Players of Amazon’s multiplayer online role-playing game New World have been taking to Reddit and other online platforms to express their concern over people exploiting the game’s anti-ban feature to win faction events.
Released in late September New World is the first title from Amazon Games. Set in a fictional land in the 17th century, the game features three factions – Marauders, Syndicate and Covenant – for players to join to explore the world, gain allies in battle and collect valuable crafting resources.
In the game’s faction events, players break off into groups of up to five to try and claim as much territory in an area as they can. With the game boasting 50v50 games, these faction battles have become a key part of the game and one that players say is already being exploited via the game’s Auto-Ban feature.
The feature will ban a player, or players if there is a number of reports against them. The bans are automatic and immediate, meaning that if players from one faction mass report players from an opposing faction, then the reported players will be banned and removed from the game, giving the faction who reported them an advantage in the events.
Responding to player concerns on Twitter, a member of the New World team stated that all bans were reviewed by real people and that chat log activity showed breaches of the Code of Conduct in many instances.
Players can appeal the bans, but several have already taken to online forums, including Reddit and the New World website, to vent their frustrations at being unexpectedly banned. Many claim to have broken no rules and state the reason for their bans was in part to their intended participation in faction events.
The game has already come under criticism from players and reviewers over various issues in the game, with long server access wait times being among the top complaints from players.
New World is available now for PC.
Words by Megan Roxburgh.
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.