Our editor Leya Jankowski described months ago in a column why New World could excite her – if it weren’t for this forced PvP. Now, a year later, the new MMO fulfills this wish – What happened?
It has been about a year since I stumbled upon pictures of mystical creatures from the game on the official Twitter of New World. These creatures captivated me so much that I wished to explore the world and discover them.
Back then, New World was supposed to focus on PvP and huge mass battles against other players.
In 2018, New World had this direction:
- New World was originally planned as a sandbox MMO with a strong PvP focus
- it was supposed to include forced PvP in the open world
- light survival elements were planned
- PvE content was hardly supposed to be in the game
- it seemed to be a historical MMO about American colonization
At that time, I found the mystical creatures and lore so fascinating and beautiful that the forced PvP made me really sad.
Now, in 2019, it turned out that New World has completely transformed again.
This is the new direction of New World:
- the forced PvP has been removed, now there is opt-in PvP
- the survival elements are completely gone
- there are three factions in the game that players can join
- the sandbox is more restricted
- New World is now an open-world MMO
- there will be more PvE content than originally planned
- the story now takes place in a completely fictional world and moves further away from realism
Mass battles and the joint building of a settlement remain as planned.
We learned all of this when we conducted an interview with Game Director Scot Lane, who explained to us how the game has changed since the first alpha tests.
Amazon has read my column?!
I was quite astonished. It all sounded to me as if someone at Amazon Game Studios had received a translation of my old article from back then and adjusted the game precisely to my wishes.
Because these were exactly the points I mentioned in the column! I wished for more PvE content and that forced PvP wouldn’t be in the game. I also wished to explore the world, which hopefully will be enticing with the planned PvE content.
It is of course nonsense to say it was because of my column.
For a brief moment, it just felt that way … and one can still dream a little. The chosen title of this column can be understood with a big wink.
In reality, the situation is different.
In our interview, Scot Lane explained that many players, like me, were not interested in forced PvP:
We learned in our early alpha tests that many MMO players wanted more content on one hand and on the other hand, they did not enjoy the “open-world gang fest.” As a result, they lost fun in New World.
So what we did was to incorporate more direct content. We added quests, objectives, missions, and community goals. We are now more of an open-world MMO instead of a sandbox as it was before.
The number of players who were annoyed by the “hardcore direction” must have been large enough for Amazon to adjust things again.
That’s why I’m looking forward to the “new” New World
When I played New World behind closed doors at gamescom in 2018 for half an hour, everything reminded me of a huge adventure playground. There was nothing mystical to see at the time. But exploring the world was already fun back then.
I can already say from my experience that New World will be a graphically appealing game. Provided that the test version back then wasn’t overly polished. But also first testers of the alpha said similar things. Since I know even more about the mystical lore and have seen pictures of the old ruins, I just want to explore this world even more.
Especially when exploring or gathering resources, I wouldn’t want to be unexpectedly attacked by a hardcore PvP player. The probability is high that I wouldn’t be able to keep up.
This is how I play today: In April 2020, I will turn 30 years old and like many others my age, I have a full-time job and other adult responsibilities. I love my job and enjoy all aspects of my life – but hardcore gaming, as I was able to do during my studies, often has to take a backseat.
I no longer have the patience to perfect and optimize my stats and builds so that I am always ready to react to an opponent in an open world. However, building my house, discovering secrets, competing against AI – yes, I like that a lot.
I can also imagine participating in AI mass battles in co-op or trying out PvP here and there. However, I’m glad that I am given a choice.
These are the warning signs with New World
As much as I look forward to the new direction, there are definitely a few things that require caution. We still don’t know how the “opt-in feature” will ultimately look in reality.
Especially for PvP players, it would be quite frustrating if they eliminate an opponent, and a PvE player with divine protection comes along and steals the loot. We already know that there are rewards hidden behind PvP to provide an incentive. If these turn out to be quite good, the PvE players may be indirectly forced to play PvP again – tricky in terms of balance. It would certainly be worth considering offering separate servers here.
New World has undergone this transformation in recent months, at least as it sounds. It is therefore still uncertain how extensive the new planned PvE content will be at launch and how smoothly it will run from a technical perspective.
We’ll have to wait and see.
Why I still believe that the new direction is good: At this point, I want to remove myself from the equation. On a personal level, I am simply grateful for the change. But I would not presume to criticize the creative work of another for their direction.
If the developers had decided to create a hardcore sandbox survival MMO, then that’s how it would be – it just wouldn’t be for me. However, the alpha test results of the developers show that I am not so alone in this.
New World is surely now more geared towards mainstream with its open-world PvE orientation. We already know from other conversations with MMORPG developers that it’s not easy to find an answer to the modern players’ lack of time.
Whether New World will become an objectively better game with the new direction is hard to say. However, I attribute more (commercial) success to the new direction and thus a greater chance of survival. Because it is truly not easy to land a hit in this highly competitive market and finance a game.
And yes, I am also happy that this matches my taste and my life circumstances.
Do you want to learn more about New World? We have compiled an article with the most important facts:
