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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What does your class choice say about you?
by Antoinette Smith 
Oct 10th 2010 at 8:00AM
One night after an Ulduar achievements run, some guildies started chatting about their out-of-game hobbies. The discussion changed when one of our best DPSers, a hunter, confessed to being a "theater geek."
"See, I never would have pegged you for a theater guy," one guildie said.
"Why not?" the hunter asked.
"Because you play a hunter!"
"Yeah," my husband chimed in, "you can usually tell what group a person hung out with in high school based on their class. Warlocks are goth. Warriors are jocks. Druids are hippies ..."
I laughed at the list of stereotypes, but it got me to thinking: What does my class choice say about me? My main is a retribution paladin. Outside of the game, I am a deeply religious person, and I love the idea of a holy warrior who uses divine power to smash the faces of world-threatening evils and protect those who can't protect themselves. If Earth were suddenly thrown into Azerothian-style conflict, I would readily enlist as a paladin. My main is a good reflection of who I really am.
I could say the same thing for my husband. His characters (a holy paladin main and an arcane mage raiding alt) are both ranged roles. Outside of the game, he is a very behind-the-scenes kind of guy. He hates being in the spotlight. While he loves to help people and participates in a lot of group activities, it's never in a center-stage role. He is more than content to stay in a group support position both in and out of game.
What about you, fellow WoW Insider readers? What does your class and/or spec say about you? Is it a manifestation of who you are out of game or completely opposite?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 18)
Squirr3llywrath9 Oct 10th 2010 12:59PM
Technically speaking, the in game paladins are also atheist as they don't worship or really believe in a god. The light is more of an ideology than a religion. Think of it like the force. Practitioners of the light believe it exist in everything throughout the universe and that by doing good deeds and being a good person will get them closer to being in harmony with it. So it short paladins are more like Jedi than Christians.
NOV14 Oct 10th 2010 1:21PM
Athiest Ret Paladin here as well. I think most people who play Ret think of it more like how Squirr3llywrath9 put it - "the light" is pretty much like "the force." And like sardai said, I think most Rets tend to be "chaotic neutral." Do what you whatever you want, however you want, to get what you want. But that's only my idea of the class, and why I love it so much.
Shepherd57 Oct 10th 2010 1:41PM
The list is to long to scroll through but some one said in game paladins are also athiest, however this is a development of the lore. Before wow in the warcraft universe priests and those who wielded the light had a church and religion...so the light as an ideology is only a recent development within the lore.
Benjamin Oct 10th 2010 4:11PM
is it just me or does anyone else think that trying to figure out the character of a man by the cartoon character they play is somewhat akin to defining a person by their zodiac sign?
Lannden Oct 10th 2010 3:42PM
In all honestly though it is kind of hard for a character to be an atheist in WOW since, yknow they interact with demi-gods and even gods on a daily basis.
Tim Oct 11th 2010 2:21AM
Well, those gods and demi-gods aren't really gods if they can be killed.
Or, alternately, if gods *can* be killed, then why are they worth putting one's trust into? They become nothing more than kids with better toys. :D
Alexran Oct 10th 2010 8:06AM
It takes moxy to admit that you're religious on the internet. A lot of people really hate religion.
I'm religious too! Represent!
Tapukimastra Oct 10th 2010 9:37AM
I might be Atheist but I hate it when I see these militant Atheists who think they're better than any religious person just by virtue of being an Atheist. More power to anybody brave enough to talk about their religion, as Alexran said.
Merlinmast Oct 10th 2010 9:44AM
Gonna chime in here as another atheist, where we don't see eye to eye in religion we can stand together for tolerance :-)
OT I've recently been doing more and more tanking and even leading a few raids, just after beinh promoted to store manager. Coincidence? :-)
Hahahaha Oct 10th 2010 10:04AM
"I hate it when I see these militant Atheists who think they're better than any religious person just by virtue of being an Atheist."
It's human nature and not particular to any specific group. People, in general and often during times of confrontation, will try to correlate to a group they think they have the highest chance of getting into and believe to be better than other groups.
Tapukimastra Oct 10th 2010 10:41AM
@Caligulla
I can understand that (although personally I would just shrug a person like that off).
What I meant by militant would be when an Atheist gets in people's faces about it in the same way as you described some religious people doing.
