It has been a month since New World hit the market and the first players have reached the endgame. However, while the community is starving for information about the future of the MMO, Amazon is currently keeping quiet. A mistake, says MeinMMO author Alexander Leitsch. He hopes that Amazon will soon publish a roadmap.
Why is a roadmap so important right now? The release of New World was a great success. The MMO managed to reach over 900,000 concurrent players on Steam at one point, but the numbers are slowly declining.
Player loss is something totally natural for a title that generated a lot of hype beforehand. Some players have realized that New World is not for them, and those who have been addicted to the game in recent weeks have now reached the endgame.
New World also does not bind players through a subscription, as WoW or Final Fantasy XIV does. Players can easily stop playing and return in a few days, weeks, or even months. This leads to fluctuations in player numbers.
But this is exactly where the announcement of a roadmap comes in. Because new content has a positive effect on mindset and provides a certain level of security for players.
Lack of communication, on the other hand, leads to uncertainty in the community. Too often, work on an MMORPG has quietly ceased and this only became known weeks or months later. And exactly this uncertainty is also being experienced by players in New World right now.
Lack of communication raises concerns, a roadmap motivates
How is Amazon communicating right now? Not as well as many had hoped. There is a lack of insight into the future, but there are also no answers to urgent current questions.
- To this day, it has not been clarified why players are simply banned automatically just because enough other players report them. A tactic that even wins wars on some servers.
- There is also too little information about critical bugs that players feel need to be urgently fixed.
The lack of communication is currently unsettling some players. An example of this was the absence of the patch on October 27. Many players were looking forward to important bug fixes and small adjustments. But the patch notes did not come.
Only upon inquiry did community manager Luxendra comment on the issue, providing a very open response. The team is already working hard to resolve critical issues. But Luxendra could not say whether a patch will come this week or not.
This led to several questions in the forum. Why is there no clear statement? What is Amazon working on exactly? Does the future of New World already look bleak?
This is why a roadmap is so important: A roadmap sends several positive signals to the outside:
- The developers show what they have planned for the future and that they will not abandon the game in its current state
- Hardcore players know how and when it will continue and can prepare accordingly
- Casual players see what awaits them when they are done with the current content
- Players who are not satisfied with the current content may discover new content that could interest them and thus return
These positive signals are urgently needed for New World, as there have been several valid criticisms in recent weeks. This included both bugs in the game that are said to have existed since the beta and missing content in the endgame.
A glimpse of new weapons, new areas, dungeons, and challenges could greatly improve the mood in the community.
This is why new content does not need to come soon: The roadmap is important and should be published early. It is not even important that there are specific dates for new content – a rough timeframe is sufficient.
I am already satisfied knowing that new contents X and Y will come in the year 2021. I would also be happy if Amazon said that the first big content patch will not come until 2022, but will make a significant impact.
In fact, I do not need new content to motivate me. Just knowing that something is coming drives me immensely.
I feel this now in Guild Wars 2, where I am already grinding hard to be able to afford the legendaries in the upcoming expansion End of Dragons. The expansion is set to release in February 2022. But just the knowledge of the new content has already made me excited about GW2.
New weapons and areas have already been found through datamining
What could a roadmap look like? In fact, some things are already known that will probably find their way to New World sooner or later. There were diligent dataminers in the beta and players who accidentally landed in new areas due to glitches.
The highlights are:
- 9 new weapons
- 6 new expeditions
- New difficulty levels for the expeditions
- New PvP content in the endgame
More about the found content can be found here: This is how New World is expected to continue after the release.
If only a part of this content is released in 2021, it would be a strong signal. Because I see great potential in New World, which, like many other MMORPGs, has too little to offer in the endgame at launch.
But to this potential also belongs proper communication and a realistic outlook for the future. And this is still lacking a bit.
What do you think about Amazon’s communication and a future roadmap? Do you think it is as important as I do?
For those interested in the current endgame content of New World, here is an overview:
New World: Level 60 and what now? 7 things you can do in the endgame
