I mentioned a few days ago in the big list of New World complaints that I was more put off by the Azoth system than any of the exploits or even the economy concerns currently afflicting the new MMO. Essentially, my feelings on Azoth, which is essentially a reward currency that players can use to teleport to places they’ve previously unlocked, is that Azoth is a very obvious future cash-shop “convenience” that actually hampers travel and exploration in a negative way. I’ll quote the massively upvoted Reddit thread that echoes my thoughts on this “travel tax”:
“In order to save on Azoth, I usually end up running to most places. I am not lazy, I am tired of spending a ginormous chunk of my playtime running or stressing about how much Azoth I have. […] When I want to do something requiring traveling to multiple places, being faced with the choice of either spending a stupid amount of time running there OR having to stop what I’m doing mid-activity so I can go grind Azoth is just not fun. I do not want to worry about not having enough Azoth to fast travel to a group activity that I saw in the recruitment channel. I do not want to use up my whole entire Azoth pool to travel from town to town to sign up for wars or invasions. I do not want to spend almost 300 Azoth to travel 2 towns over with half of my bags full. It costs 200 Azoth if you want to change your main weapon builds between PVP/PVE at mastery level 20. […] In a game without mounts, fast traveling should not be this expensive… the cap on Azoth needs to be raised or the cost of travel needs to be lowered. I logged on this morning, looked at my Azoth, and logged out.”
I have always been a bit of an explorer type of gamer, and I have previously argued that it is the ease of travel that appeals to me as an explorer; I spend more time exploring in games with expansive travel systems that don’t penalize me for willingly traveling to the farthest reaches of the map. MMOs that make travel extremely arduous are a turn-off to an explorer like I am, though I certainly understand why they are a turn-on for achievers who eyeball mapping like one more achievement to conquer.
But New World’s travel system takes arduous travel and monetizes it (for now) with grind, which makes it even less appealing to a hardcore explorer. That seems pretty counterintuitive to me. Maybe I could understand it more if the game’s regional economy were functioning and essential right now, but it’s not.
Anyhow, I want your opinions. Is New World’s travel system tax actually fun? Is there a better way to do this? Which MMOs hit the sweet spot for travel and exploration for you?
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!
