In a blog post released over the weekend, New World developer, Amazon Game Studios, revealed its hand on PvP. They discussed early testing, how players interacted with others, and the ramifications of an almost lawless ruleset. Their findings - on the whole - demonstrated a willingness by some, to inflict misery on others, whether through solo or group griefing. 

This alone seems to have been the catalyst to change course, and as we now know, sees New World adopt an opt-in approach to PvP. Understandably, a vocal group are upset. The game they pinned their hopes on for a shot in the arm of adrenaline and all-out carnage has seen its potential severely neutered. 

Make no mistake, New Worlds’ approach to PvP is now radically different, it will have likely alienated a gaggle of hardcore guilds and players, and has, in effect, seen the game attempt re-market itself with one blog post. 

PvP comes in many forms and has evolved massively within the MMO genre. From the lawless days of Ultima Online, to something much more santitised that we now see in World of Warcraft. Somewhere on the outer fringes sits Eve Online, where there are rules (but few) and piracy is rampant. In many ways, I suspect Eve Online is the nearest comparison for what Amazon Game Studios were seeking to achieve, and instead, ended up closer to Conan Exiles. 

While I’m all for “hardcore” PvP (effectively full-loot), it’s fair to say that every MMO that has tried to achieve this - certainly utilising a third-person perspective - has failed. Maybe not instantly, perhaps not spectacularly, but slowly and surely, they’ve limped into oblivion. There’s no mistaking that communities surrounding these games were passionate about what they were playing, but that passion alone wasn’t enough to sustain their long-term growth or retention. 

We only have to look at WildStar and see how good developer intentions in pursuing a hardcore crowd failed spectacularly. Carbine truly failed to read the room, because the game succeeded in hitting the target when it came to hardcore PvE, but it’s not what a wider audience wanted. 

As much as those of us who love PvP like to think we’re hardcore, there’s simply no mistaking that the wider paying public aren’t: quite the opposite. In fact, and perhaps anecdotal, but you only have to look at the existing landscape to see that full-loot, hardcore PvP just isn’t a thing. 

Some might argue that hardcore could be a thing, if developers gave it the time and attention that it deserves, and though I have sympathy with that chicken and egg scenario, it’s far from the mark when it comes to game design, a healthy online space, and enticing new players to replace those that any MMO naturally sheds over time. As it stands however, that page has been turned for New World, and looking at the landscape, it seems only Crowfall will offer something what once was. 

If I can digress a little, and perhaps as a perfect example in relation to New World, Neocron is my favorite MMO of all time. Niche at the time (largely due to its sci-fi setting), it could be played in 3rd or 1st person. It had limited PvE, and largely revolved around territory control. Clans fought over the entire world map, and control of each territory provided a Clan and its Faction with a steady source of income, as well as fast travel. To own the map not only reaped massive rewards, but afforded any Clan powerful enough to control it, complete bragging rights, safe in the knowledge that they were the most dominant force in the game.

Every inch of Neocron's world map could be controlled, and each location housed a unique Outpost that granted money to the clan which owned it.

Its ruleset saw few safe havens, and had players drop items outside of their locked slot when they were killed. The result was a nervy, aggressive, bitter PvP title that encouraged faction warfare. So much so, that most Clans operated on a red-is-dead or kill-on-sight policy. It didn’t matter who the player was, where they were, or if they were new to the game: if they were red to you, you killed them. 

While this resulted in 18 months of pure fun (honestly, I adored the game), with my Clan comfortably dominating our server and making life fairly miserable for anyone outside it, it came at a price. Not just our impact on said server, but for every equivalent Clan who did the same on theirs. 

New players dried up as we hunted them relentlessly, those not quite leaning into hardcore PvP drifted away (sick of their play being disrupted) and those that did stick around, filed into a fixed group of Clans that rarely altered, resulting in the cornerstone of the game (territory control) growing stale and predictable (Eve Online experienced similar with its Nullsec stagnation) 

Our server numbers dropped to as little as 800 people, and while prime-time play could be found, it wasn’t enough to sustain development or expansion of the game. Worse still, Neocron had a reputation it simply couldn’t shake (too many players abusing others). 

Were New World to continue down the path it chose in Alpha, it would inevitably reach the same demise. MMO’s are expensive, they’re elaborate, they require constant content, and fundamentally, they’re there to make a profit. Alienating huge swathes of any playerbase is commercial suicide, and considering how many eyes are watching New World and its potential success (and that of the genre), it’s undoubtedly the right decision. 

What I’ve always found, certainly when I played hardcore MMOs, was that largely, I was just out to make a name for myself. I wanted notoriety, I didn’t want fair fights, I wanted to punish opposition to create conflict, and I gave little thought to the long-term health of the game. It was fun, and it felt ruthless, but it was short lived and came at the expense of a game I loved.

New World’s shift away from hardcore PvP, towards more PvE and fairer PvP fights, shows a maturity from the studio, and a relisation that less is sometimes more. You don’t need full loot to be excited by PvP, and you don’t need to be able to repeatedly gank new players in order to satiate your adrenaline fix (that’s probably a good job, now player killing is out the window). 

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in playing MMO’s over the years, it’s that organised, fair fights are the most fun. They might not quite have the natural, unscripted edge that lawlessly roaming provides, but it’s still good. In fact, any PvP is if it’s well balanced. To suggest that New World is now dead, because a vocal minority have taken to YouTube, Twitter, or Reddit, exclaiming that the sky is falling, suggests the game will probably do just fine. In fact, my gut instinct tells me that this change will bring about an audience larger than they’d have ever achieved if they’d have stuck to their original design decision. 

For every player that’s into hardcore PvP, there must be dozens who aren’t. While some might argue that hardcore PvP has, “never been done right”, or “never given the right opportunity”, it’s possibly time to acknowledge that (despite my love full loot PvP), as far as the industry is concerned, it’s nothing more than a niche festish for a quiet corner of the genre. 

The wider discussion people should be having, is what will New World offer, now that its focus has shifted. This isn’t going to be another World of Warcraft (nothing is), so what does the game now have which is undeniably unique? Perhaps most importantly, why haven’t Amazon Game Studios simply pursued PvE and PvP servers (wouldn’t that have been an easier solution?)

I wish Amazon Game Studios the very best of luck with New World. The genre certainly needs an injection of life, and if that means pissing off the 1% in order totry to achieve it, I think it's probably trade-off worth making.