I’ve mentioned in the past that it took me a long, long time in MMOs before I became a “pet” person, largely because pet AI in early MMOs was trash. It was actually World of Warcraft’s Hunter class that made me change my mind, and then games like Classic Guild Wars and City of Heroes (City of Villains, really) sealed the deal to the point that I don’t just automatically discount the pet class and the summoner class. In fact, I sometimes seek them out because they make for more easygoing, lazy game experiences if the pets do a lot of the work.
Also the pets are cute! I have rather terrible allergies in real life, and I hate to admit it, but not having a cat anymore improved my health kind of a lot. But I miss having the little fluffballs, so video game pets have kind of filled in that gap – really more than, since you can collect so many different types you could never own in the real world. I tend to go for the same pets, too; I love turtles and lionesses in particular. Fun fact, last year I finished off leveling my pet torton (it’s like a giant armored turtle) to 90 in SWG Legends. Her name is Sundae, of course.
What is your favorite non-minipet pet in an MMO? Bonus points if you tell us what you named your very good boy/girl and post a pic!