The machinations of billing and pre-orders for Amazon’s New World continue to confound me. I received a Steam key this morning regarding a pre-order that I continue to find little to no evidence of ever placing. Considering I’ve played the game as far back as 2016, it’s always possible I simply forgot somewhere along the way, but you would think that I could at least find some record of having placed it.
Contacting New World support also failed to turn up anything useful, as according to their records I pre-ordered 9/27 at 8:01 AM, something I most certainly didn’t do. In fact, I wasn’t even awake at the time. There is no record of it in my Amazon or Steam purchase history other than the $0 download of the alpha back in 2016.
Either way, evidence continues to mount that I own it, whether I like to or not. The jury is still out on whether or not I’ve paid for it. Their records indicate that I haven’t been billed yet, but their records of pre-order date are also obviously flawed. Why would I have received a closed beta invite if I’ve only just pre-ordered?
Out of an abundance of caution and paranoia I changed my Amazon password. Not that I suspect foul play, but one doesn’t take chances with this sort of thing.
I went ahead and set up the install this evening before I left the house, but haven’t yet decided how into it I am. I enjoyed the beta well enough. I haven’t really found myself in an MMO-oriented mood lately. Most of what I did in the beta was running around gathering, exploring, and doing some odd missions here and there. I didn’t “finish” the story content of the beta. I didn’t do any PvP. I didn’t really feel compelled to do those things.
I didn’t even do much in the way of crafting. Normally I do gathering as a means to play with crafting. That weird sort of self-sufficient drive to do it myself instead of paying for it. I’ve found that increasingly lessened as I get older though. Much more willing to simply pay rather than spend the time doing all the work myself.
Still, in the beta I did mostly gathering just because I was enjoying wandering around grabbing random odds and ends. I did mess with crafting a bit. Trying to do a little something at each crafting station just to see how things worked and came together. Taken as a whole I liked it but didn’t find it compelling.
I don’t expect to play much of it this week. I’m sure the launch will be a mess, as they usually are. Not really meant to be a negative statement about New World as much as a general statement about the reality of large scale product launches. Initial server loads for the new shiny MMO will be somewhat intense.
Amazon Web Services could get some really good PR if they manage to make it work though, if New World has the ability to draw as much power as required to keep things smooth and stable. I guess it depends on how much of Amazon’s overall weight is being thrown into the game, and if the people at the top have considered how best to monopolize on the opportunity. I guess we’ll see, but my expectations are low.
As it currently stands, I’m not exactly in a hurry to get in up front. I’m thinking about spending considerably more time in character creation than I normally do. I’m just not feeling the draw or excitement that one might expect for a “new” product. It also doesn’t help that the release period also includes my wife’s birthday. Not a good time to be even remotely engrossed in something else.
Y’all take care.
Unidentified Signal Source 