Why do I love playing pet classes in MMOs?

• I like being able to play more than one role within one class, and having a pet gives me the pet’s secondary role.
• Usually, pet classes seem to have good surviveability
• Probably because of the above two reasons, they’re often good for soloing
• You can multitask (for instance, have your pet fight a mob while you’re mining a node)
• The first class I ever loved in an MMO was a pet class (my warlock).

And finally, perhaps the main reason

• it’s a lonely old world out there, and it’s nice to have a companion

I can become quite attached to my pets.   That’s why my hunter in World of Warcraft keeps bringing out her crag boar that she trained in Dun Morogh all those years ago.   That’s why I was devastated (well, maybe not devastated, but pretty put out) when my warlock’s demons were renamed at the start of Cataclysm (thankfully, they got their old names back).

Maybe SW:TOR is the ultimate game for pet class lovers, because every class has a selection of companion “pets”.   Companions with back stories and personalities, companions that you can talk to and even romance!  No wonder I’m drawn to the game.

There’s one problem, though.  I have to learn to play without a pet whenever I group up!   And real life has got in the way of grouping for the past couple of weeks, so I’m out of practice.