Doesn't this New World thing strike anyone else as odd?

MightyUnclean

Doesn't anyone else think that the recent New World announcements seem kind of suspect?  The game is released in an alpha state with very limited content.  Then, it is pulled and drops off the map entirely for several months for a massive overhaul.  Now, it's suddenly an almost fully realized game that will release in six months.  Doesn't that seem kind of odd, especially if it's truly an MMORPG and considering the time those games take to develop?  Maybe I'm just used to the endless development cycles of crowdfunded, indie MMO's and don't appreciate what a large studio can do.  My guess, though, is that there really isn't going to be much content to the game.  In the description of the game on this site, it does describe it as an MMO, but not an MMORPG.  I think it's going to be a survival game where the RPG portion is left entirely up to the players.  Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad.

flguy147

Maybe I  am wrong but don’t think it’s ever been released yet.  This will be the official first release next year in May. 

cheyane

It was a private alpha test.

Scot

As long as you don't think of putting money in before launch you are safe.

Mikeha

Nope

milyen

It's a great game. A lot of open-world content to explore with a wide diversity of flora, fauna and animals. It was PVP which can be harsh so I understand their idea of more PvE. Not entirely sure of their business model yet: B2P, P2W, F2P microtransactions etc? who knows. I know you can pre-order a types for when it goes live.
There is also a lot of crafting and exploring to do. There is like a GvG clan war type PVP where you attack enemy bases or defend. It is quite fun but I did not find any dungeons. I didn't get very high level but it was challenging as you level up. There is constantly watching your back whilst attacking stuff and if you're the explore harvester type you still have to watch your back for someone sneaking up to you.

Definately worth a look at in my experience.

Wizardry

It doesn't matter a large team,it would still take 5+ years to make any kind of decent mmorpg.

Seems this will be on one island,likely not a whole lot of replay value once you have covered the map.So it might be an ok game for a few weeks then it'll get boring with the rinse repeat gaming.
 It is better to not expect much and just wait and see.

I laugh when i see ideas like "PRE ORDER" now,i can't imagine how dumb a person would be to pre order.

cheyane

milyen said:

It's a great game. A lot of open-world content to explore with a wide diversity of flora, fauna and animals. It was PVP which can be harsh so I understand their idea of more PvE. Not entirely sure of their business model yet: B2P, P2W, F2P microtransactions etc? who knows. I know you can pre-order a types for when it goes live.
There is also a lot of crafting and exploring to do. There is like a GvG clan war type PVP where you attack enemy bases or defend. It is quite fun but I did not find any dungeons. I didn't get very high level but it was challenging as you level up. There is constantly watching your back whilst attacking stuff and if you're the explore harvester type you still have to watch your back for someone sneaking up to you.

Definately worth a look at in my experience.

So is it still open world PvP? I rather not have people killing me while I am gathering resources.

Sequriem

I kind of agree here, my impression before the announcement was that it was probably a survival type of game.

Albatroes

MightyUnclean said:

Doesn't anyone else think that the recent New World announcements seem kind of suspect?  The game is released in an alpha state with very limited content.  Then, it is pulled and drops off the map entirely for several months for a massive overhaul.  Now, it's suddenly an almost fully realized game that will release in six months.  Doesn't that seem kind of odd, especially if it's truly an MMORPG and considering the time those games take to develop?  Maybe I'm just used to the endless development cycles of crowdfunded, indie MMO's and don't appreciate what a large studio can do.  My guess, though, is that there really isn't going to be much content to the game.  In the description of the game on this site, it does describe it as an MMO, but not an MMORPG.  I think it's going to be a survival game where the RPG portion is left entirely up to the players.  Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad.

It didn't 'drop off the map' as it were, people who participated in the testing were under NDA. If you wanna break an NDA with amazon, by all means, that's on you.

As for the 'mmorpg' bit, you dont need to be a 'tester' to deduce that the game just isn't an mmorpg. Sure it'll probably have mmorpg elements like leveling and slaying big bosses....but dont most pvp focused games have that? It feels like people forget a couple of things, such as Amazon owning Twitch and the studio saying that every title they were going to produce would have twitch integration. At the end of the day, its about creating events for people to watch and the core of any mmorpg is repetitive grinding, which is boring to watch.

Theocritus

Someone mentioned earlier that it has PVP....Why must they ruin every single open world game with PVP?

Forgrimm

Theocritus said:

Someone mentioned earlier that it has PVP....Why must they ruin every single open world game with PVP?

You won't have to do pvp if you don't want to.
https://massivelyop.com/2019/12/14/new-world-has-appadiscusses-opting-out-of-pvp-and-colonialism/

ChildoftheShadows

Opting out of pvp doesn't mean toggles,it could simply meant pve servers. 

SaunZ

I am SO excited for New World!  I am an Amazon Prime member so I will get Free Shipping and the game will arrive tomorrow!!

Sz 

crankked

DMKano said:

I am expecting a whole lotta "meh" - the game will probably be nothing special but some kind of a weak survival mmo pve/p hybrid that ends up being subpar in all ways.

But I am sure the integrated twitch streaming will be top notch - just dont think many will watch nor play after the launch hype dies down

I couldn't agree more.  We don't know much right now about it, but the little we do know makes it sound like another pvp/pve sandbox game.  We sure don't have enough failed versions of those games floating around........ 

My guess is what @DMKano is saying.  The Twitch integration will be amazing and they will try to use that to generate hype for all the sheeple that apparently love to watch people play instead of actually play the game and then, subsequently, buy the game cause some dipshit streamer likes it as his/her flavor of the month game.....

SlyLoK

I've played it. It was good. Interesting to see how all the changes play out. I'm all for a more PvE oriented game.

Unless the scope has changed it is an MMORPG..unless you don't consider thousands playing on the same server an MMORPG.

Preacher26

I haven’t been this excited for a game launch in quite some time but some alpha testers were discussing this topic yesterday and I agree. It does seem like a lot of system overhauls and content additions since the alpha servers went down but one would have to believe that they were working on many of these things while the closed alpha was active. 

I can only hope that we were testing the barebones systems in the alpha which I already loved and that we are about to experience an even better more diverse game. I can’t wait for the next alpha phase.

For those who got into the alpha early and got the impression that it’s a survival game I do understand why you felt that way... I actually felt that way when I first started back in early October 2018 but you’ll see that’s just not the case. It may not be a game for everyone but it’s not just another survival game. 

anemo

They're going to "force" it to be a success. 

They have a lot of future money on the line with how much they invested into making the Lumberyard branch of the CryEngine.  Buying out twitch and having lumberyard yard integrated with twitch.  And integrating lumberyard with AWS. 

Twitch is probably the most profitable streaming service that's starting to lose some ground to other competitors.   So getting something like New World Twitch integration up to show devs is a longterm play.   You can expect them to have a write up evangelizing how many new players they got from twitch integration.  And eventually an Indy with a few posts of how much purchase traffic they got from twitch.   And Streamers to nag beg you to purchase games through twitch integration so they get a cut.

AWS is the most expensive cloud service.  So a combination of having something to show suits to say our stuff lets you do this.   Lumberyard's must use AWS if you use third party servers will also be immensely profitable.

PratchettMan

Alpha Tester here for 5 months before the servers shut down last June.

New World is not a suvival MMO. A survival game has hunger and thirst bars, and this game doesn't have those. You gather resources for crafting purposes, mainly to craft weapons and armor. Also, there are outposts that you can log off at and craft at. Plus, you aren't building a shelter for yourself, but you can spawn a camp as part of the Wilderness Survival skill tree. So, nope not a survival MMO.

As far as PVP, it is now a toggle, so no world PvP. This changes the entire core mechanic of the game, from where it was in Alpha.

I would reccommend going over to the reddit thread about New World. Lots of the Alpha testers have been posting in there.

https://www.reddit.com/r/New_World_MMO/

Valentina

Nope, this not a survival game and a lot has changed since alpha so the info I have is gonna be about as good as what everyone else has now, based on what they have told us. The game is looking to be on a different path towards being a more traditional MMORPG.

Nanfoodle

I dont often agree with @DMKano but in this I agree. Buying out a studio that has a creative flow and a vision would have been 100 x more effective. This feels very forced with little or no thought to the game play as a whole. How one part functions into the next. 

PratchettMan

Have to totally disagree with @DMKano about the game. The Alpha was an amazing polished game. The general consensus was that it ran better than most released game. The actual gameplay was excellent. 

The issue now is that they are changing the entire direction of the game from the last Alpha. PvP was the core mechanic. Without it, there is no risk at all. 

Also, they have added 3 factions ala ESO, which I personally hate. 

And what PvP there is, is now instanced. So, yes it appears to be a new game from what was played in last Alpha. 

It sounds like it went from sandbox to now themepark 

Again, the New World reddit thread has lots of great discussions with many of the Alpha players chiming in. 

Superman0X

DMKano said:

Also forcing all game teams to use Lumberyard, also forcing them to use AWS, and forcing twitch integration, forcing all games to have high "watchability value" - all these requirements and constraints just kill natural creativity and freedom that many game devs are used to.

I disagree with this. I believe that if Amazon hired a good studio(s) to build games using their tools, and then had the tool team work on improvements based on the feedback from these developers we would have both good games, and good tools.

In fact I think that if Amazon were to make their focus the development of good tools and systems for game developers, they would likely find that after having paid some big studios to create content (and they having created better tools because of this) smaller studios would naturally follow, and they might not even have to pay for a second round from the larger studios. Amazon needs to look at its tools and services like a console platform. It is a platform that needs to have content developed for it, and that if sufficiently supported, can take off on its own.

botrytis

If a game has a flushed out design and idea, it can be done decently with a good team and management that doesn't cave on things. This is how a game should be developed. 

Cleffy

More than likely they made a limited test version since the amount of people and time would be limited. It wouldn't make sense to release an entire game to Guage public opinion.
Amazon game development seems to be in Southern California which has a glut of talented mmorpg programmers that were let go due to poor management style. Talking about SOE firing veteran programmers for lower skilled lower cost programmers. 

EQBallzz

Yeah, I found it odd. I was in the alpha and I played it once because it didn't really seem that interesting but it might not be my kind of game. It's odd that from that one test the game is now in a pre-order state after so many changes (apparently). I definitely won't be pre-ordering this (or anything ever again) but I will be interested to see how it goes.