaani]

That's neat, Jirato. Thanks for adding this feature. :)