WoW habits

[Torleth]

Hello Petopians

I am here to ask for your help, my Media Studies coursework requires me to do some research on how much of themselves do different players invest into their characters, as in giving themselves personalities etc or whether they just play the game.

So I would really appreciate your help

Thanks to those of you who take the time to answer these questions

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

Thank you again give as much or as little detail as you wish.

Torleth

[Vephriel]

Excellent! Something to keep me occupied for a bit at work.

1. Age?
18 - 25 (specifically 23)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
I think I do to a degree. Often when playing games where you have customization as an option I've always liked making my character look similar to myself in real life. Not really sure why, it's not as though it's a vanity thing, I suppose I just like to relate directly to my main character so I want to make it look like myself as much as possible.

I play at least one of each race from my faction in game (some are males too), but my main character is always the one that really stands out as most important. I'm very intrigued and drawn to the Blood Elves as a race. Their dark history, strong willpower, and overall attitudes appeal to me. I don't see them as the stereotyped blonde barbie-dolls that are so easily portrayed, I rather have my own view of them as the dark/gothic elves in the game world.

As for being a hunter, I am always immediately drawn to any sort of animal or pet related classes in games. I've been an animal lover my entire life, so naturally when I found out that Hunters in WoW could go and tame whatever beasts they wanted to as companions I was hooked. If that sort of aspect did not exist then I would probably be running around as a Druid instead, but the Hunter is much more appealing to me.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
I had a vague understanding of the two factions from the previous Warcraft games that I would always watch my boyfriend play. I was never under the delusion of Good Faction vs. Evil Faction, there are gradient aspects to each.

I was drawn to the Horde overall for the rich character traits that each of its races have. For me the Alliance races overall held no interest or appeal to me, whereas the Horde had such a conglomeration of mixed races, all of which had storylines that I found vastly more interesting than any Alliance counterpart. It's just a personal preference. I can't empathize with any Alliance characters, they bore me, and therefore I have no luck trying to play that faction. I'm more drawn in by the raw struggles that encompass the Horde and the tapestry their history creates.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
I definitely do, even though it's not in a strict roleplaying sense. Everything just comes together in my head for personalities, backstories, etc. I use them sometimes when I write stories, or when explaining my pets and such to others, but mostly it's a personal aspect of the game that is largely experienced only by myself. I could never play a game like World of Warcraft without that sort of immersion, and I really enjoy brainstorming on such things even if no one else truly sees them.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
I've never gone this far in terms of associating my character with the gameplay. Although I do like imagining a story though my character's eyes, I will always do every quest I can and am a little less immersive in that degree. If I specifically rolled on a Roleplaying server with every intention to be In Character at all times then yes, I probably would consider the above circumstances and act accordingly. Since I'm not 'acting' as Vephriel on my realm aside from the occasional fun then I don't weigh those actions so heavily.

[Raydex-of-the-dawn]

1. Age? 13 - 17 (14 tomorrow 8D)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits? I adore animals and skill, so I chose a hunter. So yes, I'd say that.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil? Because my sister, who bought me the game, wanted me to make an elf. And because I based my main after a story.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
Yes. Oh god yes. I could literally toss dozens of 2-10 page shorts about all of them at you. See, there's Rayd, who's a slightly eccentric hunter obsessed with two things - animals and explosives. Despite this, she is an herbalist, which she became after an...unfortunate...incident involving Amberseed. Her familiar is a wind serpent named Deadlock, though she has a variety of animal companions. Her close friend, Drassil, is a Druid of the Talon who absolutely hates Zangarmarsh, but stays there helping her druid kin (for loot). They're accompanied by Varali, a worgen Demo warlock, and Garwal, another worgen (class?) who is very brain-dead (like a dog XD), who basically attacked Rayd, and who ended up as her pet for some time before Drass made her get rid of him. He now follows Varali around, and Varali is in the process of teaching him speech. Mockingbirds is a Death Knight who also hangs with the group. She is a tank, and she is accompanied by a zombie (Unholy). She was a hunter in her past life, but now dabbles in necromancy instead. The last group member is Voltera, a blood elf, who doesn't really associate with them at all but who is the owner of Deadlock's mate Sunbind, and who hates Rayd's guts (they were involved in a skirmish once).

