New World Aeternum on the upswing?

 Is it possible we are seeing New World Aeternum on an upswing in popularity?  Recent Steam chart movement has the game cresting back over 10,000 concurrent players during daily peaks and a flood of new players are enjoying the game thanks to the game being available on PSN+.  Season 9 also just started and there is buzz around new content coming in Season 10.  Let's take a look at the trends and get a vibe check.

 Personally I still log in and check out New World from time to time even though I am playing other games like Dune Awakening.  I did end up completing the Season 8 season pass before the season expired but I mostly ignored the springtime event.  While not my daily driver MMO as it has been in the past it is still there for me when I need a warm fuzzy feeling from an MMO.  I am still smitten with the game.

 One promising sign, for me at least, of New World's upswing is the vibe from content creators.  Specifically it was good to see Kristofer thinking the same thing I've been thinking with his recent video: New World Is Popular Again?

 Next there was an up and down Reddit thread that I felt made a good argument for the state that returning players will find in New World Aeternum.  There were some Negative Nancies that showed up on the thread but just ignore them.  The post outlined why there should be some optimism for Season 10:

 We’re not just getting new content in Season 10 (like a new zone and a new raid) we’re looking at what might be a structural rebirth for New World.

    Procedural Expeditions with Extraction mechanics

    A complete Endgame Progression System Overhaul

Just to recap with Season 10, New World pretty much checks EVERY box an MMO needs:

    5 PvP modes: War, Outpost Rush, 3v3 Arenas, Influence Race and Capture the Flag

    A solid roster of Dungeons

    Raids

    And finally, a potentially fixed, rewarding Endgame Loop

The Procedural Expeditions alone introduce a whole new gameplay layer, blending dungeon crawling with extraction-style mechanics. Paired with the endgame overhaul, this could finally give New World the replayability it’s been missing. 

 Again some Negative Nancies crashed the party and pointed out the history with development coming up short of expectations for the game, but my general experience is the development comes up short in quantity and not necessarily quality.  We've gotten some good updates out of New World; they just haven't had a beefy amount of content to go with them so players chew through them fast.  I am hoping this time can be different.  I am also looking forward to the shake up to the end game progression that has been mentioned by the devs numerous times.

 Lastly the Steam charts speak some truth.  With Season 9, which features very little in the way of new content, has the Steam charts climbing.  It's a small but good sign that the game is in a healthy spot.  No; it's not chart-busting player numbers but it isn't anything to dismiss.

  

Steam Chart as of 7/30

 I will continue my positive vibe for New World Aeternum.  I do really still love the game and even without consistent play I am now closing in on 5,000 hours played which does cement it as my most played game ever.  Things are looking up for the game and I hope I can get some my friends back in and playing.  As much as I enjoy my excursions into other games like Once Human or Dune Awakening; I'd love to get back to New World with them.  Here's hoping for a fun Season 9 and an even more exciting Season 10!

June 2025 In Review

June 2025 has come and gone; along with half of July!  Better late than never here is the look back at June.

The Blog

Blogger recorded visits for June: 61,663 (note: below graph includes some July dates and is missing June dates)

In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target:  n/a (been unmotivated lately to blog so every post is a bonus in June)
• Posted: 8
• Difference: +8
•  Search Trends
• Search trends had a major shake up in June with searches for "ARC Raiders" taking over in the place of my longstanding top search topics of New World and Battlefield. Let's look at some of those ARC Raiders search strings:
• "arc raiders news" - everyone wants news about this potential GotY contender launching in October!
• "arc raiders countdown", "arc raiders shadow drop", "arc raiders timer" - a hidden countdown ended in disaster when ARC Raiders didn't surprise launch at the end of it.  We were all disappointed.

What I Played

I got back into New World for a bit in June working on my Season 8 pass.  Everytime I jump back into New World I get a little lump in my throat.  The game plays so well and the combat is so satisfying; it's a shame it's not more popular.

I also jumped into Dune Awakening after some friends started playing it.  I need to post more about my thoughts but for now I am just casually enjoying it with my friends because I know from my testing experience the end game is rubbish. 

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

As June 2025 has me playing survival MMO Dune Awakening it is worth mention that in June of 2024 I was addicted to another survival MMO: Once Human.

Let us not forget as well that June 2024 marked the start of the dark ages for New World Aeternum as the "big announcement" turned into a big fat nothing. Read more in my Dark Days for New World post.

5 Years Ago

June 2020 featured no blog posts.

10 Years Ago

May of 2015 marked my blog's 10 year anniversary!

15 Years Ago

June of 2010 marked my 10 year mark in the military.  Fast forward and I am now retired from the military!

