This is my first time starting a thread so please be gentle
<<exposition>>
When cata came out i considered deleting some of my toons to make room for goblins and worgen. I wound up choosing not to, for the most part because I didn't want to bother grinding my alt's professions. I have some decent rare recipes that I would rather not look for again. The one character I couldn't bring myself to even think of deleting was my main, who I have had since Vanilla. Not because of his profession, but because I couldn't imagine him not existing anymore. Most of my more recent toons I don't feel connected to. This isn't a qq thread or a "it was better in my day" thread, but just a curious question I had. "What made this toon so important to me, and why don't I feel that way about my other toons?"
<<exposition over>>
So what do you think? Why do some toons mean more to us then others? Is this feeling going away? Blizz has worked to make interesting class mechanics for most classes, yet, to me, they lack the personality I have come to associate with Blizz and their extensive lore. Soul Shards, Holy Power, Runes, all feel like mechanics, not something that connects with a character with a class. This may just mean that I was meant for an RP server, but I wonder is this due to the LFD tool? Easy gearing with shorter dungeons? Homogenization of class abilities?
Personally I think this is due to the loss of the class specific quests. I remember training a bear form in Moonglade, Draining power form a Naruu in Silvermoon, and fighting against my future minions as a warlock. These helped me to understand why what I did was important and what it meant in terms of the larger scheme of the game. For those of you who never got a chance to try these quests, tell me are Night Elf mages highborne or are they regular Night Elves trained by them. What were the Worgen Druid's origins? Are all Tauren from the Sunwalker clan pallys? I know that these answers are out there, if you look for them. That is the thing though, you have to look for them. Your character doesn't experience it anymore.
What's your feeling on this? Is this connection something you miss/feel is lacking? And if so, what caused this?