New Worldis arguably Amazon Game Studios' most successful foray into the games industry. Long before its release,New Worldgarnered some interest from MMORPG fans, and on release it drew quite a few players into its original fantasy world inspired by the Age of Exploration. Unfortunately, things haven’t been easy since then. The game’s player count has dwindled as opinions on the Amazon game sour while Amazon is fighting to kick bot accounts, players criticize the amount of grinding that’s sometimes required, and so on. On top of that,New Worldis still dealing with mass reporting issues.
When it crops up, mass reporting can seriously skewNew World’s PvP. When players found out they can useNew World’s automated moderation to get others banned, that system has been exploited. Amazon Game Studios isdoing its best to fixNew World,but when there’s so much to tweak, it’s hard for the studio to cover everything quickly.New World’s mass reporting problem should serve as a warning for other multiplayer games in that moderation is a delicate art, so automated systems need to be managed with care.
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New World’s Mass Report Exploit
Part of what makesNew World’s mass reporting so dangerous is that it’s easy to do. If around a dozenNew Worldplayers get together to report another player at the same time,New World’s system is likely to kick the reported player right away without reviewing their offenses. Considering how central PvP and factions are toNew World,this makes mass reporting very powerful. Getting the leader of a rival Company banned for a fictional offense cangiveNew Worldplayers a huge advantagewhen trying to conquer that Company’s territory.
There’s no shortage of evidence that this manipulation of the report system is still happening. One player recently shared a story on Reddit about findingaNew Worldstreamer planning to mass report themahead of an in-game war. While the streamer’s faction reportedly lost the war and failed to ban the Reddit user, the streamer’s conversation with fellowNew Worldplayers in a YouTube clip made it clear that thegame’sreport system is easy to abuse.
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Moderation is Difficult Work
Having an automated moderation system inNew Worldis nothing out of the ordinary. Any multiplayer game with a huge playerbase needs a certain level of automation for reporting and banning players; having the game’s staff review every single report by hand would be time consuming and ultimately impractical. Even so,New World’s moderation algorithmclearly needs some kind of failsafe for mass reporting, potentially passing reports to a human for review whenever they pile up quickly.
Mass reporting can have a serious impact on a competitive multiplayer game likeNew World.For victims of the practice, there’s no fun in losing a battle to a rival faction because their leader was unfairly banned, and any game with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer has to find a way to avoid mass reporting for the same reason. The last thing multiplayer shooters likeCall of Dutyneed is an exploit allowing players to instantly ban opponents who haven’t done anything wrong. AlthoughNew Worldhas its flaws,Amazon Game Studios at least seems dedicatedto fixing the game. With any luck, Amazon already has plans to adjust its moderation tools and protect players from mass reporting.
New Worldis available now on PC.
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