I was also complaining about the "game that shall not be named: Counting the lies: Star Wars: The Old Republic "Hope" Trailer 

The gaming community got our first look at the OnLive service which at the time blew my mind that graphically demanding games were going to be able to be played on an iPad via a game streaming service like OnLive.  OnLive didn't end up lasting but the concept of streaming games still lives on even though its a small niche in the market. 

20 Years Ago

I started blogging in May of 2005 so June of 2005 was month two!  At the time I was hopelessly addicted to World of Wacraft and getting into organized group content.  Of course this means I got screwed out of a loot roll and complained about it.

World of Warcraft also brought us the first PvP battlegrounds: here were the basics as I saw them back then. 

I was also enjoying Battlefield 2 and playing the medic class.  A trend that started a long trend of me playing supporting/healing roles in many games following. 

 

New World 0.5... Chrono Odyssey Beta Test Thoughts

 So I played a few hours of New World 0.5... err, I mean the Chrono Odyssey beta test. Here are some thoughts.

The tutorial starts out with a giant dragon flying in the near distance

 

A fast travel point... hmmm.. looks familiar

 First, for anyone who doubts the New World comparisons—especially coming from a player like myself who has spent thousands of hours in New World—I suggest taking a look at some of these discussions and videos:

• Reddit: I copy your homework

• Reddit: New World copy pasta

• Twitch: A literal exact copy of the fort and war camp from New World

 The evidence is stark. There are areas in Chrono Odyssey that are exact copies of New World. And since New World is not built on a proprietary engine—nor on something common like Unreal Engine—it’s very, very unlikely that Chrono Odyssey just happened to use the same store-bought assets. Not only are the visuals strikingly similar, but the rest of the game—even the UI—is eerily familiar. I’m fine with games copying systems and features, but this feels like a whole new level of copying.

Is that a sandworm!?

 

New World comparisons aside: how was the actual game?

 Chrono Odyssey was... OK.

 Performance was the biggest issue during the test. Like many testers, I suffered from poor frame rates and desync. Walking in crowded areas felt more like skipping along. The developers have stated that this was an older build and that performance should improve in future tests, so we’ll see.

 Graphically, the world is a bit wild. There are massive backdrops with all sorts of over-the-top visuals. The tutorial includes an amazing scene featuring a massive dragon flying overhead. The starting zone has a mix of giant, ominous beings floating in the sky.

Some of the bizarre backgrounds of the starting area

 Combat is mediocre. It uses action combat that lets players equip two weapons, each with up to four skills, plus a basic left-click attack and a special right-click move (e.g., blocking with a shield). There’s also a target lock-on feature—which is controversial in action combat games. Personally, I’m fine with it, but I ended up playing without it most of the time. It made me feel like I was losing control of my character, especially when the camera whipped around too much.

 The biggest issue I had with combat was the lack of weight. It felt like I was floating just above the ground, sliding around—especially with target lock enabled. My character felt like they were getting whiplash from all the turning. Weapon abilities just felt like “bigger numbers” you cycled through before swapping weapons and doing it all over again. Overall, combat felt generic.

A familiar weapon skill tree screen

 That said, I still preferred this action combat over traditional tab-target systems. There’s potential here—if the devs can carve out something unique.

 There were a few things I did like. The game gives you a mount early on, which is nice. PvE content poses a challenge early, requiring players to either gear up or get better to progress. There are also chrono abilities that seemed interesting—and were the biggest departure from its New World-inspired design—but I didn’t get far enough to comment deeply on them.

 Overall, my impression was very much “this is New World 0.5,” meaning it’s a worse version of New World. It was another game that just made me wish I were back playing New World. As I’ve said before, New World has spoiled me on MMORPG combat. I’ll argue with anyone: New World has the best combat on the market.

 The test topped out at a bit over 65,000 concurrent players, which is higher than similar points in New World's testing timeline. I can see Chrono Odyssey attracting a good audience—especially if they steer clear of shady pay-to-win systems (which the devs claim they will). If this test proved anything—both from the hype leading up to it and the actual player count—it’s that there’s still a strong demand for new MMORPGs.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.  

 

New World Aeternum Season 8: Season of the Divide

 I did something recently that I haven't done in months: I logged in and played New World: Aeternum. Why? Because Season 8—Season of the Divide—went live, bringing with it the new Outpost Rush (OPR) map, Coral Divide. No more preview periods. No more changes. Just live smashing, slashing, and running on a new OPR map. So much running. Wait—where did all of this haste come from!?

 First, the gorilla in the room for the Season 8 patch is the performance issues—frame rate drops, hitching, crashing, and confusion around flip-flopping between DX11 (now labeled as the "old client") and the current state of DX12. It’s definitely put a damper on enjoying the patch, and I hope the devs get a fix out sooner rather than later.

