Something about the little races in MMORPGs gives me this unshakeable youthful, innocent, and joyful feeling. I’ve played a tiny race since the days of the original EverQuest back in 1999.  I’ve had Goblins, Gnomes, Halflings, Dwarves, Lurikeens, Inconnu, Kobolds, Hobbits, Raki, Gibberlings, Lalafell, Tarutaru, Asura, and soon I’ll play a Chua. It’s safe to say if there’s a tiny race, I’ll be playing one.
Short races in MMOs are always either incredibly cute with a gleeful disposition, or bat$h!t crazy with a psychotic blood-lust. Either way, how can you go wrong? They always look the best, and for some reason give me the best feeling while playing. I love being tiny and having everything loom over me. Everything is bigger and perceived as more impressive. Monsters are also scarier. When playing a big Ogre, a normal rat isn’t that scary; When the rat is three times your size, suddenly it becomes a terrible monster with fangs the size of your face.
I always feel happy-go-lucky while playing a smaller race. It’s weird, but I think my state of mind changes. I fall back into the “hiyas!” and “/wave” mentality. Yeah, I have this uncontrollable roleplay persona that comes out. When I play a larger race, or a bland and boring race like humans, I’m just another person out in the world. When I’m one of the small races, I’m special — even if all of it is entirely in my mind.
Maybe it’s the uncontrollable urge to hug a Tarutaru, the fact that Gibberlings come in threes and bounce like Gummy Bears, or Dwarves drink too much beer and speak with ridiculous scottish accents, but I love them all. Graev is watching over my shoulder telling me I’m starting to sound like a creeper, which may be entirely accurate, but I can’t help it! I am genuinely less interested in a MMO if there’s not a little race. Do you have a particular type of character that just draws you in? Maybe you’re the ogre whose lap I sit in, or the ankles I’ve bitten.
Always play the little people as well.
Don’t know why, its just what happens.
For me it is always a girl too, little girl in every game for the past 12 years. My wife makes fun of me. =(
I completely agree, I love the little races in MMOs. Just as you said, it gives me a more relaxed and carefree feeling. I am more likely to smile or outright laugh when playing the tiny race. It gives me a more “childlike” sense of wonder and playfulness. They often have wonderful animations.
For example, seemingly stupid and boring things like jumping up on fences as I run along the road or on tables at an inn suddenly become great fun when playing the short race.
I generally think of myself as a fan of the small races, stemming from my experience playing as a halfling in Everquest. I’m not sure how true it is these days, though. I think, personally, it has a lot to do with the distillation of the small race into those two archetypes you mentioned: the cute or the crazy.
I mean halflings in original Everquest weren’t particularly cute, and they were the opposite of crazy. They were more or less just hobbits – earthy, peaceful farmfolk. I can enjoy identifying with that a lot more than the maniacal sociopath inventor or the bouncing ball of high-fructose cuteness. I certainly don’t mean it as a criticism to those that enjoy it. I’ve just noticed that the further in that direction any game’s given small race is, the less it ends up appealing to me. I like being small in a big, scary world. but I don’t like feeling frantic, and for me, a little silliness goes a long way.
I think the chua are well past my threshold, heh. I did like the gibberlings, though. and of course I’ve got my fingers crossed for rivervale.
While tru that there should be an option to create a small avatar,
What about very tall, fat or very muscular characters?
I think there should be as much customization to make the character you want.
And if its a game with races, then add a race for at least every extreme and some in between.
I guess its because I played advanced dungeons and dragons where there where so many different races and body shapes. (just like baldurs gate)
I like small races but many Asian games do they extremely creepily and will end up having a beaver mating with a loli with cat ears.
I also like small races because I always feel like I am moving faster through the world. You moves also look cooler also.
When lizardmen are an option, that’s always where I’m at. Otherwise I seem to be all over the place, big or small, good or evil, I guess it just depends on what clicks for me at that point in time. I don’t really care for plain human characters or elves when more exotic choices exist.
From the EQ Next wallpaper they released, it’s looking like there might be a mini reptilian race. If Iksar are out and those are in, I’ll be playing one of those.
I have always been drawn to create dwarven characters. Dwarves just strike me as bad-ass. While small in stature, they are little powerhouses of muscle crammed into a smaller frame. Their dour and surly nature are always fun to roleplay (if that is your thing). But yea, I have always enjoyed seeing a Dwarf with a shield blocking incoming blows from massive creatures. Just glancing at it happening, you would expect them to get bowled over. But they are dense! So they stand firm.
Other than Dwarves, I do mostly stick to small races, but I think that stems from two things. The first is that small races were better from a pvp standpoint in DAoC (harder to click at range for attacks). The second is that I’m actually tall IRL (6’7”) so it is fun to be small in games 😛
I tend to gravitate towards the smaller classes too. I absolutely loved Kobolds and Lurikeens in DAOC, Gnomes and Dwarves in WoW, and definitely loved Asuras in GW2.
I’ve always been partial to dwarves.
At least you don’t pick the small race just because it is harder to target/see and has a smaller hit box, like so many others it seems.
@Jenks – I am not sure I would put too much stock into the size of that lizard in that pic. Look at how ginormous that Kerran is. But, who knows?
I mainly played an Ogre Shaman in EQ but as soon as I could cast Shrink, I never went anywhere without being double shrunk. Because EQ had character collision being small was actually an advantage much of the time, and because you used first person view almost entirely it also felt faster.
I tend to dislike little races haha! But he Gibberlings in Allods are too cute to hate.
Even in PVP I feel obliged to let them live!