Rants: Boring Bios

[AlphaEclipse]

Herow everyone! :-)
After sitting at my desk for awhile, trying to think of a good discussion, I thought of bios. Biographies on Feral Heart (the game, not the forums) seem very bland to me. Now I'm the kind of person who reads everyone's bios. -Is a bio stalker- But, I've noticed that most of them follow the same story. Parents died... Had to fend for it's self... Survived... Taught it's self to hunt, fight ( and kill...)...  and (for some reason...) they always have something special about them. I've seen from invincibility to flight. O-o  Now I'm not saying they're all like this, ( I've seem some really nice ones that I enjoyed reading) but why must they follow the same plot?

What are you opinions on this?

[kiaz1st]

I do agree with you it does sort of get on my nerves, I too am I bio stalker xD and it is really annoying when they either have no bio, or a boring one that follows the same as everyone elses.
I have seen some really nice ones, and I prefer those ones, I like the ones that admit they have a weakness.
Once I saw in a bio:

Strengths: Everything
Weaknesses: Nothing

I mean, c'mon! You cant be good at everything or have no weaknesses, thats' just not fair, boreing, and unrealistic.

[AlphaEclipse]

I do agree with you it does sort of get on my nerves, I too am I bio stalker xD and it is really annoying when they either have no bio, or a boring one that follows the same as everyone elses.
I have seen some really nice ones, and I prefer those ones, I like the ones that admit they have a weakness.
Once I saw in a bio:

Strengths: Everything
Weaknesses: Nothing

I mean, c'mon! You cant be good at everything or have no weaknesses, thats' just not fair, boreing, and unrealistic.

Well at least I know others agree with me! :3
It is unfair that they have no weakness. That's just unnatural, even in a unrealistic RP.
Bio stalkers unite!

[Tigerheart08]

Ugh, I totally agree on both of your comments. And another thing (Has to do with this thread) is that in the RP they are like freaking invincible and I'm tired of it! I can't even RP without people begging for attention because their character is 'Scarred' from some sad event in their life. Then there's the characters that are angry all the time cause they had a traumatic childhood and hate life and blah blah. I just can't even deal.

[WhiteLightHeart]

I do agree with you it does sort of get on my nerves, I too am I bio stalker xD and it is really annoying when they either have no bio, or a boring one that follows the same as everyone elses.
I have seen some really nice ones, and I prefer those ones, I like the ones that admit they have a weakness.
Once I saw in a bio:

Strengths: Everything
Weaknesses: Nothing

I mean, c'mon! You cant be good at everything or have no weaknesses, thats' just not fair, boreing, and unrealistic.

*Hacks up a hairball* That's what I think of bios like that. I understand. ._.

But yees, I'm a bio stalker appreciator, myself, and so I understand where you're coming from.
For one thing, I do know that often times the reason users say "Oh, my parents died" or "my whole clan/pack/pride was killed" is partly due to the fact that many users start off with a character that has no connections to any other characters they'll actually be roleplaying with.
And so, when someone in character comes up and asks, "So what's your past?" they'll have an answer, instead of "Oh, I don't know."

That much, I can understand.

However, that can also be changed up a lot with just a little perseverance and creativity, or even looking at some reasons why your character/species might end up on its own.
For example, one of my favorite characters, Allegra, might have had a wild past during RP, but before I started RPing her?
She lived in a pack with her family. She spent lots of time with her father, and learned to hunt alongside him quite well. Then, when she was 3, she struck off on her own to find her own way. Wolves do that, after all.
No sudden deaths, no unrealistic mass homicides of her pack by dark unknowns.. Just. Believable and honest. A character can learn one heck of a lot in life and be quite capable on their own without having a horrid past and having to cry themselves to sleep over something nobody else in the RP knows anything about.

And as for having invincible characters, I've always found that quite flat and uninteresting to RP.
After all, no one truly is perfect. Be it their bodies, their emotions, or mental state.
The one who'd been fighting all his life is bound to have painful wounds, aching joints and recovering injuries that may one day prevent him from fighting at all, the ones that are scarred for life or mentally pained are unlikely to be able to handle themselves in an unstable situation, or even know what to do when someone else is offering them a friendly paw-- even a potential mate.
However, it's those flaws that make a character unique, and so when I see the "perfect and all-powerful," it's almost always evident to me that they may not have roleplayed that character enough to realize the imperfections create the most heartfelt overcomings in the story.

[AlphaEclipse]

For example, one of my favorite characters, Allegra, might have had a wild past during RP, but before I started RPing her?
She lived in a pack with her family. She spent lots of time with her father, and learned to hunt alongside him quite well. Then, when she was 3, she struck off on her own to find her own way. Wolves do that, after all.
No sudden deaths, no unrealistic mass homicides of her pack by dark unknowns.. Just. Believable and honest. A character can learn one heck of a lot in life and be quite capable on their own without having a horrid past and having to cry themselves to sleep over something nobody else in the RP knows anything about.

I wish there were more biographies like that. I have character named Aclipse like this. (Long story short) She had a great childhood and did everything a pup is suppose to do, and when she got older, she left her pack to look for a new one.

[hugrf2]

Ahh, I see these bios sometimes. My characters I do put effort in even if they even a tiny bit show the "Unbeatable, parents died" past.
Havor SORT OF might be like that some how, but I take it to a whole new level in a way.
I have a entire story I can't even write entirely in Havor's bio. I wrote it on here and a couple other places, too.
Havor in fact does have weaknesses like most should, and the "parents died" part of his past isn't really like that.
He just separated himself from his mother heading for more of a cruel past.

