New World was a massive success for Amazon Games upon its release, seeing 913,000 players in its opening weekend. This number seemed to promise a healthy future for the game, but now only a little over one month later, it has shrunk into the 300,000–400,000 range. As such, some are wondering what caused half of the New World player base to abandon the game so quickly, and if they will ever return. It's possible, though Amazon will need to make the right changes to the game.

Players have had a plethora of concerns that cover just about every aspect of the game, with some of the most prevalent being issues with the pace of leveling, the worldbuilding, and New World's PvP component. A recent announcement of a Public Test Realm might be an indicator that Amazon is gearing up for some hefty changes to the game, but it remains to be seen if this fix addresses players' specific concerns. For some lapsed gamers, the test server has been enough to pull them back in—for now.

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Build A Deeper World

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In creating an MMORPG, Amazon Games had some stiff competition. Upon its release, New World faced comparison that was inevitable. For players coming from a game like WoW or Final Fantasy XIV, the expectations for worldbuilding were high, and New World simply doesn't measure up. The map itself is smaller, which is to be expected of a newer game like New World, but many areas feature only the slightest variety, with some regions being almost indistinguishable. That thread seems to be apparent in the whole game, with a serious lack of enemy and quest variety also disappointing players. Other complaints have been in regard to the lack of character race variety and a small range of combat styles.

It's clear that the game was developed with a heavy emphasis on PvP, to the point that some feel PvE in New World was neglected in the game's formation. Players complain that the story quests are repetitive and unoriginal, with a serious lack of deep storytelling and worldbuilding. The Public Test Realm announcement came with the reveal of a new enemy type and a few enemy variations, which may bring some much-needed change to combat encounters. Most notably, Amazon announced improved main storyline quests, with further improvements on the way.

Fans of the MMORPG genre have made it clear: New World needs to beef up its worldbuilding, its storytelling, and its variety. If these updates truly do what they promise, New World just might be on the path to redemption for players that were let down by the unimpressive world.

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Improve New World's Leveling Pace

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Some players were shocked when they started the game and realized just how grindy the leveling in New World is. This has been a massive complaint, with leveling skills taking days and weeks of playtime to be able to access higher-level content. Because of this barrier, many players likely dropped the game before they'd even begun. Another common pain point has been the lack of mounts in the game, causing players to run on foot between widely-spaced landmarks. While there is a fast-travel system, it's only available when a player is within a fast-travel waypoint like a shrine or settlement. Players can also warp back to a designated inn once per real-world hour. Still, the constant requirement to be trekking across the map has caused a lot of frustration, with a big portion of the community demanding mounts for higher-level players.

The new test server update doesn't appear to address any of players' concerns with the pace of leveling New World skills like logging, engineering, or combat (which is arguably the more pressing concern for players). It does, however, seem to have introduced a sprint mechanic. Players' sprint speed is increased by 10% when traveling on roads in the test server, which may alleviate some of the irritation being caused by the lack of mounts.

Repairs To New World's Endgame

Shroud Teases 'Amazing' New World Patch Coming in a Couple of Weeks

For New World players that were able to overlook some of the early difficulties with leveling and get their characters in the high-level range of 50–60, their efforts were not rewarded with excellent endgame content. Instead, its almost exclusively PvP content where progress is dependant on the player faction's success against other real-world players.

While the idea of competing against other gamers is nothing new or shocking, New World's faction system has become extremely unbalanced, especially with the mass exodus of half the player base. Many servers have every single area on the map controlled by one faction with the two competing groups not standing a fighting chance. It varies from server to server, and for a player who made an "incorrect" faction choice for their server, they just might find themselves unable to progress due to the overwhelming opposing force. The test server has announced some minor changes to PvP, but there was no mention of endgame. If the faction system doesn't get some rebalancing and the endgame doesn't see some flexibility, New World may lose its most loyal players as soon as they hit level 60.

While the Public Test Realm may indicate a step in the right direction, it also may not be enough. As a standalone application that doesn't allow players to use their existing characters, the extra effort might be too much to ask of gamers that already have one foot out the door. The base game needs improvements in order to bring back lapsed players, and the changes need to be soon if New World wants to keep players that are already questioning their commitment.

New World is available now on PC.

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