New World Overrun by an Influx of Bots
Players are reporting multiple bots just merrily going around New World and harvesting materials. New World devs still haven’t taken any moves.
From cheats and exploits to unannounced changes within the game, it seems that New World just can’t catch a break with its never-ending problems. The most recent issue to arise is related to bots. Bots are not uncommon for any MMORPG, especially for newer ones such as New World. In this case, however, players of the Amazon-owned MMORPG have been reporting an increase in the number of reaching high-level bots. Characters that are clearly not being operated by actual players are seen reaching levels as high as 20 or 30 as they farm materials throughout Aeternum.
Amazon Game Studios’ lack of communication and action regarding the issue has players worried. With bot activities in the game unhampered, gamers are concerned that the issue might tank the New World gold economy. Residents of Aeternum are now calling on admins totake more proactive actions regarding the issue especially since bot reporting seems to go unnoticed.
What are Bots?
Bots are a type of artificial intelligence programmed or coded to control characters inside a video game without an actual human’s control. Players usually use bots to perform functions such as exp grinding or material farming while they are away. Though it seems harmless, initiating or using bots are actually bannable offenses for many MMORPG. In this case, players of New World can earn New World gold by virtually doing nothing.
The use of bots provides an unfair advantage since users can simply sit back and relax while other players have to actually spend hours in front of their monitors. Game developers want their players to enjoy and experience their games’ content. They do not simply want players to just progress their levels or characters. Using bots ruins the players’ immersion in their MMORPG world, and gaming studios cannot capitalize on that. These are the main reasons why the use of AI programs to control characters are severely frowned upon.
The Issue with New World Bots
It seems that bots are teeming in the popular MMORPG. For New World, the use of bots is mainly initiated for the purpose of resource or material gathering. Since the MMORPG has various resource nodes for harvesting activities, players who use them want to avoid the hassle of manually controlling characters just to harvest. Most bots can be seen in fishing and mining areas inside Aeternum.
Though seeing bots in any game are not really a rare occurrence in this type of gaming genre, the problem with these bots is that the gaming studio doesn’t do anything about them. Players have reported seeing characters who are obviously operated by bots reaching higher levels. Most have seen bots reaching level 20 or level 30 in the game. Seeing characters not operated by actual players attain these levels indicate that the devs are not doing any noticeable and impactful actions against them.
The devs apparent inaction shows that engaging in the usage of bots is not severe or punishable from a player’s perspective. Players are worried about how they keep seeing the same AI-controlled characters over and over again in a span of days despite having reported these supposed bots multiple times. Gamers have flocked to forums such as Reddit to air out their frustrations on the devs’ inaction.
The Consequences
In terms of in-game consequences, the major problem lies in the economy of the game’s marketplace. As more players initiate bot usage, resources gathered will keep increasing, and market prices might plummet. Gamers are already seeing several New World items, such as fish, decreasing in value as inactive players continue to use bots for harvesting for hours without end. People who don’t even use bots might soon just call it quits on playing the game as they get tired of competing for materials against bots.
New World has already been facing back-to-back problems since early October. The first major issue to surface in the game was the gold duplication exploit. This first big problem tanked the gold economy of the game, and the admins’ slow response irritated the majority of the players. The most recent issue was the distribution of large sums of gold to several players in the EU servers. Devs have since resolved the issue by rolling back the server to a previous version before the distribution. With never-ending problems and issues on top of the gaming studio’s slow response, players are ready to jump off the ship and find new games to spend their hours on.
Will New World ever stop disappointing players?
Currently, Amazon Gaming Studio has yet to make any announcements or actions regarding the bot issue. In the meantime, players are taking on the responsibility of dealing with these bots themselves. Some have resorted to agroing nearby mobs and leading them to the bot to get them killed. Others have been more creative by creating u-shape obstacles using tents. Since bots are programmed to follow a specific pathing, it is unlikely that they will get out of the trap once they get caught in it. However, these are all just temporary fixes, and they do not actually resolve the root problem.
If New World does not do anything about these bots themselves, market prices will plummet and, New World gold will decrease in its value. A game with its economy in shambles is not a fun game to play in. Devs should now take a more proactive stance whenever problems arise instead of waiting for players to take notice or complain about them. If this continues, New World players might just call it quits.
