I disagree for two reasons.
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The map is plenty large for mounts, as long as the mounts are not unrealistic in their speed. You ever play Portal Knights? Cute game, but it had extremely small maps. I mean, a map might be 4x the size of Oxford city in New World. They had mounts and were fun to use, even on those tiny maps.
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Mounts are excellent cosmetic items to sell and people buy them in droves. The more money AGS makes, the greater the likelihood that the project will continue on, because you can bet your bottom dollar if the game stops making money, the plug WILL be pulled. Mounts will help to finance future content.
Something that is lost on the PVP community is the draw of the RPG element in a game like New World. What this means is that many players who are into RPG’s dont just see their avatar as the thing you interface with in game, they see them as their own little persons, with their own stories and backgrounds. These folks like to outfit their characters (transmogrification) and create a theme for them.
For example. I have 15 characters in ESO.
- factotum
- Woof elf Werewolf
- Altmer Scary vampire
- Breton “Hero” of the people
- Breton bank alt
- Khajiit speedy farming cat
- Breton Healer
- Altmer sorcerer
- Breton Dark Mage
- Dark Elf dapper vampire
- Dwarven Incendiary
- Argonian tank.
- A Frost golem
- Redguard fighter
- Factotum Centurion
Every one of them has their own home, their own mounts, their own non combat pets, their own cosmetics including hair, makeup, jewelry, glasses, tattoos and yes EVEN the bank alt.
And the vast majority of all of that was paid with real money. Literally thousands of dollars spent.
Of course not everyone is going to spend money like that, and some people are happy with one character, but to deny people who like the RPG element of an MMO to express their creativity through cosmetics in any form, is pure foolishness.
New World first and foremost is designed to make Amazon money. There is no other precedent. Not implementing mounts is leaving money on the table.
In fact if AGS was smart, they’d rework weapons making alts more appealing and allow alts for the game.
If they were REALLY smart, they’d put PVP on the back burner and go full force into PVE.
People who are attached to their avatars spend more money than people who are not. PVEers are generally more attached to their avatars than PVPers, as evidence of the dumb PVP names seen in this game.
If AGS intends to make money, they’d put their focus on PVE.
And I say all of this as someone who has spent 90% of my time in MMORPG’s since 2004 as a PVPer.