New World’s Party System seems a little overpowered

During a recent playtest with the Amazon Games team, Dot Esports got to sample around two hours of New World, the studio’s big upcoming MMO—and the Party System in New World is a bit broken when it comes to giving out XP.

While we were only able to explore a small section of the start of the game to get a feel for what it has to offer, the Party System stood out to us over anything else. When you join a party in New World, you and your party members will gain XP whenever someone in your party kills an enemy or does something—even if you’re nowhere near your party member.

You only get a small amount of XP, but it’s still a reward for just existing, boosting your level and weapon level for the equipment you’re carrying at the time by minor increments. This means that, in theory, a player could sit there or stand still in another area and be rewarded despite not doing anything.

The version we played was an early build of New World, so changes to the system could be coming in the beta and even upon the game’s official release. But there are some issues that can come from this feature and there’s no reason why this method can’t be changed.

Most of our thoughts about the system come from theories about how players could exploit it. A player, for example, could theoretically purchase four accounts and grind the other three of them AFK-style while the main account does the heavy labor.

XP is the only gain in these situations, so players won’t be able to pick up drops or resources. And the thought of a player potentially doing nothing but watching others kill and play the game for them to level up isn’t the most exciting idea.

Still, the iteration of the Party System we saw is a bit broken and could lead the way for bad actors to abuse it to level up alt accounts and friends in high-level areas without playing the game traditionally.

New World is set to officially launch on Aug. 31.