Is New World Worth Playing 2022?

New World is a game designed around PVP and a player-driven economy, but the numbers have dropped so low that many servers just aren't viable anymore. E.g., my server hovers around 100 people most evenings, not enough to keep trading viable or even find people to do things with in-game.

There are also a lot of major, game-breaking bugs and exploits i.e., gold-duping, economy wrecking bugs. Yes, they've fixed some, but not all, and the economy is still a bloody mess. Some people have top-end gear, and others are dead-broke in their 50s and struggling to pay rent (yes, you need to pay rent, and there's no end of game sinks - and very few ways to make New World gold).

All of this contributes to a game that is *ok* for PvE until you hit your 50s and realize that you cannot do many of your quests solos, and there's nobody to help you with them. You can PVP at 60, but the numbers are too low for most activities to be viable. PVP was intended for a full, active server, and we certainly don't have that. Critical mass is probably something like 500 players or more to keep things interesting.

I think the game has great potential, but

1. They need to fix bugs. A lot of bugs.

2. They need to merge servers so that they have the population to actually sustain the game as it's been designed - or they make major changes to allow it to sustain with a lower population (adjust mob difficulty, put in NPC vendors, etc.).

3. They need to rethink their design.

This is ultimately a PVP game that was turned into a PVE/PVP game during development without nearly enough thought put into the implications of this move (and not enough development time to iron out the issues and add enough PVE content). I love aspects of it - the graphics, animations, and sound are outstanding - but the game itself has some fundamental flaws. It really could have used another 6 to 9 months of beta testing and content development.