Can someone help me here?

[HawkseyesX]

I've seen all these posts about pet "personality". But I JUST DON'T GET IT! I don't see how to find any Personality in pets, I see them as pets, not real Players or anything, maybe I'm just not learned enough in the pet personality finding art, I dunno, but can someone explain to me what to look for so I can start matching personality with my pets? Thank you in advance!

[GormanGhaste]

It's just role-playing, Hawk. If that's not your thing, I wouldn't worry about it.

[HawkseyesX]

How did I not figure that thing out T.T xD ok, guess I'm one of the few Non RPers on this forum hehe. Thanks though

[Kalliope]

Also, there is PetEmote, which RPs for you.

[zedxrgal]

Another side to the coin is a bit deeper then an RP type thing. Finding a true attachment to the pixel pet as if it were a real live breathing animal in your own home. I have attachments like this to my hunters' pets. With these odd attachments each creature takes on it's own personality. This is what it is for me. A person who doesn't really RP at all. I'm sure there are other hunters out there who share this same experience.

[Neilaren]

I always think of my own experiences of "personality" weird considering that I'm not on an RP server, but some of my pets were given personalities by guild members who had also taken a liking to my pets... so at least it's not just hunters. :O

Also, I draw comics, so giving a pet a personality when its drawn is sort of a side effect.

[Kalliope]

Also, some pets define their personality by their movements/actions in game. It's completely natural and doesn't feel like RP at all.

Like certain pets pulling extra packs in instances due to strange pathing issues. Sometimes, that becomes part of their personality. *stares at Hector*

[HawkseyesX]

I'm gonna have to start studying all my pets closely now xP

[GormanGhaste]

Another side to the coin is a bit deeper then an RP type thing. Finding a true attachment to the pixel pet as if it were a real live breathing animal in your own home. I have attachments like this to my hunters' pets. With these odd attachments each creature takes on it's own personality. This is what it is for me. A person who doesn't really RP at all. I'm sure there are other hunters out there who share this same experience.

I don't do formal wow RP with other people either, but I still consider what I do in my own head a kind of RP

[Acherontia]

My pets have personality in the same way that some cars do.

I had a big gray car, an ancient station wagon BEAST that I offroaded with, and did pretty much everything you're not meant to do with a car (yes, driving wrong-way in a bus-only lane on the freeway in a foot of snow at night... sideways... is a good plan--hey, the regular freeway was blocked off). BOY did that car have personality.

It's not a hidden stat or even RP (although that's the easiest way to describe it) so much as just an impression you get from the thing.

Put it this way: imagine a fluffy pink stuffed bunny rabbit, or a knife with a Rottweiler carved into the handle. Then imagine a scarred-up leather-clad leader of a biker gang. Which is he more likely to have in his bedroom? That's what people mean when they refer to "personality," and how it matches their hunter's!

[HawkseyesX]

I actually downloaded petemote, it's so adorable <3

[Makoes]

As many have said, the personality is mostly just something(s) that they have observed their pets doing. Its not something that has has been programmed into the game, but something that each player begins to (or doesnt) notice about their pets. The personality starts to really grow and develope in the mind of the player.

When I started playing WoW during BC, I tamed a Scarlet tracking hound (at that time they were red hyenas, about lv 32) and I really liked the look of hyena's, and Nanaki became my permanent partner (this was when we still had 3 slots only, and we had to learn pet abilities from other pets). Hyena's werent exactly great or even good pets, they didnt have any outstanding stats or special speeds...No-one (that I ever saw) used a hyena, But I really liked him.

Flash forward to Cataclysm...the scarlet tracking hounds got converted to Mastiffs, my longtime partner was ripped away from me and replaced with a slobber chops ugly dog...I cried.
Sadly, and with a heavy heart I went to tanaris to camp the only "red hyena" skin in game (at the time), Slaverjaw. Many hours later he finally showed up, and I trapped him, closed my eyes and hit tame. Several moments later I opened them to see the red hyena next to me, wasting no more time I remaned him "Nanaki" and set about seeing Cata content. But this Hyena wasnt "MY" Nanaki...he just didnt "feel" right, and I wondered if my partner was truely gone...

