MeinMMO editor Dariusz had surprisingly a lot of fun with New World, but to love it, the MMORPG would have had to change fundamentally.
When New World was released in 2021, it was the first MMORPG that could pique my interest. It looked graphically modern, had a cool (though not creative) setting, and didn’t immediately force me into a fixed role like DPS or healer in the combat system. Instead, I chose the weapons I was most excited about and just went my own way,
The fact that I didn’t tailor my build for a specific role might upset die-hard MMORPG fans, but for me, it meant something like freedom. I could experiment with what I liked most in this genre that was still quite new to me.
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It was also clear to me early on: I won’t be participating in group activities like dungeons or raids, as hardly anyone in my circle of friends plays MMORPGs and I want to spend most of the time gaming with them.
New World became a game for me in which I briefly dipped in, did some quests, farmed, and then logged out. This kept me occupied as a hopeless MMO casual for a while – but eventually, it became too repetitive and I realized:
I’d be so excited about New World if it were a different game.
Perhaps it would have been more successful in a different genre
Please don’t hate me, but: I would have found New World much better and played it more if it had become a survival game instead of an MMORPG, as originally planned.
Don’t get me wrong, I really hope you MMORPG players get the games you want. From what I gather as an outsider, the genre hasn’t had a great standing for some time. Of course, I don’t want an MMORPG that you might have liked to never have been an MMORPG. But for me personally, it could have very well been a survival game.
At launch, there was already farming like we know it from survival games. This means: We hit trees and rocks with axes or picks to gather resources.
However, I missed the next step towards a survival game: base building.
There were various cities and deep housing in New World, but not the option to build huge bases and express one’s creativity.
Building a base or an entire city is always what I enjoy the most in survival games. Plus, I can do that anytime by myself: I don’t need a group of players to run a dungeon or raid. I can just build, all by myself. As much as I want.
Group activities and quests wouldn’t disappear any more than in other survival games. Comparatively, I think of ARK or Conan Exiles. As a solo player, there’s plenty to do, but boss fights, dungeons, or even raids could still exist.
Endless possibilities even after death
The biggest advantage a survival game has over an MMORPG is the lack of dependence on official servers. Of course, you can also choose a fixed official server there, form a clan, play PvP, meet other players, raid every Wednesday, and basically do everything that is also possible in MMORPGs.
But you can also rent a private server from a hosting service you trust and have a relaxed time with friends.
Private servers have the advantage that you can expand your game with mods as you like and you are independent of whether the developers continue or shut down the official servers.
In ARK: Survival Evolved, I have nearly 2,000 hours. I probably wouldn’t have that if there were no mods.
Over the years, we have changed our game with various modifications. This includes new creatures or weapons, building styles, countless QoL improvements, and huge, beautiful maps with their own dungeons and boss fights. Often there is also a wide range of mods for roleplay fans.
And as the mod community of Skyrim and Starfield shows: It is even possible for large projects to be created with their own story campaigns and questlines.
So even when Amazon pulled the plug on New World, it could have still lived on as a survival game. I would have been a fan, anyway.
What’s your impression of the idea? Would you have given New World a chance if it had instead been released as a survival game with MMO elements? Let us know in the comments!
If you don’t know what I mean by the big mod project of Starfield that delivered its own campaign, feel free to take a look at this article. The community turned Starfield into a Star Wars game: A free mod finally makes Starfield the game fans have always wished for, but not everyone can play it
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