New World Game Director: "We've Made Some Mistakes Trying To Move Too Fast"

New World started strong but has been plagued by issues seemingly every other week since. We've covered exploit after exploit, and it will come as no surprise to you that the game's developers are as unhappy about seeing them pop up as you are.

IGN talked with Game Director Scot Lane about New World, which is now three months old. He said that it was "no secret we’ve made some mistakes trying to move too fast," a curious statement for a game that was delayed by a year past its initial launch date. Issue after issue "detracts from what we really want to be doing," Lane said, and that will force his team to shift from content to bug-fixing and balance in their monthly updates.

In the not-a-bug-but-still-a-problem category, Lane also said that the game's economy is not "where we'd like it to be," and a number of tweaks have either been implemented or are on the way. Player housing costs and tax burdens are also proving unpopular, prompting the interviewer to ponder if New World was "an experimental economic realm where Jeff Bezos can propagate the idea that all tax is bad, actually." Lane thought that was actually the opposite, saying that "home owners, who feel gouged can band together and overthrow them [the factions controlling their cities] via wars."

While many of New World's issues are understandably frustrating for Lane and players alike, they also read like a company that simply wasn't prepared to handle the complex nature of an MMORPG. Everyone likes to plan cool gameplay ideas and mechanics; nobody wants to think about network infrastructure and bug-squashing, and only a few give much thought to a game's economy. It feels to me like Amazon was more concerned with how awesome their game was without giving nearly as much thought as to whether it would work properly, and that's led to no end of problems for the young MMO.