Shadowfang keep had been upped to a heroic version, and so I decided to bring Nanaki in to give it one last chance at bonding, "My" Nanaki and I had spent so much time running SFK for worgen skins, if this didnt do it, then that was it...
The pug group was pretty nice, and we were going along smoothly until the boss in the circular room, the tank lagged out and DC'd, the boss was on the healer. I turned growl on, sent the hyena in and hoped the healer healed him. The hyena pulled the boss off the healer, and the group was great at adapting to a pet tank, after a short bit, we got the boss down.

Well, that Hyena came running back to me, slowly shrinking from Beastial Wrath to come with a Yip (that wow hyenas do) and stand at my side, he then Promptly sat down and scratched behind his ear with a look that said "Easy, what else can we kill?". I cried for joy, because thats exactly what Nanaki had always done after a good fight, yip and come stand by me and scratch his ear. Nanaki was still with me! Despite the test of our bond, he was still with me

Not everyone will develope a bond with there pets, but once you start getting a bond...Being a hunter suddenly gets so much better!

[Araela]

For me, I love the wolves. That said, I have found that Martok (my King Krush devilsaur) is HILARIOUS. I use him in PVP, and he'll go and chomp on someone's face, kill them, and then come running back with a gleeful roar as he falls into step at my side. It's like, "Look Mom! I killed it!!!" He's so funny!

It's an RP thing, but I've found that a lot of my pets have fun animations that seems to bring them to life a bit more. Hope that helps!

[Snowwalker]

Yeah, pet personality is just something that is 'there' either from the beginning, or from a situation. While waiting to greet Hawkbane's homecoming, for fun I tamed one of the lavander [supposedly white] warpstalkers. And while I don't usualy give my pets funny names, I named him Moochie. Well, we went to Upguard Keep, last boss, and the tank dies. I switched Mooch into tank mode and let him rip. When the dust settled, that prissy purple warpie was the one left standing. Now he has since shed his color a few times and is currently blue, but that never say die, I will eat your face personality remains. And to this day, if I want someone that can go in and take charge, it's Mooch. Not to mention he sounds so ferocious doing it, I love it.

[Wain]

It's simple anthropomorphism

Humans see human traits in the actions of animals, even if they aren't really exhibiting them. Even pretend animals. Hell, even non-living objects (like Acherontia and her car). Some people do it more than others, and some people interpret things entirely differently, but it's a very natural human trait to do so and it's not a conscious choice to do so, it just happens. For example someone might see a cat that doesn't show them affection as "dignified", someone else might see it as "aloof", someone else as sociopathic. In reality it's probably not any of those things and they're all projections in our own minds. Same with in-game pets

[Corpsebryde]

Pet personality is something I've always seen in my pets in game but especially in Vanilla and BC when you could only have 3 pets and you still had to tame others in order to learn new skills; so really you could only have 1 or 2 pets. Because of this a lot of people really bonded with those pixels. A lot of hunters would become quite angry if their pet was killed, especially in PvP; I was one of them.

You also didn't spend a lot of time in cities back then except to train, trade or find groups. I was out in the world constantly. I had to level this pet, build his/her loyalty, feed it with my cooking/fishing skills and share my adventures throughout Azeroth with it. The first pet I truly bonded with was on my first character I created back in 2005, a dwarf named Korvan. As soon as he finished the quest chain to learn how to tame pets at level 10 he ran out and tamed a simple snow leopard and named him Avalanche.

