Will getting a mount be fun?

No one asked me this question, but I'm asking it of myself:

username=thefriendlynecromancer
question= Hey friendly! Will getting a mount in Wizard101 be fun? Can you totally go over some stuff about that? YAY and YAY AGAIN. BYEZZZ!

So I've played a lot of MMOs, and "the mount" in all these games have been a pretty big deal.

Let's take a look at how those break down.

1- Lord of the Rings Online

In Lord of the Rings Online, you have to wait until you're a certain level to own a horse, and then you have to spend a lot of in game money to buy it. It's enough that at the level you can buy a horse, it drains your pocketbook completely dry. Most have to end up borrowing the money from one of their rich higher level friends. Once you get the horse, you have to complete a "driving test" quest or two to make sure you can handle your horse ok.

The quest fun rating= 8 out of 10 (although some really had a hard time with the driving test LOL).

The money grind rating = 3 out of 10

2- World of Warcraft

In the game that shall not be named, you also have to reach a certain level before you can purchase a horse, and it is at a hefty expense as well. At first there were two versions of mounts: epic and normal. Normal hurt the pocketbook, but Epic was insane to purchase. OR, if you're a paladin or warlock, you get a couple quests to unlock your holy or unholy mounts . . . both normal and epic. These quests used to be pretty difficult to do. Now I imagine your high level buddies just breeze you through them. Later on in the game you could buy flying mounts that raised you up high in the world . . . once again normal and epic flavors were available. Once again pocketbooks were affected.


(or you could get the incredibly rare raptor mount from the ZG raid. I was one number away on the random from winning this btw)

I don't think anyone had quests for flying mounts. But I know you could craft a helicopter type craft through the powers of engineering. meh, I never made it to that part of the game.

The grind for money to buy a horse (or begging your guild to donate money to the cause) = 3 of 10.

The horse itself = 10 of 10 (riding a horse in wow is fun!)

The quest for paladins and warlocks = 10 of 10 (it really was fun to do this quest and paladin and warlock epic mounts are AWESOME looking). I made a video when I earned my paladin mount I was so happy about it.

3- Everquest

You buy a bridle to summon your horse. That comes in 4 or 5 speeds. wow it's been a long time. I remember that at the time, buying even the lowest horse for my cleric was painful, but SO necessary. You could meditate from horse back to regain your mana. Horses were a game changer for casting classes. You would pretty much always seem them on horse back regaining their mana. wow it's been a long time. There was no quest involved to unlocking the mount and it just hurt the pocketbook a ton. The fastest horse though was very very nice. I had one. It cost a lot of money. It was worth it for saving time on travel.

fun factor = 3 out of 10 to earn and 10 out of 10 when you got it.

OH, and there was ONE quest for a mount in Everquest . . . I had totally forgot this until I remembered just now. You could enter a low level dungeon (Befallen) and complete a quest there until a bridle with 1 charge of summoning appeared. It was a fun quest to complete, but that 1 charge of bridle just left you wanting more.


(oh look, an old picture I dug up of me and my buddy with said 1 charge bridle)

4- Guild Wars

what? There's no mount in Guild Wars. Exactly. Actually, there are a few missions where you "become" a monster and travel at high speeds or have devastating attacks. It's not really a mount per se, but you do get to experience the game at a different pace. They also had a mini-game where you could turn into a fast rolling potato bug type of creature and race against a number of people to a finish line . . . i.e., a race.

fun factor = 0 out of 0 for not having mounts, but 10 out of 10 for when they let you experience the game at a different pace and competitively.


(Riding and guiding inside the belly of the worm spore)

5- Wizard101

I hope that they in corporate some kind of "driving test" quest into getting a mount. In all these games, mounts have really been painful to earn the money to get, but they've been so worth it once you got it. But as you can see, earning the money for a mount has been my least favorite part of the game. (Some people love that by the way . . . some people just love making in game money . . . it's crazy . . . I've never been one of those people. I'm horrible at playing the bazaar. I think I see a lot of Raven$ farming in my future.)

I also hope they have quests to get a 1 or 2 charge use broom or horse or whathave you.


(it's looking fun! But will it be fun?)

I'm excited for mounts, but I'm also excited just to see how they implement them . . . how they introduce us to mounts. You know? It really ups the fun factor for me to have a quest or two go along with a mount.

What would be even better would be a mini-game ala Mario Kart. If they don't integrate this feature into the game, it's one of the first things "our crowd" is going to ask for. I guarantee it. Who doesn't love a good round or two of Mario Kart? I'd love to participate in that with my new expensive mount. It would make the crown purchase worth it because it would be like buying a game within a game.

. . .

And that's how I see it at 6:11 am on 22 September 2009.

Happy Dueling!

(p.s. I'm out of time . . . I'll probably add a few pictures later in the day, but I wanted to get this out there for discussion)