I'm not saying I think Anet should add mounts, or wanting to have the average discussion that most people seem to be concerned with (less community, gold sink, etc etc), but if they did want to add a "speed boost" at a higher rate, maybe attached to some of the useless transformations that you can buy from npc's (Jotun, Fire Elemental), since they have no use in costume brawling.
Then the gold sink would still be in place because they are temporary (until you leave, or need to enter combat).
Edited, Jan 30th 2013 3:33pm by Dyadem
The Scrying Pool: Mounts
After last week's outcry for mounts, The Scrying Pool looks at how they could be implemented in Guild Wars 2.
So how would ArenaNet monetize this because let's be honest, after the rage over the Sparkle Pony died down Blizzard was found standing on a mountain of gold. I don't, however, see players wanting to pay $25 for a mount that would only work in a handful of maps. What would work are items that are not just the mounts. For example, the recently released Riding Broom could be a mount in addition to the town clothes item. In every area the broom would function as it does now, nothing more than a cosmetic item. When a character that either has the broom equipped or in his/her inventory talks to the stable's NPC, the NPC could give the option to rent the standard mount or the riding broom. Owners of the broom would still need to pay the rental fee which would allow them to ride the broom in their armor and have the same movement speed increase they would gain from the normal mount.
With this type of system in place, players would get to have their spiffy mount and also get to show off their purchase in the other areas of the game. Also if it is possession of an item that allows the renting of different mount skins, then anything could potentially be a mount. Maybe ArenaNet makes a Toy Horse that players could play with while wearing town clothes that makes the same horse model available for riding. Likewise a mini-pet could unlock the full size version as a mount from the NPC.
To circle back to the beginning, with a limited mount system like this even some of the Vanilla maps could be converted to mount capable should the developers decide to do so. While maps like Lornar's Pass wouldn't really work, there are a couple maps that are open enough to allow mounts access. As I said before, even these maps would require some work which makes it less likely for it to happen.
It may not happen, but having mounts can be a fun way to show off even if they don't offer any speed boost and having an item unlock system gives a neat way to carry your mount with you and show it off. I also think it could be good for the community. One advantage of this stable system is that every player would need to pass through one or two stables to pick up a mount. This gives a random encounter point for meeting other players that you don't really get with the waypoint system that takes players anywhere they need to go. Even with a traditional mount system where you summon your mount you don't get this point of interaction to encounter other players. Players could be anywhere in a map, but with this system you know anyone currently on the map or that will come to the map came or will come through one of these stables.
So to wrap it all up: Could mounts work in Guild Wars 2? If they would work in GW2 would they work everywhere including Vanilla, only the new expansion areas or limited to only certain areas altogether? And lastly, if you could have any mount what would it be and what item would unlock it?
Matt "Mattsta" Adams