The weird thing – or clever thing – about Amazon Game Studios’ New World alpha is that seemingly everyone is in it, so nobody can talk about it either, whether press or player. It’s led misinformation and confusion to flourish as only leakers’ voices are heard, Reddit alpha discussion is suppressed, and the official Twitter account offers only superficial glimpses.
Another such leaker is breaking his NDA to deliver info on the game through Italian MMO website MMO.it, but his goal is clearly to combat the idea that the game is a survival game, contrary to the initial impressions and infodumps that have generated so much criticism.
“New World is by no means a survival sandbox as many might seem,” the leaker tells MMO.it. “This is in effect an MMORPG based on territorial conquest,” complete with a “criminal mode” that essentially flags you as a criminal for several hours, inviting other players to kill and loot you.
“Alphano,” as the publication calls him, says that the game has much more in common with old-school PvP MMORPG sandboxes like Ultima Online, Shadowbane, and EVE Online, with active and passive skill sets layered with action combat. On the other hand, this leaker claims the “endgame seems mainly aimed at the clash between players, a bit like EVE Online,” rather than high-level PvE content.
One downside to this tester’s interview? He isn’t so sure about a 2019 release. “I do not think the release is so far away, and I think we’ll have more precise news within a year. I think even a release in 2019 itself may be plausible, but maybe I’m too optimistic. Although Amazon has not made much publicity, however, at the moment the number of alpha testers is close to ten thousand … that is not little.”
Obviously, take it all with a grain of salt, but maybe don’t write it off for being just another survival game just yet.
