Amazon's New World MMO is less than two weeks past launch but is already struggling with certain technology-related issues. Outside of the game, Amazon's had to go back on earlier promises regarding server transfers, saying it's unable to provide them across regions or to "full servers" (a cap it only implemented past-launch). Now, problems are spreading in-game for New World, too, as companies are using a mass-report exploit to get opponents banned, so that they can claim their territories.
In New World, the biggest endgame PvP system is easily its territory control feature. Players are able to declare War to take over territories controlled by Companies within opposing factions. This results in a massive 50v50 PvP battle for control over the territory, where players sign up to attack or defend. Imagine, going into one of these battles, if New World players could use an exploit to greatly diminish their opponent's forces. It would make War and territory control broken and trivial, which is exactly what's happening.
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Around five days ago a Reddit user named KollotheCoinMan posted details about how they and their company were using an exploit in New World to gain new territory. The Reddit user explained that he and his company "tested" reporting opponents for spurious reasons. It took only a relatively small number of these reports for the opponent to be suspended via what appeared to be an automated system. KollotheCoinMan then said his New World Company used this "mass-reporting exploit" to ban Company leaders controlling territories multiple times, and then claimed the territories for themselves.
https://www.reddit.com/r/newworldgame/comments/q4w21g/50_people_in_my_100_person_company_are_now_banned/
On Saturday, a new post on the New World subreddit captured how serious the exploit has gotten. User grayson1478 posted that 50 different players within his Company had been banned via this reporting exploit. "We have to give up our hard-fought territory because everyone can press report a couple of times?" Companies are left without territories, have bans on their record so future New World bans are even longer, and know their opponents will continue using this exploit in the future.
Amazon has, at the very least, been made aware of the situation. However, a solution seems out of reach at the moment. Official responses have said both that New World does and does not feature automated bans, despite all evidence that it does given how widespread the exploit has been used. Further, banned users say that their appeals to get their ban overturned also receive an automated response denying their return.
Every MMO has growing pains, particularly MMOs that grow much faster than its technology and employee base can handle. That's understandable, but it doesn't make the wait for fixes any easier. Amazon is currently prioritizing delivering free server transfers, but there are hopefully available development resources that can begin to fix this exploit quickly, too -- never mind punishing the exploiters capitalizing on the problem.
New World is available now on PC.