Not quite a year ago, when Amazon took New World out of alpha and back to the drawing board, I posed almost this exact question for our readers. Now, it’s back in alpha with a new plan for toning down the PvP that isn’t impressing critics – or PvE players. Earlier this week, some mainstream press previewed the current state of the alpha; IGN, for example, said the character creator was barren, with the PvE content being “about as predictable and cookie-cutter as PvE content can get in an MMO.” The words “tedious,” “grind,” “monotonous,” and “empty” were used. “PvE felt lifeless, uninspired, and unoriginal,” the site wrote, arguing that it was obvious the game had begun as a PvP title that had lost its identity. Yikes. In fact, the few things the preview praised came down to solid combat, character development, and… PvP skirmishes.
In other words, all the concerns MMO players had about the shift to a PvE-focus for the game where little PvE-focus existed before seem more and more legitimate. Sure, people were happy to see the PvP dialed back a bit, but they also wanted to see the ganking replaced with good content. If the game launches like this, it’s not clear who exactly will be happy with the result if neither PvP nor PvE fans are having fun. And that’s a shame, because when we previewed the game last year, we did like it.
“How bad do you gotta be to get a bad IGN review?” MOP commenter Arktouros joked when he tipped it over to us.
A few days ago, well over half of you said you were now or still interested in the game, but the conversation around the game keeps changing almost faster than we can all keep up. Are you now concerned about the launch of Amazon’s New World? Is there a point of negativity at which you think Amazon might just give up entirely?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
