Today's pointless question .....

[Akesha]

...is;

Why is it that in all MMO's, you have to reach a certain level (and thus be some kind of mighty hero) to be able to ride a horse, whereas in real life horses are often ridden by 10 year old girls?

Discuss.

[Dogar]

Got pwned by a little girl at horseback riding recently Akesha?

I ponder how riding a horse can be considered equally difficult to controlling a raptor or rhino. Though carrot on a stick cleared up a lot of those questions for me.

[Akesha]

Got pwned by a little girl at horseback riding recently Akesha?

I ponder how riding a horse can be considered equally difficult to controlling a raptor or rhino. Though carrot on a stick cleared up a lot of those questions for me.

...which begs the question, why did my wolf run faster with a carrot on a stick, when wolves are not noted for their love of carrots?

[Moggrash]

Maybe.... Becouse riding a horse was only for nobles and important people in the medieval age. And since leveling makes you more mighty, you also get famous. And when ypu past the magical barrier of level 40, Voila! You are famous enough to ride.
*shrugs*

[Kozgugore]

My mommy always said I had to be level 18 to drive her car. ;<

[Tirnak Lynxclaw]

My mommy always said I had to be level 18 to drive her car. ;<

And have a license, I hope

[Rehbande]

My mommy always said I had to be level 18 to drive her car. ;<

Ooops...

[Rehbande]

...which begs the question, why did my wolf run faster with a carrot on a stick, when wolves are not noted for their love of carrots?

Carrot on a stick can be used two ways:

In front of the horse/similar that wants to eat it, thus increasing the speed.

Behind the wolf/similar that fears it will be rammed up its posterior, thus increasing the speed.

[Ugluhk]

...which begs the question, why did my wolf run faster with a carrot on a stick, when wolves are not noted for their love of carrots?

Carrot on a stick can be used two ways:

In front of the horse/similar that wants to eat it, thus increasing the speed.

Behind the wolf/similar that fears it will be rammed up its posterior, thus increasing the speed.

Troo dat!
back to topic though: becouse in MMOs the horse/similar will chew your hand off if you're below a certain lvl.

[Akesha]

Maybe.... Becouse riding a horse was only for nobles and important people in the medieval age. And since leveling makes you more mighty, you also get famous. And when ypu past the magical barrier of level 40, Voila! You are famous enough to ride.
*shrugs*

In medieval Europe (unlike Japan) there were no laws against anyone owning a horse. It is true that the average peasant could never hope to own one, but that is down to the expense of buying stabling and feeding one. They are costly animals to keep and only the wealthy could ride one.

The point is however, the limitation here is wealth, not fame, social status or martial prowess. Now, your average MMO charges you a large amount of gold for your mount, so why have the level limit as well?

The answer is obvious of course .... game balance. My point is though, that game balance is often not thought through and leads to unrealistic situations. Some of you might have played the Diablo-clone, Sacred. In Sacred you can get you first horse almost straight away. As the game progresses and you gain levels and money, you can buy faster and better horses. I wonder why no MMO has yet followed this model.

[Dogar]

Yeah, but other then that, Sacred was a rather poor game. Anyway, looking at games in such a way, perhaps not mounts, but Age of Conan will certainly follow much more of a develepment path then most other games do.

[Claws]

Its all that walking untill 40 that bugs me.
Still got blisters.

[Typhek]

generally I think travelling is used as a time sink to prevent people progressing too fast - hence many simple quests involving zero difficulty but large amounts of 'take this message to Mr X, half a continent away' followed by 'thanks, but really Miss Y on the other side of the world should see this' and finally, 'ok... take this reply back to Mr X who will give you another message to take back to the first person and 6 silver pieces'. Not to mention the fact that mounts, especially flying, make many quests a hell of a lot easier simply by virtue of being able to outrun most mobs you don't need to kill - thereby enabling you to quest without having to waste time evading/fighting trash in the way.

City of Heroes/Villains makes a big deal out of giving you fast(ish) travel early on with an upgrade a few levels later. unfortunately the game, while fun at first, is exceedingly repetitive and boring after a while (even when compared to other grind fest mmo's).

as for carrot on stick working for wolves... well, you could beat the wolf with the stick. but i think beating wolves should come with a severe health warning. alternatively, the wolf may be chasing the rabit that tried to eat the carrot.

[Vargukha]

Might the reason be military disciplin?
The method of humbling the warrior to run run run until his feet bleed, and when he's feet are hard as steel he finally gets rewarded with a mount?

[Moggrash]

Haveing a mount gives respect, so thats why you have to wait before you get one. Thats the same reason as there are no level 10 epics.
*shrugs*