 Gone with Season 8 are the PvP servers from Season 7. I transferred heartlessgamer2 to his new home on Hudsonland and checked out what happened to my PvP server gear. The advertised plan—that it would convert to 710+ GS items—was technically accurate, but not quite what we expected. What I wound up with was a mix of blue/green/purple 700+ GS items... basically junk. That was unfortunate, so I’m glad I didn’t waste time grinding PvP gear at the end of Season 7.

 The Springtide Bloom event is live again, so I headed out with heartlessgamer2 to blow up some flowers and gather some goo. The event is the same as past years, with a few new rewards. The bug requiring you to do bleed damage to get goo seems to be fixed—I was quickly racking up goo this year. The only new reward I’m really interested in is the horse mount.

 The patch also brought several changes that affected my main build (Frigid Dawn + Burnanator), so I logged out of heartlessgamer2 and into heartlessgamer proper to test how the build held up. The big change was to the Frigid Dawn armor pieces, which make up four out of five armor slots in my build. This set was great because it had an illegal perk combo—two of the strongest defensive perks. With the patch, the devs nerfed each of the perks to account for the illegal combo.

 So, how did it feel? Not too bad. The decreased defensive effectiveness was noticeable, but the build didn’t feel gutted. Frigid Dawn was a popular armor set and long overdue for balancing. I think it's in a good place now, and it opens the door to trying new armor without feeling like I'm giving up a best-in-slot set.

 The Burnanator fire staff and the rest of the build remain mostly the same. The defensive side is what gives the build staying power, letting me keep the flamethrower going and stack those burns.

There are also some new things I’ll have to try out:

New Gem Types

Jade:

• Plagued: Basic attacks inflict a stack of disease, reducing the target’s incoming healing by 2.5% and outgoing by 1.25% per stack for 3s (max 10 stacks).

• Plagued Ward: -6.2% disease duration per armor or trinket with this gem slotted.

Turquoise:

• Penetrating: +12% armor penetration.

• Hardened: +3% physical and elemental armor per armor/trinket with this gem slotted.

New Perks to Consider (or Defend Against)

• Sundering Stacks: Main-hand weapon perk. Inflicts 4% Rend per stack (6s duration, max 5 stacks).

• Alternating Enchantment: Melee perk. Basic attacks increase next ability hit by 10%, and vice versa, within 5s.

• Vital Synergy: Chest perk. While below 50% health, gain 20% stamina regen. While below 50% stamina, incoming healing is increased by 20%.

• Hardcore Parkour: Footwear perk. Gain 18% haste for 5s after a traversal action.

• Stop, Drop, and Roll: Amulet perk. Dodging reduces the duration of all Burn DoT effects on you by 25%.

Heartgem Changes

Dark Ascent got buffed and may be worth using instead of Stoneform:

• Increased iframes at startup from 0.5s to 1s (15 to 30 frames).

• AOE size increased from 3m to 4m. 

Open World PvP Camps Change

 A big quality-of-life change: you can now destroy camps created by PvP-flagged players. Before, if you killed someone, they could just respawn right back at their tent a few feet away. Now you can hunt down and destroy their camp. This makes tent placement a lot more strategic—and placing; then hiding your own tent suddenly matters a lot more.

Coral Divide – New OPR Map

 As mentioned at the top, Coral Divide is now live and is the big attraction of the patch. The map has way more nooks and crannies compared to the standard wide-open layout. I really liked the preview events and enjoy playing it. It’ll be even better once map rotation becomes hourly instead of static.

Capture the Flag – First Look

 We also got our first hands-on with the new Capture the Flag mode. It was fast-paced and fun, and I had some nail-biter matches. The interaction with the flag felt inconsistent—sometimes I thought I had the flag, only to realize I didn’t. It’s also unclear what causes the flag to be dropped. I’d prefer they just block actions while carrying the flag to remove confusion. Looking forward to this being a full-time mode and not just a limited-time preview.

Barebones OPR – In Preview

 While I was out on vacation, Barebones Outpost Rush went into preview. I haven’t tried it yet, but the concept is cool: everyone uses set 725 GS gear with all perks disabled. From what I’ve heard, it brings combat back to that early-game feel—no self-heals or haste perks. Slower, more tactical. Sounds fun, and I’m eager to try it.

Hardcore Seasonal Server – Now Live

 Lastly, the new hardcore seasonal server is now live. I’m not sure I’ll jump in, but I’m sure it’ll appeal to some. It features accelerated everything, so you can level up quickly and see how long you last before becoming “fallen.” Unlike true hardcore modes in other MMOs, you don’t lose your character—you just switch status from “unfallen” to “fallen.”

