Following multiple issues like the New World gold dupe exploit that the MMO faced, players, are wondering whether or not they’re seeing the end for the game.

While New World was off to a great start, it’s now having trouble keeping up with the momentum.

New World was the talk of the town when it launched last year; Amazon Games Studio couldn’t have asked for a better result, especially if we dig into their past efforts such as Crucible. Millions of players queued up to play on the first day of its release, and the concurrent player count rose to over 900. We know you’re pretty much tired of hearing this story being brought up over and over again, but it was the first big MMO launch in years. Naturally, it gained a lot of attention, especially since it was advertised as being a mixture of a survival game, a player-driven economy, and a compelling PvP experience. However, the queues were a major problem – first-timers and New World gold farmers had to wait hours to get in, only to be disconnected and stuck at the back of the queue once more. It started to become clear that the faction-based PvP where much-touted wars would allow factions to flip territory were nearly impossible to participate in unless you were in a prominent company.

Problems Left, Right, and Center

One of the main problems with New World was its PvE. While the New World Trading and crafting, faction rivalries, and combat mechanics hooked players line and sinker, the PvE experience felt flat. You could play hundreds of hours and only face a handful of generic enemies over and over again until you reach the endgame. What’s worse is that instead of being met with some sort of reward, the people that powered through it all and finished the journey to max level were met with a similar experience when they came to the endgame.

Another issue that ran amuck were the exploits. It was only a minor inconvenience at first, but it soon became a serious problem as gold and item duping wrecked the economy. In November 2021, Amazon had to effectively turn off the economy, which led to a freezing of trading, gold transfers, and company treasuries until the problem was resolved. Much to the dismay of players and Amazon, this somehow created an even bigger problem. A new gold dupe exploit was accidentally triggered during the process, and the economy had to be shut down again since the exploit was discovered to let players copy New World items like trophies and furniture which could then be sold on the trading post.

The Current State of New World

Let’s take a look at New World’s last big update in January which introduced Expedition Mutators. Expeditions are New World’s dungeons and while there was the occasional novel puzzle, they were overall forgettable, especially the ones that you encountered while leveling. Mutators were introduced to spice the enemies up by augmenting them with new abilities and gave out a rotation of dungeons and mutations each week. These mutated dungeons, in turn, rewarded players with Umbral Shards, an item that’s essential if you wanted to upgrade your armor and weapons to the maximum gear score. Needless to say, the addition of more currencies and grinding was heavily criticized by the community, and Expedition Mutators was mostly written off as an underwhelming experience.

A Dev Update for February 2022

A lengthy developer update was posted on YouTube by Amazon Games recently and gave players a breakdown of the changes coming to New World this month. For starters, fast travel costs will be adjusted to be more player-friendly. There are also plans to make movement and combat smoother. Adding to that, the developers also teased the next arc of the New World story, which will see new villains rise while old friends and foes will make a return. All in all, the February 2022 update seems to address many of New World’s prominent issues.

Are players happy ?

MMO players never truly experience happiness; kidding aside, Steam reviews for New World continue to be mixed as tens of thousands of players aren’t returning with the passing of each month. Worries about the population decline are still a common topic in various forums. New World isn’t dead yet, but it’s still dying. It’s sad to see how the various issues led to a rapid decline in the online fantasy adventure’s popularity despite being extremely successful at launch. But then again, Amazon dug their own grave given how they handled the situation during the first few months. The February XNUMX update is promised to be substantial, but only time will tell whether New World can rebuild its original player base.

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By Alchemists, March 2022