I was contemplating old characters from various games recently and whether I have a “type” of character that I prefer to play. I have a lot of characters in a lot of MMOs now, too many to list or think about but I think there’s some commonalities between most of them.
Non-human race/species
Most of my cherished characters are non-human. I play MMORPGs, in part, for escapism and selecting a non-human race or species is part of that.
Sarnaks are awesome
Tall or small
In games where there’s a taller than average race I’ve often chosen that. I guess it’s linked to the above. I’m average height in real life so I don’t think there’s any deep meaning to this. I have occasionally chosen small characters but only if the race is insufferably cute without being merely a “mini human”.
Pint-sized but deadly
Ranged DPS or caster DPS
For years in WoW and other games I always preferred to play ranged characters. I didn’t like tanking and wasn’t keen on playing stealth/rogue characters either. I’ve always loved playing healers though and have healers in most of the games I’ve played for any length of time.
Caster DPS was my MMO style
So here’s the list of characters by game (games sorted alphabetically). I’ve listed the characters I’ve played the most – not necessarily the highest level but those that I’ve spent the most time actively playing.
Everquest 2 – Sarnak Shadowknight, Human Inquisitor
Guild Wars 2 – Asura Mesmer, Charr Necromancer
Lord of the Rings Online – Human Champion, Elven Minstrel
Neverwinter – Elven Wizard, Dwarven Cleric
Rift – Kelari (Elven) Cleric, Bahmi Warrior
Star Trek Online – Klingon Tactical Officer
SWTOR – Togruta Shadow, Mirialan Sage
Tera – Baraka Priest
The Secret World – Human Blade/Hammer
Wildstar – Mordesh Engineer, Chua Spellslinger
World of Warcraft – Draenei Shaman, Night Elf Druid
So I do play the occasional Human character (LOTRO and EQ2) but usually that is because of F2P race restrictions (EQ2 when F2P launched) or lack of other choices (TSW – humans only).
I have plenty of tall/big characters – both characters in WoW, my Bahmi Warrior in Rift, my Baraka in Tera, my Sarnak in EQ2, the various Elves that I’ve played. The two most notable small characters are my Chua in Wildstar and my Asura in GW2. Sometimes there isn’t a tall or small option; in TSW all characters are pretty average height-wise.
The ranged/caster DPS bias was an older play style that I seem to have broken out of. My LOTRO Champ was my first ever main character that was melee in any MMO. I just went for a character that the forums suggested as an easy intro to the game’s combat and I’ve stuck with it throughout 101 levels. I’ve since learned to love playing tankish characters like the Shadowknight in EQ2, my Blade/Hammer character in TSW and most recently a Shadow tank in SWTOR.
Do you have a certain characteristics common among your MMO characters?
GamingSF 
I’ve long enjoyed analyzing patterns in what we play in RPGs.
Generally I’ll try to make my characters as different from my real self as possible. A different gender or species, usually. On the rare occasions I play a human male I’ll tend to make them a different ethnicity. My main in TSW is black, for instance.
I tend to lean toward female characters these days. One of the main reasons for this is that I like to play lithe, agile characters, and in a lot games the male character models are more in the “Hulk smash” category. Where it’s possible to play males that aren’t steroid-abusing meat mountains (like TSW and SW:TOR), I’m a lot more likely to play males.
My fondness for tradition also plays a big role. These days I have a mostly set archetype I just keep going to, of which my rogue in WoW is the progenitor. A tough-looking woman with dark hair and oddly coloured eyes.
When it comes to game mechanics, I’m greedy. I like a bit of everything. I love being able to combine melee and ranged abilities, and a mix of physical and magical damage can also be nice. When I can make my own build, I usually go for something like a battlemage. My favourite build in TSW uses blades and blood magic.
In games with set classes, I’ll usually go for a rogue or something similar as my main, and a spellcaster for my primary alt. A rogue because I like fast-paced, agile melee DPS, and rogue is usually the only option for that (I’m actually not that fond of the sneaky side of such classes). A caster because magic is pretty. Tend to prefer shadow or “evil” magic where possible.
If it’s an option, I love melee/ranged hybrid classes. I think my all-time favourite MMO class was Neverwinter’s hunter ranger. I went for a build that focused on swapping between the melee and ranged stances as much as possible. Nothing like bouncing around the battlefield like a pinball, rushing in as a tempest of steel and then bolting back to range and unleashing a volley of arrows before the enemy can react.
My main character in basically any RPG is always one of a few templates depending on what classes are available. Basically “Shandren, the bard/rogue-ish”, “Tywin (name not related to GoT) the Paladin” or “Friedrach the warrior/commander”, all of them human males but of various ages and alignments/worldview.
I always prefer to main a tank in MMORPGs so I often end with one of the two latter in such games. I dabble in alts of all classes but almost always stick to humans, except for race locked classes or to try out starting areas. For alternate races my least favourite are the very small or large ones.
Healing is by far my least played role, probably even still below support at this point even after 10 years of wow. As mentioned above tanking is my favourite role, but with a very honorable mention to the old “puller”/CC’er role from EQ (probably still part of why I enjoy tanking… Battlefield control)
So basically every option as the opposite of your starting point 🙂
I do enjoy healing instances once in a while, but raids are just to stressfull for my skilllevel 🙂
I basically just notice two patterns for me:
1. In any game where I got the feeling that I play to stay, I use a male character. In the long run, when you find friends in the game, that makes things much easier. If the game means little to me and I expect to leave it again soon, my gender choice is more random, and I often decide simply based on looks or how the character would feel.
So yes, my main in TSW is male due the first part. And for the fun of it, he’s bald, has a grey bear and when height became modifyable he shrunk a bit. My main in GW2 in contrast is a male Charr, despite I never expected to invest that deeply into that game. (And I never did. I am in a guild, but it matters little to me, while my cabal in TSW is important to me. ) The male Charr just won due to appearance reasons. (Fear the fat cat! 😀 )
2. I generally gravitate towards a healing class or setup. Other support roles and tanking still have to figure out who’s the actual number two, but for sure pure damage is my last choice. I just like to be more useful than “just another damage monkey”. The actual mechanics (magic, weapons, etc. ) don’t bother me that much, but if I can get the same role in a non-magical variant, I usually go for that one.
An example for that, in the three months I played SWtoR, my main character was a green-skinned (what was the name of that race again?) female commando.
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