Korvan and Avalanche did everything together! They made the dangerous trek from Dun Morogh to Darkshore to quest at level 10. They explored the hidden secrets of the game through wall jumping; like the Ironforge Airport, under Stormwind, etc. They raided together in BC and tried arenas for the first time. Avalanche was even there through the hell that was grinding for the Winterspring Frostsaber back when it was only 50 and 75 reputation per quest turn in. There hasn't been one journey that Avy hasn't experienced with Korvan.

Like others before me have said, it really is something that develops. I will admit that it is a lot harder for me since we've gotten 25 stable slots and no longer have to feed, level or build loyalty with our pets. Having so many it really does make them seem like inanimate pixels. It's very difficult for me to bond with pets now and it saddens me. I really miss the fun I had with Avalanche.

[Equeon]

I say personality develops from your experience with the pet. Theoretical situation:

You're in the Strand of the Ancients battle, and the enemy has breached the gates all the way to the relic room. With five seconds left to spare, an enemy warrior leaps over the traps you've set as his friends take on those who've fallen back to the stairs, charging ahead towards you. Your pet <species> stops him just in time, using <ability> The timer hits 0 seconds and you've won the battle, all thanks to <pet name>

Those kind of awesome moments strengthen the bond between you and your pet. My Jadefang was reason I was able to obtain my red proto-drake: no other pet could tank those old heroics nearly as well as him. Or the time when my scarab beetle had to tank Anub'arak after the tank went AFK... it was like he was rebelling against his own kind! That's what "personality" means to me.

[Lupis]

I'm one of those weird people that roleplays, loves her pets…

And feels absolutely no attachment to them.

To me, they're pixels and memories. Some of them are pretty pixels. Some of them are fun memories. But even though I think my pets are special to me, they're not even close to "alive" in my mind.

It's strange, because I adore pets and I adore my pets in WoW… But they're without personality to me. Pixels with a few memories hanging off.

So basically, you don't have to feel attachment to pets. It's something that some people have. Personally, I don't, but that doesn't mean I don't love them. I just don't feel any attachment to them.

[Finduilas]

I'm a burning crusade girl. We had limited stable slots and my Orc hunter was (and still is) VERY attached to his durotar tiger Arod. All screenshots I have from my burning crusade and most lichking time, are with Arod in them. They did everything together. Quests, dungeons, pvp (lots of pvp) and like Corpsbryde I got VERY VERY MAD if everyone harmed Arod or any other tigers. When doing the rep grind for the talbuks in Nagrand, you have to kill these Ogers, and the Ogers have tiger fur hung up in their caves. I took this as personal insult against Arod and his family. I was happily slaying Ogers where somebody else would see a boring grind, I took revenge. When Cata came and the Durotar tigers were removed my worst fear was to have Arod removed. But I was happy and he still was in my stables and waiting for me. Arod and I have such a strong bond, I even have a toy-tiger in rl named Arod and when I see a tiger in the zoo I'm all "Hey look, there's Arod!".
The pets I have the longest, are the ones I feel most attached to, and they have more personality than the pets I only tamed recently. Some pets develop personality for me (like my warpstalker Dobby, I talked about him in the random appreciation thread) and most of my spirit beasts. For some pets it takes a release and a retame (like Findu's white cat Idefix) for otheres a simple name-change or just a different color. My Tauren's rhino changed from skin to skin until I finally settled on white, and it was only because she was still attacked by the dragons in Stormpeaks after the tame. This made her special and I had the feeling she just wanted to get away from cold and snow and dragons.
I think personality is much about how you feel connected to your hunter. If your hunter is just a toon you play it's different if it's a hunter with personality and special feelings or behavior about certain things. I never played on a roleplay server, but even on a normal server for me my hunters are very different and so are their pets.

[Crotalus Horridus]

I once had a pet with a personality, his name was Kronkar.
He was a Bronze Horde Scorpid (The Common One), but I eventually got rid of him seeing as I barely used him anymore. However, he will come back in MoP, as the Amber Scorpids in Dread Waste. I pictured him as brave but at the same time weak. He was a little full of himself and thought he could do anything.