Good-afternoon to the fellow devs and anyone who may be reading. I hope this correspondence finds you in good health and well-being. Ive seen so many positive improvements to the game and just wanted to send my glad tidings to the amazing dev team! Thank you for all your hard work. I am penning this topic because I wanted to raise awareness of an issue that I believe may have been thrown to the wayside and would love your clarity and solicitude.
You know when I was 17 I had my first summer job, I got it painting houses in Cape Cod for a contractor named Mr.Zynalolu. My first day there I hated it; their were loud parties going on that were sensitive to my ears and it would last throughout the night. I went to my dad right after and said I wanted to quit. My dad asked me “did you give him your word you will work?” I replied “yes I did” he then stated “then you will not quit you will work through it.” For the next 60 days of summer I worked through the horrible noise. Even though I could have found better pay elsewhere or even better commendations, I gave him my word so I stuck to it. On the last day Mr.Zynalolu came to me and took me to the side, he looked at me and said you know your the first person who has stuck with the summer job in over 20 years and gave me an extra 50$ bill. It is the most important money I’ve ever made as it taught me a valuable lesson. Value your word above all else.
I share this anecdote with you because I am physically disabled gamer who has issues using K&M. It dampened my excitement for the release of New World as I really wanted to play and invest in the game. But on September 12th 2021 this tweet was published by New World
https://twitter.com/playnewworld/status/1436960491784470528?s=46&t=hlPiJgQTPb6ZE4YI2qgViA
“We were targeting full controller support at launch but it won’t be complete by Sept 28, we are still working toward it, but it will not be ready at launch.”
Words fall short to describe the enormity of joy I felt when I read that tweet. Not only was controller accessibility coming to the near future but if it was initially targeted for launch 90% of it was most likely done and it’s just a matter of ironing out the kinks.
I purchased the game and tried using some of the remapping steam features in the meantime, but their aim was very finicky, especially for ranged weapons, and for PvP matches a moment’s hesitation can lead to death.
However I was hopeful as I knew controller support was coming soon after launch. Days turned into weeks… weeks turned into months and now months have almost turned into a year. As the cool autumn chill gave way to Winters snow hope turn into ash in my mouth. I realized holding on to that promise was but a fever dream, I know after launch NW had many issues it needed to tackle, from bugs, and server size, to gameplay variety. So it would be safe to surmise the priority of the accessibility controller support had gone down. I know not where that priority lies within the walls of New World development halls today.
But I’m writing this post to beseech you to look into brining controller support into New World . Not because it is the most important priority at the moment. Nor because it will effect the largest gaming community. Simply because it was a promise made, a word given from you by your own volition, that controller support will come soon after launch. And as the 1 year anniversary of the game is coming around and the new expansion is on the horizon i ask the dev team, please do not forge your word, because what are we if not the product of our principals.