They are based off characters from an ongoing story I've worked on for some time.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

I don't go to Icecrown a lot because it's not Rayd's sort of place. Drass hates Zangar but went there for a level anyhow...Rayd will never get Wrathgate because some of the quests in it go against her animal-adoring nature...

[Teigan]

.

[KingCharr]

1. Age? 13 - 17

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

Yes, the Trolls are something that really appeals to me, with their tusks and voodoo, and before that the Tauren, with their horns and an interesting nomadic outlook. Hunters, because I like the whole pets thing, and ranging from a distance can be nice. I like to hunt in real life so it's cool. And a Death Knight, because of their awesome necromantic abilities and general badassery.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

I chose Horde because of their awesome looks and "darker" ways. However, I personally see the Alliance as the evil side. Their recent actions, especially regarding the Goblin slave ship shows they are not the good people they project. And, really playing a human or a shorter bearded one, or an even shorter one just shows a lack of imagination and creativity in my opinion. (They only gave the Alliance Worgen to stop nabs QQing, and then foisted Goblins onto us. They're green gnomes, for goodness sake.)

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

Not often. Sometimes, when I'm creating an alt, or taming a pet I may give it some background, but after a while I just shove it and grind.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

No. I base my characters off of me, in certain ways. If I'd do it, they'd do it. Possibly happier to do so, such as my Death Knight aimlessly slaughtering willy-nilly, not something I'd personally do.)

[Gumballs]

1. Age?

18-26 (specifically 18)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

Hm... not particularly. My first character was a male undead warrior. I picked male undead because I thought they looked cool and I liked their laugh, and I chose a warrior because that's what my boyfriend played at the time and I thought his was really cool. My second level 80 is a female troll hunter, which I guess somewhat based on my own personality more as I am both a lover of bright colours (and trolls are bright mon!) and an animal lover, and she is both. I have other classes and races of both genders that I pick based on looks mostly.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

My first character was a night elf hunter that I created on my boyfriends account around 5 years ago. I created her because we were staying at my aunts house and they both played Alliance, and night elves were the best choice in my opinion (out of the 4 available at that time). Afterwards, I created Hordies because my boyfriend and my real life friends played Horde. I honestly didn't know about the good vs. evil 'theme' or really anything about WoW lore when I started playing, so that didn't influence me, it was mostly because Horde looked cooler and my friends played it.

My heart still lies with the Horde, especially now that I have gotten into lore and RP. I do like draenei and night elves, and to a certain extent gnomes, but overall the Alliance is too... normal, for me to really like them.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

Yes.... a lot. I don't RP in game (I would like to try sometime!) but I have participated in many RPs on forums, including Azeroth 20 Years Later, the longest running RP on the Wowhead forums which made it to almost 2000 pages I believe and lasted for nearly a year in real time. All of my characters (aside from my warrior for some reason, probably because I see him as ME) have backstories and personalities. They have likes, dislikes, hobbies, everything. And generally I'm the only person who really sees that. I am first and foremost an artist and a english fanatic, so I think its impossible for me to play a game such as this and not just dive right into it.

Specifically, the majority of my characters are little sides or personality traits that I have, just blown up to an extreme. For example:

Praey (female troll priest): The sexy side of me, very daring and flirty.

Ashiena (female troll hunter): The caring side of me, enjoys life, laughter and animals/kids.

Gumballs (male undead warrior): The fighting side of me, he's a scrapper haha.

Llynarai (female blood elf priest): The miserable side of me, she is always pissed.

Zah'vi (female undead/troll rogue): The remorseless side of me, she is violent and has no morals.

Combine these characters with the dozen or so other ones I have, and you basically have myself. Note that I didn't do this intentionally... someone pointed it out to me after about a year of RPing together, and I couldn't believe how true it was. So for this I would say yes, 100%, my characters personalities are based of my own perceptions of myself and different sides of me.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

Nope. If a quest tells me to kill something, I kill it. This probably is because I have never RP'd in game, but either way I think I would just separate game mechanic from my characters lore.

