Popular World of Warcraft streamer Asmongold lashed out after news broke that Amazon was exploring the addition of “pay for convenience” options to their upcoming MMO, New World.
The streamer shared his thoughts on the addition of microtransactions in the MMO genre, hoping to inspire some change before New World’s release.
“To put it simply, pay for convenience creates a profit incentive to make the game inconvenient,” Asmongold wrote. “It creates a paradigm that encourages developers to create problems in the game so that they can sell the solutions for them.”
“This problem in New World’s case is especially egregious considering the game isn’t even out yet. Why are you even considering pay for convenience in a game that’s not even done? Why not just make it convenient?”
Asmongold continued suggesting that instead of providing a fast route to leveling through microtransactions, the usually tedious task should be made to take less time or be more enjoyable for players.
The streamer pointed out that earlier in the year rested XP was nerfed, but earlier this week the company suggested that this could be sold as an in-game purchase.
“They think you’re stupid, and they want you to pay for it,” Asmongold wrote.
Microtransactions have been a growing trend in the MMO genre that the community has mostly condemned. Asmongold said that allowing companies to get away with making these additions to their games sets a data point that proves that “consumer-unfriendly practices” can be profitable.
Asmongold explained that adding these features down the line can make some sense, but for New World to implement them from launch is where he takes issue.
Having played the game last year in its alpha stage, Asmongold shared that it showed promise and that the game could be great, but with the recent plans to introduce boosts from launch, the game could lose its opportunity.
“The MMO players, the neckbeards, they’re not gone. They haven’t left to play Fortnite, they’re not playing Among Us. They’re sitting at their computers, waiting.”
“If your game isn’t good enough, they will keep waiting for as long as it takes for another game that’s worthy again to waste their lives over and recapture the dragon they started chasing over 10 years ago.”
“Planning boosts before release isn’t good enough and you know it. That’s why you hid it behind an NDA. That’s why when you tried justifying it on social media you got ratioed into oblivion to the point you had to change your social media strategy into just saying thank you for the feedback.”
For now, Asmongold has no plans to play or promote New World, stating that doing so would be to do the neglected MMO community a disservice.
