[Megathread] Amazon's New World MMO

[rhorle]

So again, how is it players' fault that AGS fucked it up and fell short?

If players believe the hype and marketing of any game then they have some fault. Could it not have been over hyped? Sure. But removing any personal responsibility for blindly following hype is silly.

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Are you implying that players are in the wrong to expect something more out of a high profile MMO launch of the last few years from studio swimming in big daddy's $$ no less that was hyped up to high heaven? Amazon pumped more $$ into hyping this game than many studios have budget to even make games.

Yes. People that expect to much are at fault for expecting to much. How is that even a question? Money doesn't mean quality. AGS has no released games that did well. The only one they did release for PC was moved back into beta and then ultimately cancelled. Money isn't the issue here. Believing hype and falling into it is partly the responsibility of the players. Part developers who over hype and part players for falling for it.

How often is it said that people shouldn't pre-order because it sends the wrong message to developers? And now we have the opposite position from you saying that it is the fault of the developers at all times. New World is an average game. If you paid attention to the actual design and development it would never have come across as a WoW killer or "greatest thing since sliced bread" type of thing. But hey it can't ever be the fault of the players because they can't possible think logically about stuff they consume.

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Yeah, people expect content, how insane is that. Totally their fault there they are not staying for... nothing.

What developer can deliver content faster then players consume it? The game has been out for 3 weeks. Name one developer that can meet that schedule. Players can have unrealistic expectations and to deny that is possible is just silly. Could there have been more quests, dungeons, and end game stuff in the game at launch? Sure. But it isn't that important if they have a good plan to add that stuff post launch.

[pahbi]

There are so many fun things to do in a MMO.

Dungeons, PvP, farming and crafting, quests etc...

But what I spend 70% of my time doing in New World is walking which is absolutely the least interesting thing to do in a MMO.

What I wanted in New World was an adventure, what I got was a walking simulator.

[rhorle]

But what I spend 70% of my time doing in New World is walking which is absolutely the least interesting thing to do in a MMO.

The worst part is you can't even open your inventory to check/look at things while moving.

[Acidbaron]

This game has a lot of room for improvement on a lot of fronts, while i do find they need to stick true to their overall design philosophy or things start to do more harm than good in the long run, i am speaking of adding mounts, a minimap and other things they are used to in other MMOs without considering the negative impact it can have on the game. There are other design choices like the crafts for dungeon keys while elite farming is easier and just as good.

Plenty of bugs still around also once you reach max level you will know what i am talking about.

I find the comparison to juggernauts of MMOs like Runescape who have been around for more than 20 years if i am not mistaken to be really unfair, those games build up rather slowly.

The best part about this also is, it is B2P they shown there is interest in the game so now post-launch they can continue to improve on things i am interested to see where we stand a year from now, it can still do badly in the market mind you but i also believe it can carve out a nice corner for itself over time.

[Darkeon]

There are so many fun things to do in a MMO.

Dungeons, PvP, farming and crafting, quests etc...

But what I spend 70% of my time doing in New World is walking which is absolutely the least interesting thing to do in a MMO.

What I wanted in New World was an adventure, what I got was a walking simulator.

Didn't do any research before purchasing it?

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The best part about this also is, it is B2P they shown there is interest in the game so now post-launch they can continue to improve on things i am interested to see where we stand a year from now, it can still do badly in the market mind you but i also believe it can carve out a nice corner for itself over time.

Their very loose assurance regarding the monetization of their in-game store almost guarantees that in a year~ my interest will be severely reduced due to it's state.

[Fencers]

Living World/Story existed from day 1, it was one of the main selling points of the game. (It was meant to eliminate the need for expansions at first, but that didn't pan out.)

I mean, if you were never aware of any narrative, then you were never aware. Still, it's like someone telling you they worked at McDonalds and were later shocked to find out there was a drive-thru.

I don't recall Living Story being in GW2 from day 1. Wikipedia says it was introduced post-launch on June 2013.

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By your definition, do games with narratives even exist? I can ignore the story in pretty much every game and still play it to the end if i want to.

These are not the same things.

[damonskye]

What I wanted in New World was an adventure, what I got was a walking simulator.

That is EXACTLY why I quit during the second week. I was spending 95% of my time running and not doing anything fun. Very frustrating.

[Fencers]

GW2 at the day of its launch had an overarching narrative - and do you know what? It was different for each of the five races for half of the game! And those were voice acted quests with scenarios and in game cinematics on top of that.

I was talking about gameplay as already said. A narrative is gameplay. That's GW1, not GW2. The personal story is just text in GW2; it's not a metaphor of play.

