Is Character Alignment Genetic?

Some time ago I found myself browsing through some of those character alignment memes for fun. Now, generally, these tend to use fictitious characters like all the ones in this post on the Official Nokia Blog.

But then I ran into this little gem at G4TV.com which uses real-life gamers as the reference points:

character-alignment-chart-gamers

After I stopped chuckling, the meme got me thinking: If I were an RPG character, how would I classify myself? After some reflection, I determined I was Chaotic Good. Then I thought about my husband. He is definitely a True Neutral. Then, of course, I thought about my daughters. We have two daughters who seem to be shaping up as a Neutral Good and a Chaotic Neutral.

Then that, in turn, got me wondering about a possible genetic predisposition towards a certain Character Alignment.  Now for our “N-of-two” study, these fall squarely in the range of inherited possibilities. When graphing, however, two points are only barely enough to even draw a straight line. We can’t rely on my small sample of two children; we need more data.  So, before drawing any conclusions, I think we should run a larger trial size, no?

Okay, does anyone out there want to pipe in? Come on, RPG fans. What Character Alignment do you consider yourself in real life? And, if you have a significant other, how about him/her? What about the kids? How are they turning out?

“Evil” folks, don’t be afraid to ‘fess up. We’re not talking actual good and bad here. And we know you’re not actually Voldemort’s secret cousin. “Evil,” in the context of this discussion would just be that wild hair on the back of your head wanting to play the rebel once in a while (**wink**).

This could also potentially serve as a warning to all you “opposites attract” singles out there who are Chaotic Good and dating Lawful Evils or some equivalent dichotomy. You might end up with kids who are either Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil, and I have a feeling those would be quite a handful to raise.[subscribe2]

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About Andrea Sefler

Andrea Sefler
Andrea is a consultant and technical writer for various scientific software and instrumentation companies. She has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley and has never met a genre of music or books that she hasn’t liked. As a gamer since the days of the Apple II, Andrea can relate any number of hair-raising tales about role-playing games stored on 360 kB 5.25” floppy disks and may, someday, put them to paper.

12 comments

  1. Would you marry me 🙂

  2. Not it you’re Lawful Evil, too much risk! : )

    • Wait…it almost sounds like you’re considering it! What about your True Neutral husband? Are you *sure* you’re Chaotic “Good”?! Sounds like Chaotic Neutral to me! 😛

    • Not at all, True Neutral hubby is perfectly safe! I could tell the question was from a character along the bottom row just by virtue of the asking. : )

  3. CHAOTIC EVIL, nooooooo question!

  4. Jess Kroll
    Semi Automatic PEZ

    In table-tops I always played as Chaotic Good, because I like to think of my characters as good but kinda in the “be good or I’ll take one of your eyes” way.
    According this chart though either Lawful Evil, because I will use what I have in the game, or, and this is far more likely in the scenario presented by the graphic, Chaotic Neutral.

    • It’s really interesting that you usually played as Chaotic Good because that’s how I think I might classify you in real-life too based on what I know about you. As in good but often contrarian for the sake of what you believe to be the greater good. Meant in a good way of course 😉

  5. Chaotic Neutral [though Lawful Neutral at work] – like Cartman, I do what I want!

  6. Hmm… You’re right.

    My Mother: NG
    My Father: TN
    Me: NG
    Sibling: TN

    That’s crazy…. O.O

  7. Neutral good, my sister is probably chaotic neutral… My mother is neutral good and my father is… somewhere between true neutral and chaotic neutral.

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