[Saturo]

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer
45+. 

Nah, I'm 18-25, 18 to be precise. 
2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
Class? Kinda'. I'm not much like a hunter IRL, but warlocks and deathknights I can agree with a bit. I think they are very cool, so to speak. 

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
To some extent. I started out as Alliance because they looked nicer, but I went past that around the ending of vanilla. Now I prefer Horde, the good side! :D

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
Definitely. My warlock for example is a member of several "evil" groups, like the Twilight's Hammer. She even has various insignia! :D
My Petopians hunter, Stereoptic, is a Farstrider who turned mercenary after the fall of Quel'Thalas. 
I'm not much on pet-RP tough. The most I have so far is for my Gondria, and I posted that bad story up here a loong time ago. xD

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
Not really. Though one of my Petopians characters got to level fourth without killing a single mob! xD 
But no, I don't do that regularly. Not even occasionally. Very, very rare. Ovaktalo (petopians druid) wouldn't hurt anything that didn't deserve hurting tough. He's quick to rush into oomkin against demons and undead, but he'll leave living stuff alive, even if it tries hurting him. 

[Kira]

Ohhh, this should be fun.

1. Age?
18 -25. I'm 22.

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
Uh...sorta? First class I fell in love with was my DK. And the Drae race..just cause they're so tall..and have tails..and horns..and generally make me happy! I still love my DK, I just don't get to play her..my newest adored character is mah hunter. I think that's definatly close to my personality.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
Had a friend that was horde that ignored me...so I tried out Alliance. Made great friends, had a lot of fun..so I adore Alliance. That being said...I can't stand Wrynn's ideals, but I adore Thrall's. So...no, there's no good vs evil for me.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
...Muahaha, you want Details? Okay. First character made was a Drae mage..she made it to northrend then I kinda gave up. Then came my Drae DK. Same appearance, same hair as my mage...so..she became my mage, who died in northrend while fighting Arthas. Long story coming through, and Tada, DK is fighting against Arthas' forces.
Have a story for my Warlock too, and my druid...and even my Hunter! But..I don't want to spam the board, lol.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
DK dislikes Priests, only liked one or two that she met before she died. It's the entire 'holy light vs. undead creature' thing so...I don't enjoy having priest healers (she's a tank) but Pally's are fine!
Lock is 'I'll group with you to get the job done, and then I'm leaving.' thing. Hates other people, so I rarely go into dungeons and do not group quest with her.
Druid...lots of dungeons, pvp, general killing things. She's still got her feral spec so..
Hunter. Eh..she's more worried that her pets are happy than anything else. And if that means killing then..whatever, she'll do it.

[Torleth]

Thank you all very much for the level of detail in the responses Hope none of you mind me quoting some of the things you have said!

[Teigan]

.

[Azunara]

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer

13-17/ (15 here. I can proudly proclaim myself as one of the youngest here. Raydex has me beat, though.)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

Nah, if anything, my main is based off my sister. She's goofy, hyper, and is an all out cheerful person. Of course, my hunter takes my impatience and irritableness, so somewhat.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

Nope. I chose night elves cause they were pretty. I came into the game knowing NO lore, and I think elves are neat. So I chose NE. Of course, I picked hunter because who DOESN'T love running around with a giant animal? However, I later picked druid because I wanted more variety.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

Yes. Ready?

Firewing is tough, gruff, and irritable. She shows little affection unless it's to her cousin or her pets. Her parents were killed when she was young.

