Effective immediately, players are no longer required to submit a biography to get a character onto the OtherSpace grid. Players can create a character, go aboard Sol Station, pick their race and gender, and then head onto the grid to start their adventure in the Orion Arm.
Players who submit biographies are rewarded with bonus Saga Points, though.
The prospect of dropping the gate like this is scary for an old-timer like me, but I’ve given it a lot of thought and decided that it’s probably easier to get (and keep) new blood by lowering that barrier. It’s also possible that we’ll just see someone make a quick-dash character, try to get involved in RP, find it’s not their style, and quit. That’s a risk worth taking, I think.