---

Season 8 shows that New World is entering what I’d call its “experimental phase.” New game modes, twists on old ones, and another seasonal server with a gimmick. I don’t expect a wave of returning players, but for those of us still hanging around, there’s plenty of new stuff to keep us logging in.

 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.  

May 2025 In Review

 May 2025 has come and gone and with it so has 20 years since I started blogging!  And as is expected with this blog I am woefully behind getting to posting anything of merit to celebrate that 20 year mark.  Worry not dear reader for I am working on something that will be released.... sometime... soon... maybe.  In the interim let's take a look back at May.

The Blog

Blogger stats for April: 41,137 (note: below graph includes some June dates and is missing May dates)

 

In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 2 (I've been posting less these days so was honest with myself; post April review and post about 20 years; so 2 posts was the target)
• Posted: 8
• Difference: +6
•  Search Trends
• This past month had some shakeups to some long standing search trends.  Battlefield related search results dropped off the list while some old Once Human and some new New World searches popped in.
• "once human end game" and similiar searches hit the top spot and drove visitors to my completely out of date post: End Game Thoughts on Once Human
• "motherwell wishers coin" lead the pack of unique New World searches and delivered searchers to this post: New World: Obtaining Motherwell Wisher's Coin
• I am sure there is some sort of patch change that brought interest to this unique round shield in the game; which I am not even sure can be obtained anymore even with the guide I posted. 
• "new world wispy spritz" was the next New World related search trend which coincides with the Springtide Bloom event coming back with the recent Season 8 patch.  Searchers were probably disapointed to find my post just complaining about the cost of the crafting recipe... Why New World! Why!?
• And poking around lower in the list of search trends I found "heartless 2012 game" climbing along with "heartless game"; my assumption is searchers first try "heartless game" and are confused when they end up on my blog so they go back and try the 2012 search only to wind up back here.  Oh well!

What I Played

May marks the end of school for my kids and thus our annual beach trip so blogging and gaming were both limited.  I did get some time to play New World Aeternum and shared my thoughts on the start of Season 8 here.

Honestly I am just buying time currently waiting for ARC Raiders to have another beta test OR more hopefully just shadow dropping after June 6th and Summer Games Fest! 

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

In May of 2025 we were all waiting for the "big June announcement" for New World so while waiting for that I was off trying other games.  One of them was Elder Scrolls Online which I picked up after having not played it for over 10 years!

Wayfinder announced it was moving to an "offline" game model which was an unfortunate move.

5 Years Ago

May 2020 featured no blog posts.

10 Years Ago

May of 2015 marked my blog's 10 year anniversary!

15 Years Ago

May of 2010 marked my blog's 5 year mark!

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers (DotP) made it's way to PC and I suspect the success experienced with the DotP games lead to the eventual creation of Magic the Gathering Arena.

Frozen Synapse also launched in May of 2010 and to this day I still have fond memories of the game.  I especially liked the "publish to YouTube" feature of the game that automated recordings of games for easy publishing. 

20 Years Ago

I started blogging in May of 2005 and I owe y'all a longer exposition on the 20 year milestone, but if you are interested in how it all started you can read all of my posts from May 2005.  Enjoy the step back in time!

 

March 2025 in Review

 Yes it is April 18th and I am just getting to recapping March here on the blog (note: the publish date will reflect 4/1 as to avoid upsetting my OCD).  Motivation has been scarce lately so you get what you get when I give it!

The Blog

Blogger stats for March: 28,632 (note: below graph includes Apr dates)

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 0
• Posted: 6
• Difference: +6 (Have been doing other stuff than gaming or blogging so 6 is a win)
•  Search Trends
• "new world PvP server" continues from Feb to drive traffic to the blog.  I am playing on the PvP server but haven't shared any thoughts yet.  Still my post about the servers before they launched is where many folks land from the ole' Google.
•  Searches around my flamethrower build for New World continue to drive traffic to the Frigid Inferno build page
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" continues to stay strong driving traffic to my post Best Battlefield!?
  

What I Played

For March I had very little in the "played" category.  I did play some New World but nothing serious.  Sort of just checking the trading post and doing weekly objectives.  By end of month I was not playing any games including New World.

I did play a few games of Magic the Gathering with my oldest son using precon decks we have sitting around.  That was enjoyable.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

March 2024 saw my short lived attempt to figure out what the deal with Path of Exile was.  It didn't catch me and the experiment was short lived.

Also in March, the New World developers let us know there would not be an expansion in 2024 but there would be a "big announcement" in June.  We all know how that went...

 Ashes of Creation was previewing their Commissions system.