Azunara is a bit more in-depth. When she was young, her father was killed trying to cleanse Duskwood from the Nightmare Dragon. He failed, and perished. Years later, he was raised as a death knight. Azunara was part of a merc. camp for a while, which had two main factions. She had suffered an odd curse that caused her to be a feral killer, and nearly killed Firewing. When her mind was cleared, she felt a need for revenge, wanting to kill the one who caused this. After multiple attempts to destroy her enemy, he captured her and eventually she was freed. After a few near death escapes, she grew powerful enough to kill him...only to have him vanish without a trace. Beyond that, Azunara is relatively cheerful, upbeat, but haunted by the past events. This transfers to an extreme distrust of gnomes.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

Not really, however if I thought about, Firewing would avoid anything that involved hurting a red dragon, and Azunara wouldn't do anything to harm the Balance or heal others. She has an extreme dislike of healing.

[VelkynKarma]

I'd be happy to help

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer
I'm 22, but I've been playing since I was 19 if that helps.

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
Not really, no. My first character that I really played was a male blood elf (I'm female, for the record), which is about as opposite of my personality as possible. He gained his own RP personality after a while that is very much not my own. Most of my other race/class combos gain their own personalities as well, regardless of whether or not I act them out. Some of them might have things in common with me, but they mostly get their personalities based on what happens in-game. I don't think I chose any of them because of my personality traits.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
Technically I picked my primary faction, Horde, because my friends who introduced me to the game played Horde characters. However, I don't really see a good vs evil dynamic in the game. Both factions have their own ideas regarding honor, justice, pride, etc etc, and no race consists wholly of 'good' or 'evil' beings. There are really evil humans, and there are really good humans. There are really evil tauren, and there are really good tauren. Etc etc.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
Absolutely I do! Characters often develop their own personalities as I play them, even if I have a vague idea of where to start. Things happen in-game that end up affecting their personalities. For example, when I was leveling my rogue with a friend in Thousand Needles he kept getting feared by scorpids, while she never did. It ended up turning into a scorpid phobia for him, and I always have him /cower when he gets near a scorpid now, or back away from one. Another example is my undead mage. I started originally leveling him as a fire mage, but it was very difficult as far as mechanics went, and some guildies suggested I switch to frost. Mechanics-wise, this was much easier for me. Story-wise, it developed into a part of his history. He originally trained as an apprentice mage specializing in Fire when he was still alive. When the Plague hit him, he managed to pull through and join the Forsaken, but the coldness of death made it much harder for him to access his natural talent for Fire magic. Instead, Frost magic began to get much easier for him because of his undead status, and he has now honed frost magic to an art.

Pets work basically the same way for me. I'll pick a pet for a particular skin, but they develop their own personality as they go (and addons like PetEmote really help with this). Silinrul wanted a red hyena for example, which I tamed solo at level 34. But it turned into a whole story when she was assigned to a recon mission, saw the scarlet hounds being mistreated, and decided to rescue one. He turned into a very loyal pet in the end. Or Taigi's recently aquired Aotona, which already has a personality; it took her forever to spawn, and she only came out when the half-dozen volunteers I had recruited for camping weren't there and the Basin was quiet. She's turned into a very shy little creature, which was only reinforced by her constantly hiding her head under her wing every time she sees other guildies.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
Sometimes. It depends on the character, since I have half a dozen alts that I play seriously. There's also a degree of interest in each quest for every character. What I mean is, my tauren hunter Taigi might only reluctantly work with the Forsaken in Northrend because they're part of an alliance, so it's a duty but one she doesn't relish. She does the job, but not happily. By contrast, my undead mage gets MUCH more into the Forsaken quests and does them gleefully, because it's 'his people.'

I think it's important to note the opposite happens too; sometimes I will do things my character would do, that I normally wouldn't. For example, my blood elf rogue is a bit of a playah. The other day when I was doing the Zalazane quests, I intentionally picked only female trolls to recruit, and /flirted with all of them (and actually got rejected a few times too, the trolls shook their fingers at me lol). I am normally not nearly so brazen, but Saor is, so it's all good XP Of course, I'll only do these sorts of things among friends or alone, since I don't want to annoy other players.