[Nyel]

I was talking about gameplay as already said. A narrative is gameplay. That's GW1, not GW2. The personal story is just text in GW2; it's not a metaphor of play.

It's voice acted text in GW2. That's still way more than New World's main quest does.

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I don't recall Living Story being in GW2 from day 1. Wikipedia says it was introduced post-launch on June 2013.

Yeah because the first max level stuff was related to Orr, which was there in the base game at launch. Living Story acted as additional content in patches. What's your point though?

Living World Season 1, also called Scarlet's War, is the first season of the Living World. It began proper with Flame and Frost: Prelude on January 28, 2013, and continued until March 18, 2014 Battle for Lion's Arch: Aftermath. January, not June 2013. That was 5 months after launch.

Source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Season_1

[Edge-]

It's voice acted text in GW2. That's still way more than New World's main quest does.

That's fairly irrelevant since the VO has nothing to do with the narrative or gameplay. I like the VO for the most part, but if it was removed literally nothing in the game actually changes. And amusingly, they released multiple updates without any VO during the early days of the pandemic as they were unable to get VO's in the boot to record and...it didn't matter in terms of the content itself at all.

VO can be a "nice to have", but when you aren't making story central to your game, why blow the budget on it? Especially when most folks, given the unimportance of the story/narrative (if one exists) are just going to skip through it?

[Nyel]

That's fairly irrelevant since the VO has nothing to do with the narrative or gameplay. I like the VO for the most part, but if it was removed literally nothing in the game actually changes. And amusingly, they released multiple updates without any VO during the early days of the pandemic as they were unable to get VO's in the boot to record and...it didn't matter in terms of the content itself at all.

VO can be a "nice to have", but when you aren't making story central to your game, why blow the budget on it? Especially when most folks, given the unimportance of the story/narrative (if one exists) are just going to skip through it?

Why are you two always contradicting each other in what you said?

One wants a narrative. Then the narrative must contain gameplay elements. One is praising that the main story in New World is partially voice acted. Now all of a sudden voice acting is a nice addition but not mandatory because most skip through it.

For the record: I don't give a damn about voice acting, I always read quest texts faster than the voice acting and that's why it's hardly relevant for me. The constant back and forth in arguments when it comes to defend this game is still baffling though, because no matter what negative point is brought up, you two always find a way to turn it around and make it a net positive or at least something that's irrelevant. It's amusing, really.

[Fencers]

It's voice acted text in GW2.

This is a meaningless distinction.

That's still way more than New World's main quest does.

For sure. I am not saying New World is a titan of storytelling or narrative. The opposite is my point; as I said earlier, NW is aggressively average.

I was saying the genre does not have many games which are narratively driven; meaning the narrative is part of gameplay. Such as Half-Life, God of War, The Last of Us, Guild Wars 1, et cetera.

This has nothing to do with whether you ignore it or not. Only that NW (and most games in the genre) do not use the plot as part of the gameplay. They provide text, story, and context for pressing a button or performing actions. However, the plot (which can be gameplay fwiw) is not commonly a gameplay process of the MMO genre. Certainly, NW is not an exception to this at all.

Yeah because the first max level stuff was related to Orr, which was there in the base game at launch. Living Story acted as additional content in patches. What's your point though?

It was a reply to a poster that talked about Living Story earlier. I told the poster I did not play that content or knew much about it. So my comments were strictly and admittedly based on when I did play the game. This poster was asking how I could be surprised by the Living Story and so on.

Living World Season 1, also called Scarlet's War, is the first season of the Living World. It began proper with Flame and Frost: Prelude on January 28, 2013, and continued until March 18, 2014 Battle for Lion's Arch: Aftermath. January, not June 2013. That was 5 months after launch.

Source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Season_1

Right, as I said in the very post you are quoting. From the source, you are quoting.

[matheney2k]

There are so many fun things to do in a MMO.

Dungeons, PvP, farming and crafting, quests etc...

But what I spend 70% of my time doing in New World is walking which is absolutely the least interesting thing to do in a MMO.

What I wanted in New World was an adventure, what I got was a walking simulator.

Lol I can relate to this so much. I'm level 42 now and starting to feel burnout... I think this game is all kinds of fun, but I think it lacks a lot in order to make it a true contender, but it's well within the scope of possibility imho

[Edge-]

Why are you two always contradicting each other in what you said?

...because we're different people and not part of a hive-mind? >.>

One wants a narrative. Then the narrative must contain gameplay elements. One is praising that the main story in New World is partially voice acted. Now all of a sudden voice acting is a nice addition but not mandatory because most skip through it.

