There's a real buzz about Amazon's New World MMO

A queue? I haven’t queued to play an MMO since World of Warcraft in 2005. But earlier this week I had to wait half-an-hour to get into Amazon’s New World closed beta because more than 300 people were ahead of me at 3pm. I know it’s the school summer holiday but still. And that was just one European server – there are many.

I was surprised. I didn’t think an MMO could create buzz like this in 2021. I thought battle royales like Fortnite had taken over for good. But there were more than 200,000 concurrent New World players last weekend. Perhaps I was wrong.

You can feel that popularity in the game, too. Queues mean full servers, which means there are lots of people in the game, so towns bustle with life, hunting spots are busy and chat is noisy. New World seems to be teeming with life, and there’s an excited feeling because of it – a feeling that this could be the next big thing.

Could it? I don’t think it has the wide, easy appeal of something like World of Warcraft, but that’s also why I think it’s causing a stir at the moment. There’s something refreshingly old-school about New World, something a bit Ultima Online. There are no defined classes, there’s a core focus on PvP, and there’s a heavy reliance on twitchy skill. If you know what you’re doing, glory in New World is there for the taking, and hardcore players love that.

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To recap: you don’t click to target people in New World as in other MMOs, and then unload your arpeggio of numbered abilities on them. You actually have to aim and hit them with things like arrows and spells, or axes and spears if you’re throwing them, as well as actively block and dodge-roll and land your hits too.