Hope this helps

~VelkynKarma

[Wassa]

1. Age?
18 - 25 (24)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
The two main classes I play are druids and hunters. I do love animals so I think that was a major choice in playing both. For race, I randomly made different race/class combos on my first RP server and ended up loving troll lore and RPing one.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
I started out as an orc for one reason, I wanted a wolf mount! I didn't care if horde was the "evil" faction.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
I do. I play on an RP server so it's normal to give your characters personalities and backstories. Wassa Ji'ro, for example, is from the Shatterspear Tribe in Darkshore. If you see the tribe before Cataclysm hits they are a friendly tribe that dance all night and day, so Wassa is laid back and a bit happy-go-lucky. Her mother is Una Ji'ro, a named NPC in the town that looks like her, just with an older looking face.

Not all hunters on RP servers give all their pets personalities, but with addons like tongues and petemote it helps. I no longer use petemote but I use tongues to make my pets talk. Wassa, from hanging around with Hahadori most of her life, can understand bird and they can hold a convo together using that addon.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
I refused to do the Argent Tournament daily that make you collect tallstrider meat. "Dey asked MEH tah get dem tallstridah meat when Hahadori ish standin' RITE NEXT TAH MEH! Dem Sunreavahs kin all STARVE tah death fah all meh care!"

[Worba]

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits? Broadly speaking, no, since I play almost everything... though for some reason I do prefer playing my orc when I'm feeling grumpy.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil? I definitely don't see it as good/evil, and as above I play both factions, but I probably lean toward horde a bit... probably because for the most part they are much less "pretty".

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details). Hmmm. Well I do, but only for hunters - mainly because it helps the hunter and his pets feel more cohesive I suppose; I used to spend countless hours staring at the pets gallery and trying to think of which pets seemed "cool" together, and then usually some background would come to mind that would explain who the hunter was and how he came by his menagerie - almost always something based more in traditional mythology than WoW, per se - not sure why but I've never really bought into the actual WoW storyline that strongly.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes? No. Other than coming up with the occasional character background, which I generally keep to myself, I'm not into roleplaying.

[Antares]

1. Age?
26-34 (28)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
I tend to think of myself as containing both good and evil qualities. So, when I choose a Race/Class I look for some of myself in the choices. I usually play Races that look the least human. PC games are an escape for me. I spend all day as boring old human. Why would I want to play one in-game? The exception to that rule are the Blood Elves. I love delving into their history, culture and lore. I find their addiction to fel magics intriguing.

As for being a hunter, I am always immediately drawn to any sort of animal or pet related classes in games. I've been an animal lover my entire life, so naturally when I found out that Hunters in WoW could go and tame whatever beasts they wanted to as companions I was hooked. If that sort of aspect did not exist then I would probably be running around as a Druid instead, but the Hunter is much more appealing to me.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (Alliance vs Horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as Good vs Evil?
When I first started playing, I chose Horde because my understanding of the game, early on was that Horde was "Evil" and Alliance was "good." Of course, once I started playing and questing, I realized it was more or less reverse and that most of the races were guided by their own goals and that none were innately evil per se. Also: My boyfriend played Horde.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
I used to, when I first started. The last game I played was very player-driven. WarCraft already has an established lore. I don't really have to build up a background for my character. I do create little personality traits or vague backgrounds for my toons...But that's just for me. For example, my PvP hunter I think of as older because his hair is white.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
Nope, not really. Some pets, companions or mounts I won't get if I feel they don't seem very "Warlocky" or "Tauren-ish" etc.

[Moonlost]

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer
21, turning 22 later this year.

