The recruit a friend campaign, Partition

[Aldora]

As a company, SE needs to have something special to lure new people to their game. For 1.x players, we had the Legacy Campaign, for the 2.x we had the Veteran Rewards, for both the 1.x & 2.0 game we had the Collector’s Edition items, we had the Pre-order items (like the Cait Sith minion) and now we have the Recruit a Friend Campaign with the the feather, teleport boon and the double seated mount.

But, that doesn’t mean that we are not gonna get a double seated mount as an option within the game. We all know that the “Marriage System” is on the way and they showed a Double Seated Mount for that.

For example:


And last but not least, there was also a double seated mount without the barding shown in the Live Letter.

For example:




(Thanks go to Abriael Rosen for making the screencaps of the “Letter of the Producer Live - Patch 2.3 : Defenders of Eorzea”)

So, for one, i don’t think that SE is treating us unfairly since there are plenty of opportunities to introduce a Double Seated mount for everyone. But, let’s not jump to conclusions here… The mount could still be introduced at a later stage through the Veteran Rewards, the Marriage System and who knows… Even chocobo Breeding.

People just want to have that mount, right here, right now. They even go to great lengths to get as much of these bonuses, that they go out, buy another copy of the game, create a new account and use that account for the Recruit a Friend bonuses. If you want the mount that badly, that totally fine, but it’s all your choice. SE didn’t force you to do it. You as a player made that choice by yourself.

By all means keep requesting for the double seated mount for everyone, but just keep in mind that SE has to think of ways to attract people with special (limited) items as well. The “Lightning Event” is a great example of that.

[Virgal]

For example:


And last but not least, there was also a double seated mount without the barding shown in the Live Letter.

For example:

Thank you so much for the info i actually had no idea about this someone told me that the only way to get a duo-mount was trough the recruit a friend and was feeling abit down as its obviously a very cool feature for a mount, i wish there where more people like you on the forums and less people out to insult.

[Kuwagami]

For example:

this is not a double seated barding.

The second is the one we have, without the white feathers

[Aldora]

this is not a double seated barding.

The second is the one we have, without the white feathers

I don’t see why it’s not. There is no silhouette of a character in that concept art, so we have no idea how big it actually is.

Take a look at how the characters are sitting on the Double Seated Chocobo:



If you compare that with the Wedding Chocobo, depending on the size of the character(s) taking place on the back of the Choco, it’s still viable as a 2 seater.



The reason why i say that is, if you take a look at the current Chocobo barding, you can see that the seat is positioned more to towards the neck of the chocobo, rather than at the back of its back (not leaving a lot of space for a possible passenger).




Even Yoshida is referring to it as a Double Seated Wedding Chocobo, since he said that they’ve “been preparing a special chocobo that can be ridden by a bride and groom when they get married” at the time they are showing that particular concept image:

1:58:25
Q: Suzuki, are there any plans to implement cuter-looking chocobo barding in the future?

A: At the moment, we're working on designs based around primals. In patch 2.2 we released Leviathan barding, and we're planning to implement a similar design based around Ramuh. However, before this we have other designs we need to test for chocobos. We’ve received a lot of requests for two-person mounts and we’ve begun work on them, but we’re still only testing movement and issues related to programming. The models haven’t been finished, but if there are no issues, we will be looking into making a special chocobo design and create the model for it.

Yoshida: Since the time has just about come for the implementation of two-person chocobos, we’ve also been preparing a special chocobo that can be ridden by a bride and groom when they get married.

*The video shows a video of a chocobo being ridden by two players.

*In the video artwork of a two-person wedding chocobo.