5 Years Ago

March 2020 featured no blog posts.

10 Years Ago

March 2015 featured no blog posts.

15 Years Ago

In March of 2010 Bioware's boss was flat-out lying about the success of Warhammer Online; "Right now it's [a] really profitable business unit within my group.".  That was followed with rumors that Bioware proper was going to be more involved with Mythic (both part of EA at the time).  Years later we know how that turned out...

My gmail was hacked...

And last but not least I was playing a lot of Battlefield Bad Company 2 in March 2010.  It remains one of my favorite Battlefield games to this day!  Scroll through the full month of posts to see my various BFBC2 posts.

 20 Years Ago

I started blogging in 2005 but not until May so come back in May for the big 2 0 extravaganza.

 

Monday Screenshots: No-UI New World Aeternum

 I finished the new main story quest for New World Aeternum on my alt character on the seasonal PvP server.  Along the way I took some no-UI screenshots.  Enjoy!

Riding past a shattered obelisk

Shattered Mountain in the distance

Not part of the MSQ, but a shot from the Glacial Tarn expedition

This ghostly tree was part of the original MSQ and I was happy to see it still there.  One of the iconic moments from the original MSQ.

Finishing a soul trial (solo boss fight)

I always enjoyed the visuals of the corruption areas and while the MSQ no longer goes through the Tempest Heart expedition there is still a visual replacement in one of the new MSQ's solo trials.

More corruption.

This floating island is new and I was disappointed that so little time was spent here.  I need to go back and see if I can get back to it now that I am done with the MSQ.

One underappreciated part of New World is that many of the props, such as this bench in a camp site, can be interacted with.  Here I am catching a break sitting around the campfire.

Isabella still sits at the end of the MSQ.

Inside the new solo trial boss fight with Isabella.

When I saw this view I needed to stop and take a shot.

Riding off into Brimstone Sands after defeating Isabella and finishing the first leg of the MSQ.

I didn't remember this hidden chamber hiding in Brimstone Sands so grabbed a shot for the scrapbook as I mined away on a stone scarab I defeated.

 

Playing 3v3 Arenas with PvP Server Gear and WINNING 1vX

 I made another New World Aeternum video; this time showcasing my new character "heartlessgamer2" from the PvP server Scalvia.  I just finished leveling to 65 and grabbed a set of the 725 "Swarm's Mighty" gear which is unique to the PvP server.  This is a great way to jump right to 725 gear score and jump into arenas.  I ended up winning against the odds 1v3 in the first round and we brought it home at the end for a great arena win!

 

New World's New OPR Map: Coral Divide

 New World's new outpost rush (OPR) map is available to preview this weekend so I gave it a spin and boy did I have some fun!  So much fun in fact I had to clip one of the matches where our team came back from 300+ points down to steal a win in the final moments!  Not only that but I scored first place! This new map is a ton of fun!

 First the video:

 I am playing my heavy sworld and shield/firestaff build with a key change to using Burnanator as my firestaff.  This thing BURNS; even after a slight nerf this patch.  It fits my playstyle perfectly!

 A screenshot of the scoreboard as well; 1000 to 986 is about as close as you can get in OPR!  I went 31 kills / 6 deaths / 61 assists.  Over 2.3 million damage!

New World PvE

 I made a lengthy reply on Reddit about PvE opportunities in New World Aeternum.  It gained some traction and has been shared a few times on different subreddits.  I wanted to capture a version of it for the blog and long term keeping.

The question asked: "Just bought it! How is the PVE? Is the loot drop rewarding as well?"

My answer:

PvE during leveling is a good experience; you will get a lot of enjoyment out of that.  The game has some of the best "cinematic experiences" for expeditions (aka dungeons) and personally my first trip through some of them such as Tempest Heart were a visual treat (though "story mode" expeditions are very easy challenge wise).

The "rewarding loot drop" depends on who you ask.  New World has a classless system where your build is determined by your gear.  Gear is variable with 3 perks, a gem slot (except on some special items), and which attribute bonus (INT, STR, CON, etc) it has.  What is "best" for a piece of armor, a weapon, or a jewelery thus has variability.  It is not like other games where that one raid drops that one tank sword that every tank has to get.

The game also drops a lot of gear and I mean A LOT; more in the line of a Diablo type game than a normal MMO.  Most of that gear is randomly generated and is basically garbage that you will just salvage.  That goes all the way through end game where a lot of gear drops are just underwhelming.

The game does have a system called "loot biasing" where gear from many end game chests (elite, expedition, etc) will match close to the gear you are currently wearing. So if you are heavy armor with INT as your highest attribute you will likely see heavy armor with INT as the highest attribute.  Unforutnately this comes up short because it doesn't consider weapons and armor drops with weapon perks for other weapons. I personally feel like this is a miss that they should fix with the system.  A heavy armor piece with INT is great if thats my build but if it drops with a flail weapon perk and I don't use a flail its just one more piece of gear I need to salvage down.