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
Generally I don't. I'm a roleplayer at heart, I've been RPing for most of my life. As a result make my characters based off of character ideas I have.
But it can be argued that I am a little biased towards my own personal likes or dislikes. My main, Durana, has stayed my main for four years now, and you can argue that she has a lot in common with me. I also tend to drift more toward animal related classes and I've rolled more hunters and druids than any other class in the past. But I have a lot of characters, each different and many of them completely different from my own likes and dislikes.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
I really didn't way too much attention to faction to begin with. I was more interested in race. I've always had a fondness for dwarves, and I enjoyed the dwarf area, so I stuck with it. I also made a lot of friend alliance side, so I stuck with it. Again, it's pretty much the same with all my characters. I choose based on race and character concept. And I should note that I never look at things based on good verses evil. I find the concepts a little dull and, well, black and white. I also had prior knowledge of the true nature of the horde having played Warcraft 3 prior to playing WoW.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
YES. Oh goodness yes. XD
99% of the characters I make have backstories, the ones that don't develop them as I play. Most of their tales and personalities are for my own enjoyment, I don't think I'll be writing about them soon. But making my character an actual character helps me click with them, and I have way more fun with them that way.
As for pets, most of them do have personalities. It's hard not to give them some character when they're wandering by your side all the time. As for backstories, well it depends on the pet. Pets that I love, such as Zephiel my Spirit Beast, do develop stories that twist and intermingle deeply with Durana's own. But most of my pets don't have a backstory much more complicated than "Durana found *Blah* in the wild, helped it out in some way and tamed it."

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
Generally not. Although I do make up rich backstories for my toons, I tend to play the game straight. There have been one or two occassions, but those were with very specific characters.

[cowmuflage]

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer
Gah 20 so old lolburgers!

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?
Er nope i chose Cowmuflage as my first ever wow toon cos the idea of being a GIANT TALKING COW WITH A GUN was too badass to ignore.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?
I chose Horde becouse cows are Horde XD. But then again I don't care much for factions that are "shiney" and that evey one thinks are good becosue of that reason I:e some alliance players i have seen.
Its odd becouse I tend to like most "evil" sides in games and movies as they tend to have uniforms and stuff like Stormtroopers and Dark elder and things with spikes and skulls on there armour like Chaos space marines!
I see Horde the same as Chaos worshipers in warhammer they seem evil and seem to do evil things in some peoples eyes I:e Vodoo but infact are really the same as the so called "goodies" the chaos marines are just doing thoses things becouse their religen says they should. Just like the crusades in real life! They can be seens as good or bad.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)
Not really i don't roleplay. Only thing I have done is say cowmuflage is a Grimtotem as they are the only tribe of all black cows. I give my pets names i think are cool. Like my fav pet my red crab is called Citerzensnips after that one Futurama episode. I named my red hyena DrFeelGood after a song i thougt fitted hyenas well and my bug Xeno as they kind of are like aliens lol.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?
Lol nope. I'll do anything and i mean anything

[Turgus]

Ok, here goes...

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer

26-34

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

Yes, I would say that everyone picks their character because of their own personality. If this coincides with their actual personality is another story.

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

There is no such thing as good and evil. It is just a label that "we" place on things.
(I could go on, but this is not the forum for it)

I chose my faction because of the story behind them.
I like the story of the Horde, especially the ones behind the leaders.
Thrall, Vol'jin, Cairne and Sylvanas are all awesome.
While on the other-hand the Alliance leaders well, don't stand out as awesome characters to me.
They really don't seem to be trying to accomplish much, aside from trying to kill the Horde.
What Thrall is trying to do with the Horde on the other hand is awesome, and it is what got me immersed into the game.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

I have written a few short-stories about my hunter and his main pet Chomper. (King Krush)
But, only he and his pets really have any kind of personality to them.
Of course these are just projections of various portions of my personality, but again, this is not the forum.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

No. My characters "personality" does not have a life of its own.
Since it is just a refection of myself, it follows that anything I would do, my character would do, and not vice-versa.

I think that does it.

[Galahandra]

1. Age?

21, soon to be 22.

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

Race rise I do tend to pick the more human looking ones, opting for Humans and Dwarfs over most else. Class wise I do tend to stick to the same ones - going for hunters, priests, druids and death knights. I like the idea of bringing buffs and debuffs into the fights (BM/Frost/Disc/Balance) and being able to help the group out by giving them certain buffs

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

My first ever characters were dwarven an human, mainly because I thought they looked good, but I never really got into them. It was because of the Night Elf starting area that I continued playing, as I thought it was absolutely sublime.

