High there everyone, my character’s in-game name is WarMongerian, and I play on the Pluto server.
I am an old guy, and have never played in an MMO before this one, and so I want to share my experience with New World as seen from the eyes of a first time MMOG player, and an old timer.
Here is my main guy:
And here is my server:
A little about me, the guy behind the character.
US Army disabled veteran, proud of my country and my service to it! God bless America, which may not be perfect, but is my home!
When my gaming pals first mentioned NW to me, I was intrigued by the vague promise of buying/building a home/base and exploring and playing with my friends. So I came into this game with great expectations for what I would discover, and how inter player actions would pan out. One of my big turn-off activities is and always will be, PK’ers. New World, I was assured, solved that problem by having a fully playable experience playing exclusively as PvE, and a separate, optional PvP content/missions, so malicious players cannot attack anyone not flagged for PvP at all, anywhere, in anyway. 
So, on my character’s arrival on the beach, I discovered that none of my friends were anywhere nearby! I was on my own, and learned the hard way that I couldn’t just go anywhere I wished, as death was just one bad fight away.
My first day, I had discord contact with my clan mates both voice and text, but don’t know when the first “In person” contact took place. By the end of my first week, I had discovered some problems with the Quest system that left me with a very negative impressions and experiences, that have stayed with me all the way to today.
For example, my guy is admittedly 60th level, but so far my quests have NOT seen me doing the starstone expedition yet (I just recently got the tuning orb), and while I do have a date with someone named Thorn to be met at something called the Depth’s (which some kind soles took me into long ago, to our entire parties repeated demise), I now actually have that on my map at last.
I also just have recently gotten the tier three camp, if that tells you anything.
Some things I have yet to see:
Is there a section of the forums, where players that are so inclined can post stories about their characters journey through the game?
Is there “Companion Software” that makes taking & editing in-game screen shots easy and simple? I’m old, remember, and I would love to be able to make a video while I play the game, and be able to post it online for others to comment on, but I don’t know how to do that, so would be stuck with making what in the military would be called an AAR or After Action Review.
So, my observations:
I got the game installed and started playing on the 8th of October, 2021. I understand that the game went live on or about the 28th of September, so the day I got the game up and running, other folks had had themselves a 10 day head start. By the 11th of October it was confirmed that all the territory that could be bought, had already been bought, and I am not sure whether there were already 60th level character running around.
If this is indeed correct, that the max level was achieved by some players in two weeks or less, and that all the player buyable territories were already snatched up before most people knew what hit them, then I have to ask some questions with my limited experience.
My thoughts on the above two circumstances, max player level and all bought up:
Would it not have been better to initially have launched the servers with level caps in place to prevent 60th level characters in less than a month? If I understand correctly, in a MMO game, there will be no server reset, and no clean slates? In other words, any new players of New World are going to come into servers that are already a work in progress, and populated by far more leveled up characters and companies, who will always have a large and ever growing advantage over the new player?
On territory ownership/taxes and the impact on the servers economy:
As far as I understand it, there are 4 of the 11 player/controllable territories where new characters spawn on each server, with these being Windsward in the middle/central location, with First Light being located to the South, Monarch’s Bluff lying to the West, and Everfall to the North? I keep running into folks that don’t know what territories are started territories and which are not, so it would seem some attention should be given to this, so new players get a proper intro to the game.
Would it not be best, in the interests of server balance, to make some changes to how ‘ownership’ of the starter territories is handled? Instead of a free for all, might it not be a better idea that Windsward be an un-controllable/neutral on all servers, while the other three new character starter areas are simply fixed as belonging to one faction or another right off and forever? This would give players going for factions a ‘home base’ that would never be taken away, and prevent some of the problems that we are currently seeing on some servers less than two months into the game.
New player starter areas, and corruption.
I see tier 2 and up corruption being allowed to spawn/remain in starter areas as an all around detriment to the game as a whole, but particularly to the new (and soon to be, former) players that spawn, cannot do much because of corruption, and just give up and go and play something else, never to return because of bad implementation of the corruption mechanics.
I have a great deal more to say, but want to get this first post posted so I can see how it looks, before I continue.
