I’ve avoided writing about Amazon’s New World and the reason is pretty mundane – there’s nothing in it that sounded enticing, which is a bit weird for a new MMO launch. I mean, not that I’d have a time right now, being in full swing in FFXIV, still raiding in WoW, and playing EVE in between. Also I’m paying for too many MMO subs already. But wait, New World is Buy To Play, like Guild Wars 2 – so that wouldn’t be the problem. No, I’ve watched a few people play it and I am simply not feeling it. From what I’ve heard the story is as exciting as the trailer, gameplay should be fine, but I don’t see a goal. Also doesn’t help that I have hardly any immediate friends who started to play. Only some internet friends where I wouldn’t be joining their server/guild/faction by default. So in the end? I’m a little bummed out to be not excited about an MMO launch, but it is what it is. I’m not ruling out to look at it whenever I develop interest and it’s still alive. Maybe next year?
Not-so-ninja-edit: Bhagpuss wrote about transmog/glamour/looks, a point I hadn’t even thought about or only unconsciously noticed that I don’t like the bland looks of the chars I’ve seen, but it’s another point.
I jumped in with a bunch of friends, and have been enjoying the exploration and particularly the gathering. But I’ve found the repetition of the quests and sameness of the world and NPCs has my interest wearing thin pretty quickly.
It’s quite interesting how the single-character per server rule means that once you get left behind the levelling mob who are moving to higher zones, the world empties out. Which doesn’t feel very satisfying. I’m now wandering around settlements that are barely populated by players, after being thick to begin with. I wonder if the restriction is a mistake, as there’s not much fun to be had in an empty MMO. Warcraft alts save the lower level zones from feeling empty, and GW2 always seems to be throbbing with people wherever you go, but that can’t happen here. I guess they’re relying on PVP wars to solve that – but those just scare off the slower and lower levellers.
Oh, interesting. I hadn’t read anything about alts, what you described would explain a lot.