The heyday of MMOs may feel like it expired more than a decade ago, but some of the old titans are still going strong. Games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 are still releasing incredibly popular expansions and on occasion a new MMO tries to break into the scene. That's what New World is aiming to do later this summer as it attempts to build hype with the current beta and launch at the end of August.
The Amazon Games developed MMO is switching things up a bit and trying to breathe fresh life into the genre with some different twists on the usual approach. One of the most appealing aspects of the game is its lack of traditional class or job structure, which allows players to pick up any weapon or armor and start leveling up the skills needed to interact with the world through that play style. As New World players advance they will quickly learn that it's safer to group up and may want to start making some friends in the game.
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At this point, the beta servers are jam-packed with users who have pre-ordered the game or gained early access to the test environment (which was recently crashed by some fishing drama) some other way. Players will likely forge some alliances with other players in the world and, when that happens, it will be helpful to add those players to the friends list. Having a player on the friends list allows players to quickly see who else is online and send them a party invite or direct message easily without typing in their name every time. In general, the social features are pretty standard and work the same way they do in many other MMOs.
To add a friend, first confirm that the other player exists in the same world (server) as your character. At this point, there does not appear to be support for cross-world friends.
Next, click the Social menu from the lefthand side of the standard UI.
Once the Social menu is open, use the search bar to type in the user's player name. Make sure to spell it exactly right!
Once the player's portrait appears, click that. Players should see a "Add Friend" button.
This will send a friend request to that user. Once the user accepts the request, they will appear in the Social tab under the Friends section going forward. This will make it much easier to see when they are online.
Once a player has been added to the Friends list, it's very easy to click their name and then select the "Invite to Group"
Note that players do not need to be friends to group up. When searching for a player's name, the user can also select Invite to Group rather than Add a Friend to send a group invite to a non-friend.
That's all there is to it. Players who have beta access can start exploring the world, making friends, and grouping up now. Be sure to check back throughout the rest of the beta window and into the full launch for more New World strategy guides, news, and updates.
New World is currently in beta and launches on August 31 on PC.
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