I'm not speaking for others, only myself, though I was working off of Fencers definition since she's got very firm beliefs about this. And while I don't agree 100% with all of them, I agree with some of them on this topic including that simply having a story/voice acting doesn't mean there's any kind of actual "narrative, especially as it relates to gameplay.

The constant back and forth in arguments when it comes to defend this game is still baffling though, because no matter what negative point is brought up, you two always find a way to turn it around and make it a net positive or at least something that's irrelevant. It's amusing, really.

Different people have different opinions...sorry?

[Tonkaden]

Why are you two always contradicting each other in what you said?

One wants a narrative. Then the narrative must contain gameplay elements. One is praising that the main story in New World is partially voice acted. Now all of a sudden voice acting is a nice addition but not mandatory because most skip through it.

For the record: I don't give a damn about voice acting, I always read quest texts faster than the voice acting and that's why it's hardly relevant for me. The constant back and forth in arguments when it comes to defend this game is still baffling though, because no matter what negative point is brought up, you two always find a way to turn it around and make it a net positive or at least something that's irrelevant. It's amusing, really.

The same can be said for you with the negativity. Anything positive is shot down with negativity. This isn't a one way street my dude. None of you are able to give or take on either side of the street.

[Fencers]

Lol I can relate to this so much. I'm level 42 now and starting to feel burnout... I think this game is all kinds of fun, but I think it lacks a lot in order to make it a true contender, but it's well within the scope of possibility imho

Imagine the people that no-life'd it.




But let's be real, walking everywhere sucks. Wanna know a secret? At one point in development, it was bandied about movement speed would be tied to weight. I told the devs at Relentless that was a terrible idea.

[pahbi]

Finally got to level 30.

So I decided to travel to a zone that is for level 26-35 characters, and pick up some quests in town and see if I can't continue leveling.

I get my first 2 quests, and they are 2.2k away all the way on the other side of the zone and no fast travel available.

Fuck it, uninstalled, I'm done.

I'm not spending 3-4 hours at a time in a game, just to have 80% of that time spent walking from place to place.

[PACOX]

Finally got to level 30.

So I decided to travel to a zone that is for level 26-35 characters, and pick up some quests in town and see if I can't continue leveling.

I get my first 2 quests, and they are 2.2k away all the way on the other side of the zone and no fast travel available.

Fuck it, uninstalled, I'm done.

I'm not spending 3-4 hours at a time in a game, just to have 80% of that time spent walking from place to place.

Half-assed thought I had about this game.

I've seen people on /r/newworldgame post stuff like, "I'm an adult with a full time job. I don't have time to play other MMOs, that why I love New World."

Never understood that take because statically most MMORPG players are in their late 20s to late 40s with jobs, anyway. Why play a game that disrespects your time with long ass travel times and monotonous tasks, then? Especially when there's other options on the market? If my free time is limited I'm not spending it in a walking simulator.

There's a lot of reasons why people champion the game, I just think the 'because I have no time' one is weak.

[munkeyinorbit]

I understand you dislike the game, but how many times do we have to read you shitting on it
Honestly, every post you've made is to discourage people from playing

Let them decide by themselves already

What are you on about. Have you read this website? It is a collection of hate posts shitting on something. You can choose not to read any of his posts but instead you choose to engage. It's like you want the hate boners to continue

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Uh, this patch sucks. They broke my sweet, sweet farming spots.

Edit: 100 gold for one stick of Cinnamon? FUCK YOU

It's actually coin. Gold is ore that you mine,.

[Deferionus]

No it isn't and people need to stop making this comparison, Runescape actually has a full fledged endgame (and tons of it).

(example of one small part of that endgame)


New World and Runescape isn't even close to being like each other. Just because you can cut a tree doesn't make NW like Runescape.

New World lacks content (not just endgame content) and that is due to the fact it was originally made to be a PVP focused MMO.

I played RuneScape from 2002 to 2016 and it is very similar to RuneScape's early days. There was a time you did not have any bosses and greater demons were the highest level monster in the game and you only had rune armor. Level 40 gear made with 85 mining and 99 smithing. Bossing didn't exist until the KBD was added to the game and then you had more stuff like the KQ added.

NW feels like those early days of RS but in a polished 2021 box. In time they will add stuff, and I am actually hoping for world bosses similar to what RS has that drops crafting materials + a rare item like a dragon med. I am also hoping company vs company encapsulates the great wars I fought on RuneScape someday while I was a part of 'the' alliance and led my own clan.