But that is just the gemeral loot drop system.  There is lots of "named" items in the game that drop with locked in perks and many end game named items let you upgrade the item to 700 gear score and set the 3rd perk to your choice (there are "perk buckets" with rules so its not any perk, but lots of options to choose what the 3rd perk is).

Then there are artifacts tied to specific content.  Often it drops after a few tries and has pity mechanics so you do get it to drop. Artifacts are end game armor, weapons, and jewelery that you will build entire builds around.  It feels good to get an artifact to drop after working towards it!  And there is a ton of artifacts in the game now and are in every lane of gameplay from solo PvE to group PvE.

Expedtions are a main PvE end game activity; specifically the mutated version.  Each week new expeditions get mutated and have levels 1-3.  "M3" aka mutation level 3 is the hardest.  Mutated expeditions are where many artifacts are obtained and they drop a ton of other rewards, but as mentioned its hit or miss on how great those drops are (most not so much).  Mutated expeditions are also a good way to get dark matter drops for end game loot upgrades which is a necessary part of the end game.

More recently they added the first raid to the game.  It is 10 person and is the hardest end game PvE content.  Many players complain about it being too hard for casual groups if that gives you a sense.  Personally I think its spot on; hard for a pick up group to complete but not impossible; while still being challenging for organized groups.

The raid offers gear up to gear score 725, the new max, and drops rare schematics for crafting which is where a lot of the true best end game gear comes from outside of artifacts.  The artifacts that drop from the raid are also sought after; some pick up groups solely focus on just getting past the first boss just to get folks the artifact that boss drops.  The issue though is the raid drops rewards only once per week; once done with your weekly run there is no reward for repeating.

There is also a 20 person sand wurm "raid" that is a single boss fight with good end game drops as well.

With that said there is tons of ways as a solo PvE player to get 700 gear score gear and it's not hard.  While 725 is the new max; 700 is more than capable in PvE and PvP.  Artifacts can all be upgraded to 725 so many folks end up with 3x artifacts (max you can have in a build is 1 weapon, 1 armor, and 1 jewelery artifact) and 700 on the rest.

While not your traditional "rewarding loot drops" of other MMOs you can set your sights on the gear you want and work in PvE towards it.  Crafting is also a source for tons of end game gear and plenty of PvE activity can be done to earn gold to fund your own crafting or buy from crafters/trading post.

I personally really like that as a mostly solo player I can play this game and match the hardest of the hardcore in builds and capabilities on my character.  Having a group makes it easier to get stuff like the raid or mutated expeditions done, but not a requirement at all in this game.  That is the biggest selling point for me.  As I said I am 4,000+ hours in, have maxed everything, have a maxed build I love playing, and dabble in PvE and PvP.

Season 7: New World PvP Servers

 By the time you are reading this the New World season 7, Season of the Conqueror, will have launched and with it a new set of seasonal PvP servers.  These limited time seasonal servers feature accelerated leveling and a special ruleset that will change each season.  This season will focus on PvP with forced PvP flagging after level 15 and with new gear that drops on death.  Will the PvP crowd finally show up for a PvP focused update in New World?

 The New World team has a long post detailing the PvP servers, but for context here are the main points:

• PvP flagging is forced on at level 15
• Leveling speed is increased
• Special equipment can be crafted for reduced material costs that is stronger than normal equipment but the equipment drops on death and has durability so can break.

 This is basically as close as New World will have gotten to it's original intention to be a PvP focused sandbox with gear dropping on death.  The question is will this be enjoyable and worth the time?

 A big issue I have with the approach here is that these are seasonal servers where I need to start a new character from scratch.  I have 4,000 hours in this game, almost all of it on a single character, so my immediate interest in a new character is limited.  Throw in that the PvP server goes away at the end of the season in a couple months and the draw is even weaker.  Why get invested in something that is repeating what I've already done and that is going away?

 Also the more I looked at the details the more I wondered about the changes made to support PvP.  The main change is the introduction of the ethereal crafting and conqueror's gear.  I like that the gear will drop on death and can change hands, but the bonuses mentioned in the post seem questionable on whether its worth the hassle to obtain/keep.  Why deal with gear you can lose when all of the other gear in the game is going to be available?

 The main issue with the PvP-drop-on-death gear is that there are only a couple weapons and only heavy armor pieces at the end game.  So if you want to play a build that doesn't fit that criteria then you will use gear that doesn't come with the associated risk of being lost.  Add in the skill ceiling in New World's action combat I suspect we will see a lot of players taking zero risk with "no-drop builds" and letting their skill overcome the gap in gear.

