earlier i was thinking about a conversation in one of the petz discords we were having awhile ago about whether naturally raising a pet (ie. letting it grow normally over time rather than aging up using PetzA/PetzDebug brain sliders etc.) resulted in a pet having a more distinct personality, and i think it can, but isn’t necessary for the effect. generally, a pet having a more fully-formed personality has more to do with how much time you spend playing with the pet rather than naturally raising itself, though by naturally raising a pet you will generally spend more time with that pet, so it can have that effect. this is due to a number of things:
playing more with a pet generally means you’ll be introducing that pet to more toyz and other petz along with interacting more with that pet, and this causes growth in the pet’s Association Matrix. there isn’t a lot of information on this section just yet, but it’s the part of the petfile that stores a pet’s memories of different sprites, for example which toyz the pet remembers playing with and its opinions on them. having more information in this section means the pet has more fully-formed preferences about toyz, friends, enemies, and its attitude towards the user. this also means that the pet will be more quick to act towards sprites based on these, rather than having to be introduced to them first and form a new memory!
another important effect playing more with a pet will have is that the pet will remember any reinforcement it has received while playing with you, intentional or not! anytime you pet (or brush, since brushing counts as petting) the pet after a certain behavior, the pet will remember that it has received positive reinforcement for this behavior, and (combined with certain other factors, such as personality values,) be more likely to do it again in the future.
if you tend to pet the pet when it does something silly, for example, that pet will remember that you like when it does silly things, and is more likely to form a goal for them, or if you tend to pet them when they bring toyz to you, they’re more likely to give you gifts.
(something else i’ve noticed in certain petz is that they will sometimes form certain goals immediately after being petted, which are usually goals that they have received reinforcement for. i believe this behavior may be related to the Independence trait, since petz with low Independence are more prone to seeking attention from the cursor (and become jealous when they notice you giving attention to another pet), and it would make sense for them to respond to attention by doing something you like so you’ll keep giving them attention!)
