Every month, Amazon provides insights into the development of New World. The latest updates have shown a direction towards theme park MMORPG. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch finds this good, especially because there hasn’t been such a game for a long time.
What happened? In the latest alpha update for New World, some interesting content was presented, including a new endgame area, an instanced PvP mode, and the first dungeon for 5 players. Previously, there were already innovations like fishing and the boss arena against the Spriggan, which was announced as early as 2020.
While this content may not seem unusual for an MMORPG at first glance, they do not fit the original New World at all. Because in the first years, it was an MMO that specialized mainly in PvP and survival.
But at the end of 2019, the concept changed, and I think that is really good. New World could have occupied a niche and kept some players there, but many fans have long been longing for a new theme park MMORPG. Right now, it looks like Amazon wants to go exactly in that direction.
In sandbox games, on the other hand, the focus is more on finding one’s own role and freedom within the game world. There are usually fewer quests and lore, but more tasks in the form of professions, economy, and PvP.
From Survival to Theme Park?
What was New World like before? At gamescom 2018, New World was presented to the public for the first time. Back then, the head of Amazon Games revealed that New World started as a survival game, like ARK: Survival Evolved. However, even by gamescom, the survival elements were toned down, hunger and thirst only played a role in regeneration, and the focus shifted to MMO elements.
At this presentation, there were:
- No quests
- Open-world PvP between all players
- The battle for fortresses, which was still fought in the open world
- A huge, but rather empty-feeling world
However, the combat system, classless system, and crafting were comparable to the version we could try out in the summer of 2020.
What has changed? At the end of 2019, Amazon announced a major overhaul of New World. At that time, it was said that they wanted to move away from forced PvP and towards more open world and PvE:
- Players were then divided into 3 factions
- Fighting against other players in the open world became optional
- The PvP fortress battles now take place instance-based with a fixed number of players
- Weapons received skill trees that are reminiscent of RPGs
The shift in direction hasn’t been universally welcomed but has been consistently pursued by Amazon since then. In every alpha update so far, there have been new features targeting PvE players or the general public, such as new weapons or crafting adjustments.
Focus on lore increases: Interesting in the last update is that they want to tell a story with the new area as well. In Ebonscale Reach, everything revolves around an exiled empress. There is also a lore contribution on the official site, and she brings a bit of Asian flair to the game.
Especially in terms of storytelling, New World had a lot of room for improvement. The quests were rather monotonous and lacked much story. Only the general plot around the material Azoth and the resulting corruption of Aeternum was touched upon – through lore texts spread throughout the open world.
Here, I am curious whether New World will succeed in telling a complete story, as other theme park MMORPGs do.
There are always PvP MMOs, but theme park is slowly dying
That’s why I think the change is good: Even though I love PvP and am involved in almost every MMORPG, I see the development of New World positively:
On the one hand, instanced PvP content is generally more balanced and easier to balance. In the original New World, fortress battles could simply be won with numbers rather than skill and tactics. There were discussions that certain guilds with many members dominated the servers. I personally find this bad and therefore appreciate, for example, the PvP in Guild Wars 2, where you don’t even have an advantage through better gear.
On the other hand, there are simply plenty of MMORPGs that rely on open-world PvP. If you look at the major releases of the last 6 years and even into the future, you will almost not find a pure theme park MMORPG:
- ArcheAge and Black Desert are two of the successful MMORPGs of the last few years.
- Current titles of the last years, such as Bless Unleashed, Legends of Aria, or the upcoming Elyon, all focus on PvP. Even the PvE MMORPG Astellia has introduced open PvP in its free-to-play version.
- The indie MMORPGs in development, such as Crowfall, Camelot Unchained, Corepunk, and Ashes of Creation, have open PvP, albeit sometimes with harsh penalties for ganking.
- Additionally, there has been a lot of interest in survival games like ARK, Rust, or Valheim, which is currently a huge success on Steam. In these, players can also fight each other depending on the server.
Theme park MMORPGs are indeed very popular among many players. WoW is the prime example that has dominated the charts for many years. WoW Shadowlands even achieved 3.7 million sales in 24 hours, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time.
Also, in the comments on MeinMMO, you often read that many MMORPGs are already uninteresting at the presentation because they focus too much on PvP. The desire for a PvE game is great.
I personally love to explore a world, experience a story, defeat bosses with other players, and be able to play without pressure and fear. PvP should not be omnipresent, but an option for me. A theme park MMORPG offers me this best.
During the hands-on event of New World, I already had fun with the joint events against the Corrupted, with crafting, and with the beauty of the game world. And with innovations like dungeons, new areas, and fishing, this part is continuously expanded.
When I feel like PvP, I jump into arenas or the fights for fortresses in New World. However, in the open world, I would love to let my soul dangle.
Why do developers rarely focus on theme parks? Theme park games are often very elaborate because they need a story and constantly new content. Players consume content faster than developers can produce it. That’s why there is often discussion about content droughts.
Sandbox, PvP, and survival games have the great advantage that developers only need to lay a foundation, and players can build their own content on it. That requires less work and ensures longer engagement.
New World has undergone a change moving away from PvP and sandbox towards theme park. However, it is also more demanding, as recent delays demonstrate. In my opinion, the development is exactly right.
What do you think about the development? What does New World still need to become a good theme park MMORPG?
New World is on a good path but still has a lot of work ahead. That’s why I believe it was right to delay the release of New World.
