I am not new to MMOs and have been a part of many patches, DLCs, and major updates. The changes that will come in this patch are great but could not be at a worse time.
- This will greatly divide fresh lvl 60s (casual players when they get there) and hard-core gamers that have been 60. Now don’t get me wrong, there should be a divided. But implementing it now will REALY discourage casual players. We have been playing the game trying to catch up to our friends / community to be able to play late game content. Now even if you get to 60 you will still be way behind. I know for a fact if I saw this game being so grindy with “zero” options to play with my high lvl 60 friends. I would have never picked this game up. (This is in reference to being able to buy ilvl 600 gear to catch up to them)
- The unfairness. If you got to 60 last month and bought the best gear (all ilvl 600) and grinded end game gear. You would have a huge advantage over someone in this patch who won’t be able to get and utilize ilvl 600 gear to grind high ilvl end game content. I can also see a lots of future updates to help the curve of fresh lvl 60s because of how many changes have been made to make the end game content harder because everyone has ilvl 600 gear.
- Creating a divide in endgame players. I have seen this in many MMOs and one of the things that can ruin a game. You will now be judged heavily on what your ilvl score is. “O if you’re not 590 ilvl you can’t join this raid, or battle, or dungeon.” This will start to become the norm, O you only 505ilvl sorry I’m going to pick this other guy to do the content. Now don’t get me wrong, if your game was years down the road and had +1 mil daily users and tons of content to grind. Wouldn’t be an issue. But this game is not that. You have such LITTLE content that a divide like this could be VERY bad and would 100% discourage me to continuing to play.
All and all A patch like this should come out during a MAJOR update that would make EVERYONE need to utilize the new system. Not just your casual players that haven’t had enough time to grind the end game content. It’s a very poor move if it does come into place that will ruin the game for a lot. I just don’t believe that it’s the right move right now. New World needs to make a strong foundation creating an enjoyable game for all. Then create elite content for the hardcore players. But how it feels that you only hear the concerns of the hardcore 500+ hours people and then try to think of quick fixes to cater to them. The reality of it all is that the 500+ hour person is probably not going to quit. (Or at least stop playing until the next patch) But if you kill the game to your casual players and you only have your 1% of hardcore players left. You won’t have much of a game.