Why are Soldiers Rabbits?

Seriously now..

Why is there so much hopping going on by a lot of Soldiers?

Could be that it's easier to hit the ground to make splashdamage with rockets. Soldiers are stupid afterall :>

It's because of the missile nerf.  You hop, you take less damage.  And most sollys really aren't going to wait to be caught off guard before jumping, so they hop everywhere. 

That, or they've been playing too much Halo.  Halo, the game where you jump every you go!

Because if you dont move and jump like a crack addicted rabbit you might find that you have one or 2 too many holes in your head.

I have a theory about that.  There have been several popular games where you can strafe jump where you gain momentum by hopping around.  The quake series, painkiller, etc.  Even TF2 had a glitch in the very beginning which was removed of course.  

To answer your question, at least in my case, it's just a habit from previous games.

If you don't jump as a Soldier, you're a conformist.

It's as simple as that.

I jump as every class when moving, this is because of the strafe jumping system in quake2/3.  It added skill to the game, i wish it was implemented in this game.

Same here, I've got the old strafe jump habit, and I can't/won't kick it.

I hop so I can get a mini height advantage, avoid extraneous holes in my head, and I feel like I go faster...

Plus, if someone hits the ground under me with a rocket, FREE ROCKET JUMP.

I hop to avoid Sniper fire, and I hop more now so that when I shoot someone who runs at me I don't do 500  points of damage to myself.

Soldier's are quite slow.