Sleutel Oct 10th 2010 10:41AM
You need to hang out with a better class of people. There are places where you'll get bashed for being religious, and there are places where you'll get bashed for being atheist or agnostic. The key is just to find people who aren't assholes.
Hih Oct 10th 2010 10:42AM
"I might be Atheist but I hate it when I see these militant Atheists who think they're better than any religious person just by virtue of being an Atheist."
I'd say that most Atheists that feel that way, feel that way because not being religious will get you a sort of, "you heathen! you will burn in the fires of hell for all eternity when you die and suffer unbearable agony for your crimes against God".
That kinda gets someone feeling just *a little* defensive. Ya know?
Tapukimastra Oct 10th 2010 11:04AM
@Hih
Yeah. It's just always been easier from my point of view to ignore it; I expect I was tempered by my childhood with a "militant" Christian best friend.
Chokaa Oct 10th 2010 11:10AM
I'm Christian, and I can't stand biblethumpers. What drew me in wasn't the fear of fire and brimstone, but the Love and Calmness I get when I pray. It makes ya feel good, naw meen. I'm sure if my first interactions had been with some of these 'you're goin to hell, you Heathen!' types, I would have just walked away as well, and missed out on some of the meaningful portions of Christianity.
Don't know what to think of that, not sure why I wrote it causethis isn't the place for a proper discussion...
OT - My best friend in the world(who's agnostic, if it helps) plays a shadow priest cause he thinks it's like being 'one of those two-faced catholic bigots' (quote from him when asked)
roseclown Oct 10th 2010 11:37AM
Non-militistic Christian representing!
Really, I am the kind of person who argues with the ones who get in my face and prove them how wrong they are by their own words. Once? A guy stopped debating with me after I soundly proved him wrong with the very bible he was using (Can someone say, taking stuff out of context will bite you in the behind?) and tried to start a debate with a catholic (who he was saying wasn't a christian) who told him that he wasn't debating with him since I did such a good job.
It was nice, I was cheered on by a muslim, three christians, and a atheist.
The point is a lot of these militaristic types aren't even going by what christians really are. They twist the words and beliefs to make themselves look better, to put themselves on a pedestal.
As for my main, it's a hunter. I definitely love nature (but not in the hippy way. I like meat, and don't feel bad about it cause if a lion can tear apart a impala, I can eat my hamburger) and I work at the SPCA and love my pets. Everyone always comments on how good I am with animals. Not to mention, my mind likes accuracy and objective (standing away from) thinking.
In cataclysm I wish to roll a priest, druid, paladin, and a shaman, which is where my religious side come in. Also shows my general acceptance of other religions (my best friends are a agnostic, a hindu, and another christian yet one whose views differ from my own).
Mrs. Dawkins Oct 10th 2010 12:29PM
It takes "moxy" to admit you are in the majority of thinkers? Seriously? Since when? You do realize this is America... where like 75 percent of people claim to have "faith". Atheists are probably the most discriminated minority in this country... we have openly gay, black/Hispanic (no choice there), God fearing, and women - doing well in politics, but an (open) atheist will never be President in my lifetime, sadly.
I on the other hand play a Priest as my main, but I'm an atheist... and believe it takes more "moxy" to come out as an atheist, both online and person. I agree with the commenter above, for me, I like helping people and believe in being moral, good, honest and fair. That's one of the reasons why I chose the class, it has nothing to do with religion, or God. I was the only atheist I knew in college (went to a Private Catholic University) and yet I was the only one not in a drunken stooper and/or bed hopping every Thursday-Sunday. So let's not couple up the "good" and "religion" thing. For me it's just more about, logic, fact, and reason.
Tapukimastra Oct 10th 2010 12:46PM
@Mrs Dawkins
I'm afraid we don't all live in the US; I live in Britain, and we are almost completely secular. The same can be said for much of Europe.
sindorei Oct 10th 2010 1:03PM
Congrats, I was replying to "Alexran", not you. But Europe is sounding like a nice place to live :)
NOV14 Oct 10th 2010 1:25PM
Tapukimastra - Agreed, 1000%. Your religious decisions do not DEFINE you, but they are most definitely a part of you. No one has any right to judge another's feelings on religion, or faith. brofist for being part of the mature, understanding crowd. :)