I think Good vs Evil is definitely a grey area within WoW. Mostly because each faction is clearly capable of both. We have characters whose morality is put into question, Varian (Battle for Undercity) and Sylvanas (Anyone who's played the Worgen starting area/Silverpine Forest) will see. We do inevitably have the archetype of good vs evil in the game too though, for example, the Naaru and the Burning Legion. If I had to pick between the two main factions of labelling either good or evil, I would side with the Horde as being good and the Alliance as being evil.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

Yes, they do! It's usually about 20 or so levels in when I choose a back story for my characters, as by this point I've decided my character is worth leveling up. I have a farmer, a chef, an ambassador, a huntress with a penchant for bombs, a stoic member of the Argent Dawn...got quite alot really.

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

Well, yes and no. Prime example is the torture quest in Borean Tundra. A few of my characters would never do this, them being the Druids, but I'll do them for the sake of exp and quest rewards.

[Dragon616]

1. Age? 13 - 17 18 - 25 26 - 34 35 - 44 45+ prefer not to answer

Age 18-25 (Actually 21)

2. Do you think you chose your class/race because of your own personality traits?

In essence I believe all my choices were effected that way. First was my warrior, big tough guy with a soft spot for nature(Being a Night Elf). That also brought on my Tauren druid and his feral spec. Admittedly I kinda made my Blood Elf (aka one of the more tortured races imo) DK when I was feeling depress like a month after wrath started and guild things blew up in my face. My Draenei paladin came after that, found a new guild and friends, so being a happy holy protector just made everything better. And more recently I've come to appreciate the animals in my life after the death of a valued family member, and made me want to make a hunter, which if I recall correctly was when I signed up here. Although I had a hunter before hand, I didn't treasure him as much as I will my new one. Cause you don't know what you had till its gone right?

3. Why did you choose your faction? Did the perceived good vs evil (alliance vs horde) sway your decision in any way or did you not see it as good vs evil?

I play both sides, being a lore nut I know that neither are good or evil, they are merely trying to survive the events set in motion by higher/more evil beings than them.

4. Do you give your characters (or pets) personalities and/or background stories? (please give details)

Oh do they ever, I could write for hours on this, but I'll give you the basic run down.

Malkyor, Night Elf Warrior: A fledgling druid stripped of his powers at a young age, feral instincts still intact he became a warrior and later join the Cenarion Cirlce and its activities.

Jorend, Tauren Druid: An old tauren that helped with the founding of Thunderbluff, he was one of the first trained by Archdruid Runetotem. His interests are those of people, where ever you can find Tauren you can be sure The Beast of Mulgore will be there if peril arises.

Karthalos, Blood Elf Death Knight: A highelf that fight in the third was against Arthas, he was killed defending the Sunwell. His corpse made it back to Northrend via Meat Wagon transport. Where he was raised along with other Blood Elves to become part of the Darkfallen. He was promoted to Darkfallen Warlord shortly after for his martial prowess, and trained under Blood Prince Taldaram for a short while learning to bring forth fire from blood. He was transferred to Ebon Hold shortly before the events at Light's Hope Chapel.

Aurran, Draenei Paladin: Born on Argus, a few years before the exodus of the Draenei from Argus. His parents were killed during the escape, but with the help of Valen he survived. After that he grew into a fine young draenei, but before long he heard the Naru call to him. He learned their ways, and wielded the light as a Protector of his people. After crash landing in Azeroth, he found the Argent Dawn. He believed their cause to be just and righteous so from then on he has served with unwavering faith, to Northrend and into ICC as well.

Marrok, Worgen Hunter: A knight of the Gilnean Court, infected with the worgen taint by his lover whom he endlessly seeks to find in all the madness around him.

Genzo, Goblin Shaman: An enterprising young goblin that learned that there is money to be had if you can control the elements. Over time his elemental powers grew and used them to become a CEO at a major company on Kezan. Then we all know what happened after that...

5. Are there things ingame you won't do because you feel your character wouldn't do? e.g. Quests, killing certain mobs or going to certain zones, grouping with other races or classes?

Of course, what and who varies from each toon though.