Amazon Walks Back New World Expertise System Following Community Backlash

A newly proposed endgame system for Amazon Game Studios' MMORPG New World will see some significant changes following widespread community outrage.

When Amazon announced a new endgame system called Expertise for New World--one that would make all purchased, crafted, or quest gear significantly less powerful unless players spent dozens of hours raising their Expertise levels for each individual gear slot--more than a few players in the game's community were upset. After all, some players had spent hundreds of hours raising their various tradeskills to make and use (or sell) some of the most powerful armor in the game, something that Amazon said would soon lose much of its power due to the new Expertise system.

Many on the game's forums and subreddit threatened to quit the game entirely. Following the backlash, Amazon is making changes, stating in a new development blog that "it is now clear we were wrong."

"When we thought about it more, reducing power for existing players is just unacceptable and something we will not do," Amazon writes. "We initially thought it being only temporary and giving a new path with to gain back that power with Gypsum would be acceptable, but it is now clear we were wrong."

Expertise is still coming to New World, albeit with some major adjustments. Crafted items, items players earn from quests, and gear acquired from faction shops will not be affected by the Expertise system. Items sold by other players on the game's auction house or earned from various endgame activities following an early January 2022 update will be affected by Expertise.

Amazon is also making adjustments to the way gear scales with Expertise. Instead of the effectiveness of gear being reduced to a player's Expertise level, it will now instead be reduced to a middle ground between the gear score of the item in question and the Expertise level of that slot, making the system overall a little less punishing.

Changes are coming to another proposed endgame system in response to testing on the game's public test realm as well. Cooldown timers for new endgame crafting ingredients called Gypsum have been adjusted, and the coin cost associated with new endgame crafting items like Gypsum Orbs and Gypsum Casts have been significantly reduced.

The proposed changes seem to be going over well in the community, but it's just the latest drama to plague New World in recent weeks following time traveling servers and economic shutdowns.

A major update, one that will add a new seasonal event alongside endgame changes, is slated to release this month and is currently being tested on New World's public test realm.