 I do like that they are unlocking mounts and heartrunes without players needing to complete the quests, but it seems well short of the number of changes I'd of expected to foster PvP.  One of the big issues I've seen discussed is that instanced content such as expeditions, 3v3 arena, and outpost rush will all be available and be available as cross server to those on the PvP servers.  There will be players on PvP servers that sit in town doing instanced content on repeat, gaining gold and experience (PvE and PvP), and then maybe roll out to PvP when the itch strikes.  That seems like a huge miss on a PvP server where you want players out in the world.

 As a seasonal server it seems like a big miss to keep cross server activity and instanced content.  The focus would have been better on getting players into the open world and hitting points of interest to drive conflict.  Why not take the ethereal crafting concept and extend it to provide access to all the gear that drops in expeditions or other instanced content?  Why, why, why keep instanced content on the seasonal PvP server!?

 If New World gave me a PvP server that was just the normal game with always on PvP and let me transfer my character to that server I'd be all over it.  I think being PvP flagged adds a ton to the game.  But all of the adjustments to make these seasonal worlds "different" don't seem to drive much in the way of PvP and thus I question whether it's worth the effort.  I am on the fence and not sure I'll partake.

Monday Screenshots: Winter Warrior No UI

 Every now and then I like to hide the UI in New World and sit back and admire how great the game looks.  I took a shot during the Winter Warrior event that is finishing up in the near future.

Later on I grabbed a no-UI shot in Cutlass Keys. If you look closely you will see a couple different players ascending the tower in search of doubloon-filled chests.

This game looks so great at times!

Dec 2024 in review!

December 2024 is in the books so let's take a look back at the blog over that month.

The Blog

Blogger stats for Dec: 23,527 visits

 

Note: this is the last 30 days graph as of 1/2 so off by a day or two

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 15 (weekdays minus holiday weeks/vacation)
  
• Posted: 10
  
• Difference: -5 (took some time off blogging just because)
  
•  Search Trends
• "new world inferno build", "inferno build new world", "new world flamethrower build" have been gaining momentum since New World Aeternum (NWA) launched thanks to my build post: Frigid Inferno Build. I need to take this rise in the search rankings as a sign that I need to update the build for all the changes with NWA (though it mostly stayed the same).
• "new world roadmap 2024", "new world 2024 roadmap", "new world road map 2024" dropped off the search radar this month which is not surprising as we enter 2025. This reminds me I still haven't posted about the "living roadmap" the New World developers gave us.
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" is proving it has a long run as it proceeds to drive traffic to Best Battlefield!? but that may be ending soon as I found this note on my Google Search Console today.
• 
  
  
  
  
• "deadlock invite not showing up", "not getting deadlock invite", and other Deadlock invite related searches keep driving traffic.   I am amazed they still have an invite system for the game's test version with how much trouble it causes and how steep of a player count drop off the game has experienced.
  
• Last, but not least, was "quitting throne and liberty" which directs folks to, no surprise, my post on "Why I quit Throne and Liberty"
  

What I Played

For December I was back in New World smashing  faces in 3v3 arenas and outpost rush matches.  I've also spent some time hitting the winter event to get some of the rewards I've not gotten in the past (skins; gotta collect 'em all).

Marvel Rivals was a surprise hit this month for me and I've put in a good number of hours.  I really enjoy the game.  I am not sure its a long term game as hero shooters wear me out and there is not enough with Marvel Rivals to separate itself from that trend, but for December it was a big hit in my playtime.

I gave Brighter Shores a few minutes of my time and this Monday Screenshots post is all you are going to get out of it.

I also took a moment to try out Deltaforce and if you told me I was playing Battlefield 2042 I'd of believed you.  It is a literal clone of the game to the point the UIs look almost identical.  I was going to make a post about this but it is not worth the time and effort.  I do find it sort of crazy how the community is giving Deltaforce a pass

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

December 2023 marked a momentous "gamer dad" moment for me as we gifted my oldest son his very own gaming PC components and I got to watch him put it together.

The Finals surprise launched and I recorded my first win.

Groundhog Day had me thinking about modern storytelling in video games.

5 Years Ago

Dec 2019 was in the 'not a lot of blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

In Dec of 2014 the biggest event recorded was that I upgraded my GPU.

15 Years Ago

In Dec of 2009 Borderlands (the original) was the hot game and I wrote this review.

I also decided to go back to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) and give it 10 more days of my time.  You can check out my "10 Days of WAR" posts by starting here.  To no surprise I was done playing the game, again, after the 10 day experiment.

