How I Role

After a long, fruitless night (my daughter needed to go to the emergency room, but they found nothing wrong) and a day recovering and setting up a couple initial pages (the pages listed underneath the blog header), I am ready to throw my two cents into the the blog discussion started by MMOGamerChick, and also touched on by Adventure Historian and Amuntoth. EDIT: CaptainRuz put forth his perspective, as well.

So here are my discernible character trends:
1. I am an altoholic.

I am addicted to "The Glow." I have 30 characters on WoW, 3 captains on STO, and I started 3 characters on LOTRO although that was  mainly to try out the different mechanics. I guess that's why I have so many toons on WoW, as well. This can be a good thing. My main on WoW, Rowanblaze, is the fourth character I roled. I don't know if I would have continued playing the game if I had been stuck with one character. Plus, Blizzard kind of encourages multiple alts with the "rested" bonus, where you get more XP per kill when you haven't played the character for a while. I never really play most of the toons I've started, but I am attached to them nonetheless.

2. Most of my avatars are attractive females. Those that aren't are "cool."

I know there are opinions about men rolling female RP characters. The friend who hooked me on WoW always played male characters because "that's me having that adventure." OK, I didn't know you were a 3-foot gnome who can shoot fire from your fingers. I may not be the first guy to say it, but I never heard anyone else before I did: I would prefer to follow around a female than a male. I didn't realize that preference would call my sexuality into question.

I do have male characters, but for the most part I didn't like the male avatars in WOW, which is the game I've played for far longer than any other online game. Some notable exceptions, in the "cool" category: Tauren males, troll males, and dwarf males. I thought it was interesting that the dwarves in LOTRO could only be males.

Along that line, Locke is the first avatar that I even tried to actually make to resemble me in real life.

3. I have a definite, if subtle, naming convention. Almost all my characters have a plant as part of their name. OK This is obviously an intentional thing. Some of the names I've come up with are pretty clever if I do say so myself. A few examples:

-Poppyshock, a Draenai Shaman, is one of my favorites, and my Twitter handle.

-Hazel Wingnut is named for an herb reputed to be used by witches.

-Pawpaw Mojo (a male) is named for a banana-like fruit grown in the southeast United States.
-Rowanblaze and Rowan Starblanket are named for a tree sacred to the Celtic druidic religion. Ironically, I think "Rowanblaze" is a little stilted, definitely not my favorite name, yet she is my main on WoW.

Notable exception: Donovan Taggart Locke. I couldn't come up with a good in-universe plant name for a human male after using "Rowan" for my first STO toon.

4. I prefer healers.

My two main characters on WOW and STO--the aforementioned Rowans--are both healers. I have played a ton of toons on WoW. I like the survivability of being able to heal myself in the middle of a fight. And other people appreciate someone willing to perform in that support roll.