AGS created a game that appealed to the masses because it is completely open ended in how you want to play and interact with the world with next to no micromanagement.
^^Leveling^^ You can literally level from 1 to 60 by cutting down trees and doing nothing else if your heart so desires. You don’t even have to do the MSQ if you don’t want to. On the other hand, if you like variety, you can do a huge list of other things to level such as MSQ and side quests, killing enemies, crafting, town board quests, portals, what ever appeals to you and you’re pretty much allowed to choose when, what, and how much of what ever you want to do. The game is completely open ended while leveling.
^^End Game^^ Then you hit level 60 and the world opens up even more. You can still do those things that you did while leveling, but one key element is missing from those tasks, experience gain. For many people, this is where the game enters a new phase in which the interaction part of the world slows way down and people want to focus on end game progression which for this game is basically limited to crafting, leveling expertise, and PVP. Whether you want to focus on PVE or PVP or a mix of both, leveling expertise is a key component to your progression. The process of leveling expertise started as pretty open ended - people could do their daily chests (with a group or solo), people could grind high level world bosses and enemies, people could spam dungeons, people could do portals, people could PVP in OPR, etc.
^^Changing the original concept of the game^^ However, with each patch, changes to end game limit how and when people are able to do things that benefit their progression. Terrain has changed, chests moved, snipers added, bosses health changed, and now, the gypsum system which has several gating aspects (enough CDs to require a google calendar) and a laundry list of things to do in order to maximize your efforts. All of these changes have pigeon-holed people in a way that they are forced to play the game the way the DEVs want them to. Limiting one aspect of the game, such as elite chests, to once every 24hrs is acceptable. However, due to the fact that the gypsum content spans every activity available in the game and is limited by 24hr CDs, it seems to directly oppose their original concept of the game which allowed people to interact with New World how and WHEN they want to.
[EDIT] ^^To Clarify^^ The gypsum system itself is not really an issue (except of the fact that other methods were nerfed to encourage its use). I actually think the gypsum system is great on the surface; however, the 18-24hr CDs are a problem. I’ll offer a solution - all that really needs changed is to remove the CDs on obtaining gypsum and remove the limit on the number of each type of gypsum that you can convert into orbs per day. If they want to keep the 7 orb per day limit that’s fine, but if someone just wants to OPR to get them then let them do 14 OPR and convert two at a time making 7 orbs. If someone just wants to craft, let them craft a ton of stuff per day and get 7 emerald gypsum to make their 7 orbs. It’s not super complicated and doesn’t require the devs to completely scrap the new system, but it would allow people to play WHEN and HOW they want to. [Done with Edit]
The people who are still playing New World were drawn to the open-ended aspect of the game and fell in love with the amazing potential of the game which is a big reason that we’re all still here. However, the original appeal of the game is being changed if not discarded completely which is a slap in the face to those who have stuck it out through all the bugs and missteps. Devs - please stop limiting the potential of this awesome game!