 20 19 Years Ago

Technically I have 21 named years on my sidebar (since I am posting this in 2025), but mathematically December 2005 was only 19 years ago.

In Dec 2005 we were speculating the Draenei were the next race coming to to World of Warcraft which eventually turned out to be true. 

Oh and I became somewhat of an early viral celebrity with an article I wrote for the Gamergod (now defunct) website discussing why MTV was doing a better job at games journalism than actual games media.  I was mentioned in a GU Comic (now defunct) about it (which I used the wayback machine to go nab a copy of to include here and in the original post).  You can also use the wayback machine to read the forum thread for the comic.

"a guy" = me

November 2024 In Review

 November 2024 has come and gone and with it I'm a year older and wiser as I celebrated another birthday that puts me somewhere in my mid-40s.

The Blog

 Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off a full month): 18,200

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 16 (weekdays minus vacation)
  
• Posted: 14
  
• Difference: -2 (the election results deflated my mood for a few days)
  
•  Search Trends
• "new world roadmap 2024", "new world 2024 roadmap", "new world road map 2024" continues to be the top driver of traffic even while I was on hiatus playing Throne and Liberty.  Of course we already had the 2024 road map and recently got the "whats next" update (which I need to post about still)
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" is proving it has a long run as it proceeds to drive traffic to Best Battlefield!?
• "throne and liberty daily checklist" also creeped up the list for a short run in November but dropped out fast
• "ashes of creation pirate software" also blipped driving some traffic to my post going over the video between Pirate Software and Stephen Sharif 

What I Played

 November started out strong with a lot of Throne and Liberty, but the game wore on me and I found myself less and less interested in the progression system which kept me from logging in.  By the end of the month I had given up on the game entirely.

 Which meant I had a hole in my MMO play space and to fill it I leaped back in New World.  It is honestly the better MMO of the two games and I'm enjoying my time back in New World far more than I was enjoying my time in Throne and Liberty.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

Nov 2023 was dominated by New World posts

• New World Economy
• Brutal Road Map Update for New World
• New World Arena
• Rethinking New World's Progression
• and plenty more during that month
  

5 Years Ago

Nov 2019 was in the 'not a lot of blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

In Nov of 2014 we got the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens.  Oh the promise!  The excitement! Can we go back and pretend none of the other sequel movies happened?

And I was playing ArcheAge at the time.

15 Years Ago

In Nov of 2009 the rumors began to swirl about the imminent shutdown of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning as the grim reaper that is EA began to cut staff at EA Mythic.  I miss WAR.  I think it had a chance to be a better game than it turned out to be.

We also got our hands on Left 4 Dead 2 which I still revisit from time to time all these years later. There is nothing better than playing as the zombies in that game!

I was also celebrating World of Warcraft and Firefox hitting their 5 year anniversaries.  I swear this was just yesterday though... but 15 years... 15 years ago... that means we've had both of them for 20 years now!

Oh and WTF (What the Favre)!

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.

 In Nov of 2005 I was posting about the keys to the World of Warcraft's auction house; a pastime in every MMORPG I've ever played.  The online market and economy is one thing that sets these games apart in my book.

Star Wars Galaxies' ill-fated New Game Experience (NGE) was getting the proper drubbing it deserved.  No more tears, or words, shall be shed in remembrance of this event.

Monday Screenshots: So Much To Do

Thanksgiving week is here, and you know what that means: chaos! There’s the turkey to pick up, the house to clean for guests, and... the map in New World to conquer. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t take time off just to prep for a feast with the family—I took time off because my New World map is an absolute disaster. Take a look:

Just look at all those quest and other markers! The New World: Aeternum update didn’t just shake things up—it packed the game with tons of new story quests and repeatable quests in zones like Cutlass Keys. Personally, I’m all for MMORPG maps that glow like a Christmas tree, brimming with things to do at every turn.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI. The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.

Still Got It: New World Arenas and Outpost Rush

My second day back in New World, and I proved I’ve still got it by securing back-to-back victories in 3v3 PvP arenas. Afterward, I jumped into an Outpost Rush, which we won, and I ranked in the top 10 overall (top 5 on my team) with 11 kills and only 3 deaths. It felt great to be back!

 One thing to note; I am still using my "Frozen Inferno" build with minimal changes since I last played.  The artifact firestaff I use, Inferno, was my first upgraded artifact so is now 725 GS and also now has a gem slot so I slotted an electrified emerald.

 Oh and happy birthday to me (damn I'm getting old)!

Top damage and a 3-0 win in 3v3 arena

3-1 win in 3v3 arena

Outpost Rush; top 10 and an 11/3 KD ratio!  I'm back!