Usually if my characters seem to have a lot of power they will obviously have weaknesses, depending on your strength comparing to them.
Does get boring playing as a high-level character though. Also, back to the Havor subject, there was something a part of him that was completely my own in him.
So he is unique rather than the boring bios. (I need to remake his bio.. o_o)
Other people's boring bios sometimes like that that are dramatic... I'd rather have it taken to a whole new level of creativity rather than read the old plot written there.

I never really tend to have the normal past for my characters sometimes, only because I want them completely unique rather than realistic entirely or have the same old background for them.
I'm not exactly a bio stalker, but when I'm confused with a certain detail or curious I will look at the bio.
Sometimes I will see nothing. Though if the character is just new and the bio is blank, if they were excited to get to Bonfire and roleplay too at first, they might've not had any time to write the bio.
Of course some might grab the time to write or complete their bios later on.

Though it's always best to think of the character's past in character creation before just throwing them in with no  past whatsoever, you can just imagine them with a normal past if they are a species you recognize.

Eh, that's just my opinion. In other words, I do agree however, there is my opinion right there to add on.
Hope I made sense there, in case I didn't.

[Lady_Alizarin]

I know what you mean, guys. It seems like many of us have seen the same-old same-old dramatic, tragic past of a character that has been written too many times by millions of others. I too have seen the Mary Sue and Gary Stue kind of bios as well. I especially don't like the oh so perfect Mary Sue kind of characters. A good character in any story would have flaws of some kind, because no one in the world is perfect.
My mythical magical creatures have flaws, too. Just because they are supernatural it doesn't mean they have to be invicible and have unlimited power. Nah! That ain't gonna fly with any of my characters. Even if they are unrealistic and magical, they will have flaws and weaknesses. My unicorn fox character has weaknesses and flaws. She may be immortal, but she can be injured and killed. She has limited amounts of magic. My manticore character, Melina, has no magical powers whatsoever. She too can be injured, captured, tamed, or even killed. She has fought a few battles, but didn't win them all. It doesn't mean she's weak, it just means that she is normal (no godly powers).

None of my characters have the dramatic past of "My parents died because they were murdered by (insert reason)". No way! Most of them led normal childhoods then moved out of their parents' den when they were old enough to take care of themselves. If any tragedies happened, it was due to whatever tragic roleplays that character was exposed to. Like if my character was part of an RP where her closest friend died in a tragic battle, or she lost her mate in a war, then that's when I include it in the bio.


One thing I don't like is when people don't play the character they described themselves as. What I mean is, I've seen some bio's where the character description said that their character personality was "kind, sweet, loving, helpfull, shy, curtious, ect." But then when I interact with this supposedly "gentle" character, I get something totally different. They start acting all hostile, rude, disrespectful, and sometimes resort to violence that esculates to powerplaying..... Wait a minute! What happened to Miss Sunshine-daisys-SmilesAlot? She's starting to act all rough and tough, with a terrible attitude. Did I miss something here? Are you only supposed to act kind to your close friends? If so, you should put that in the bio too. Or at least write "Personality may vary".

That's all I have to write about for now.
 

[Smilodoncat]

I couldn't agree with you more! This is one thing that really has been getting on my nerves.
I mean sure your pack was killed by hunters and I guess that sucks for you, but I really can't feel sorry for you because I've heard the same story over and over again.

Want to know what's even worse? When characters with the same old cliche tragic backstory like to whine about their backstory in roleplay.
I was roleplaying with this one character once, and every single line she brought up how she was abused. She would then snap at other characters that tried to help her complaining about how they "don't know the pain she's been through!"
Finally she decided her character was gonna try and commit suicide. It was really annoying...

Not to mention she was a total Mary Sue. Now onto that topic! Mary Sues are the absolute worst to roleplay with. So I made a joke character named Ruby Magic to parody them.
Ruby Magic is a wolf/dragon/alicorn hybrid. She is the daughter of Princess Celestia and a wolf named Alpha Shadowfang. She never knew her mother and was raised in her father's pack. When she was still a pup hunters came and killed her dad and her entire pack. She was then captured by humans and taken to a laboratory. There they mixed her with dragon DNA. She managed to escape and taught herself how to hunt and fight. She is a super good fighter and nobody can beat her. She is super pretty and everyone wants her to be their mate. She is also super nice to everyone she meets, except hunters. She is really depressed all the time because her pack was killed and she was tested on and she doesn't have a mate (even though all the guys want to be her mate, they are just to shy to ask cause she's super pretty!)

Yeah...that's Ruby Magic for you...sums up a great deal of characters I think...

But back to the tragic backstories, yeah, I think it's just fine to have a tragic backstory. Quite a lot of my characters have bad backstories. However I make sure they are not cliche, and my characters certainly don't whine about them all the time.
For example, one of my characters I've been roleplaying quite a lot recently was raised on a factory farm. So her parents may or may not be dead (she never even knew them), and her life was awful growing up (even though she is not quite full grown yet you get the point).
However she's also scared of anything that moves, and has no idea how to defend herself. 
I think I did her backstory well, although I may be wrong, I'm no character making-expert. But I think her past could be considered be an example of a non-cliched sad backstory.
You'll also never catch her whining about it (she can't even really talk, anyways...)

[meeeea]

I agree with every floof that posted. Almost every single bio I have read was this "mom and dad got killed by super evil demons, ___ has to fend for herself now." I mean, really? Show some creativeness! I keep thinking of Feral Heart as "The Land of the Tragic Pasts" nowadays. None of my characters have any tragic pasts, or any super abilities. It ticks me off when I read bios like that.

Meh, short. c: