Back in December, the New World devs announced that they’d made some changes to the PvP system - a coveted mechanic - in the game following its alpha phase. Turns out, they saw a lot of high-level players griefing low-level players, so much so that it produced a pretty toxic online culture. So, they were changing things up, and a lot of their changes were covered in the video below. PvP will be less of a focus for the game, and players will have to actually turn the feature on once they reach a high enough level. Once it’s on, they’ll only be able to engage with other players who’ve made the same choice. When players die in PvP, you drop nothing, thus making the consequence of death pure inconvenience. Even further, they’ve eliminated the criminal system born out of PvP entirely. Those lowered stakes take the wind out of the PvP sails, and fans are frustrated.

Fans have not been happy with the word from the devs, and they’ve expressed that frustration in various online communities. First of all, the video itself has a terrible like-to-dislike ratio at, currently, 631 likes to 1.8k dislikes. The comments themselves are pretty negative too, with complaints ranging from well-considered rebukes to outright insults. One quote from Patrick Gilmore, Game Director for New World, is tossed around a lot. In it, Gilmore sells the value of PvP and how it will affect New World. The quote looks awfully silly now that they’ve decided to gut the system.

“The spine of the game is player versus player combat. You’ll probably be murdered in New World. So, yes, players will be able to freely kill other players, but we have a number of systems like Sanctuary and Criminal Justice, which add interesting consequence and drama to that experience. I came to realize that the constant press of danger was fundamental to the thrill of the game—making New World a peaceful world would deprive players of the stakes and drama of trying to forge a new life in an uncaring and supernatural wilderness.”

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New World will launch exclusively on the PC platform on May 26, 2020.

Source: YouTube