New World implements new AFK detection method and punishments

Amazon Games is devising a new solution against players who try to bypass New World‘s native AFK mitigation.

In an update posted late Saturday night, community manager HardcoreHenry posted an update on how they plan to deal with AFK players. In the post, they decline to go into detail on how the solution works, and those who are playing New World normally will not experience any disconnection issues.

Those who have been playing New World since it launched on Monday are well aware of how awful the queue times are, so many have been trying to find ways to get around the automatic AFK mitigation put in place by the New World Developers in order to avoid a long queue time when they come back to the game.

Many players can be seen auto-running into walls, but they’ll find out the hard way that auto-running doesn’t avoid a kick from the AFK timer, so many have been doing things such as setting up macros in order to stay minimally active while they are away from the computer.

Those who are caught for the first time will simply be kicked to the main menu as if the AFK timer were working as normal. However, if the behavior continues, New World will apply “more harsh” penalties. The post did not go into detail about what happens to players who continue to sidestep the AFK mitigation.

The new AFK mitigation method is rolling out over a period of time, so the results will not be immediate, but players who are stuck waiting in long queue times can rest assured that the issue has caught developers’ attention, and it will hopefully alleviate the long wait just to get into the game.