Streamers on Twitch and similar platforms are very important to a game in early access or beta testing. Twitch streamers can drum up a ton of publicity for a new game by introducing it to their viewers. Many streamers also specialize in certain game genres, meaning those streamers have certain levels of expertise within the genre that reinforces whatever feedback the streamer has for the developer. In the case of New World, both of these things are important. Amazon Games is still trying to find its big break in the game industry, so it's probably pretty pleased to see so many Twitch streamers giving New World a try.
Unfortunately, response to New World hasn't been as positive as Amazon probably hoped. Several Twitch streamers have run into a variety of issues while playing the game, and many have had flawed experienced with New World in its beta state. That particularly includes the highly popular MMO streamer Asmongold who has brought his years of experience with World of Warcraft and similar games to New World's beta. Asmongold and his fellow Twitch streamers have found a long list of problems with New World – from game-breaking bugs to gameplay design flaws – that Amazon Games needs to fix.
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Asmongold has offered a ton of insight into New World. For one thing, Asmongold has widely criticized New World's combat, both PvP and PvE. He described PvP as mostly a matter of players clicking on each other and openly characterized the NPC enemies in New World as "pathetic", noting that many New World enemies are just reskinned versions of each other. Asmongold craves higher difficulty in New World's combat on top of more true variety in enemies. Beyond voicing these concerns on his Twitch stream, Asmongold has turned to Twitter to send both encouragement and advice to the New World developers.
It's not just Asmongold taking issue with New World, though. The highly influential Summit1g expressed his dislike for New World's combat as well. Although Summit1g didn't play the New World beta ahead of his comments, he watched other streamers try the game and noted he saw no difference between high-level and low-level combat, even in boss fights. Similar to Asmongold, Summit1g didn't view New World's issues as unfixable, and he did like some aspects of the game such as the graphics, but strongly felt that New World needed fixes.
Beyond these gameplay issues, Twitch streamers have found some more fundamental flaws in New World. Another Twitch streamer named AnnieFuchsia got banned from New World right after she milked one of the game's cows. Milking a cow is, naturally, a completely normal action for a player to take to get crafting materials. Getting banned for such a mundane action highlights New World's litany of bugs. Fishing in New World has caused the game to crash in the past, and some players even report their hardware suffering from running New World. Thanks to the experiences of Twitch streamers, there's no doubt that New World needs a little work.
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After they got their hands on the beta, Asmongold and his fellow Twitch streamers showed concern about New World's original plans to release in August. In turn, Asmongold and others were relieved to learn that Amazon Games decided to postpone the game's full release until late September. That gives Amazon Games much more time to field concerns from MMO-savvy streamers and average players, getting New World to the level of quality that it deserves. After all, this could be Amazon Games' big break.
New World's beta may not have been received perfectly, but it still highlights something important. Twitch has an excellent ability to spread knowledge and opinions about the goings-on in the game industry, especially upcoming games like New World. When a game attracts so many fans through Twitch streamers, it gets a ton of extremely useful feedback that makes the game better off in the long run. 2020's surprise gaming sensations Among Us and Phasmophobia, have proven that before. New World seems to be receiving Twitch's criticism gracefully, and that's a good thing. It stands to gain a lot from the input of people like Asmongold.
New World releases September 28, 2021 for PC.
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