Hi guys o/ I’m not here to rage or threaten to quit the game if certain changes are made. To be very honest, I’m the kind of player that’s pretty chill with anything they decide to change. However, I’ve also seen so many great MMOs falter after launch as the inevitable wave of complaints and anger pushes the devs away from their original vision, and I so badly don’t want that to happen here. So please AGS, if you’re listening:
PLEASE don’t resort to forced gameplay and rushed band aid solutions for this game. That’s all I really want to get across here.
I know that it’s been a hard couple of months for you, I know the exploits have been bad and the complaints have been non-stop, but please don’t fall into the pit-trap of balance woes that have turned so many other MMOs into a mess of band aid fixes and half-baked systems.
I don’t want to monologue too much so I’ll just turn this into a list 
Here’s the three main concerns that have popped up for me over the past few months:
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-The new Expertise system-
This is of course the inspiration behind this post, as it is with many others right now, but I want to make it very clear what the main issue is here: you are forcing gameplay limitations on your player base. These are never good in any form, especially in an open-world MMO. Not only will this system introduce a lot of unforeseen problems with other systems - notably crafting and having to redo the grind every time a new weapon is released - but you’re also time-gating it. Trust me, nobody likes dailies in an MMO. They don’t stop people with unlimited time from getting to the top quickly, they just make it 10x more frustrating for the people without a lot of time to catch up. I love the idea at it’s core, but please consider it more carefully before committing. -
-Constant nerfs to end-game grinding solutions-
I’m not even the type of player that takes advantage of these kinds of things, again, I just don’t think that trying to force players down specific avenues of play is a good thing. As MMO devs you have to understand that your player base will always find the most efficient path to victory. Trying to stomp out these pathways is wasted effort; your players will simply find the next most-efficient path to the top, and then you have to stomp that one out too in an endless cycle of nerfs. This is tiring for you and disheartening for your players. Instead of doing this, it’s better to spend your energy on developing newer content that is more in-line with your intended vision for the game to replace the stuff you didn’t like. -
-Nerfing over-performing things rather than buffing the under-performing ones-
This is mainly related to weapon balance changes. I will always be of the belief that when trying to make everything equal, you should never drag one thing down to the level of another. All you do there is anger one half of the people and mildly appease the other half, especially in the realm of gamers. The best thing to do is simply buff the under-performers up to the level of the over-performers, this way you make a bunch of people happier without upsetting the rest.
Let me know if you guys have anything to add to this, I’d love to turn this into a proper discussion about the future of New World.