I’d hesitate to say that the game actively exploits the subject, though it certainly leaves plenty of room for debate so far as that goes. Even still, there wouldn’t be this much smoke around this topic if there wasn’t some kind of fire, and this is certainly one of those instances where Amazon’s involvement only fuels the debate regarding this game’s imperialistic themes and possible agendas.Īt the same time, it must be said that it feels like New World’s developers were well aware of this controversy and perhaps even went out of their way to ensure that the final game’s lore, quests, characters, and world design avoid directly referencing this subject whenever possible. New World even begins with a prominent message that reads “ New World is a work of supernatural fiction about cultures from around the world banding together to fight for the fate of humanity,” which can certainly be seen as a reference to, and dismissal of, the colonization controversy. Not only does the game’s core concept invoke the fundamentals of that controversial topic (its gameplay and narrative are based on colonizing an island), but some of New World’s character design and world-building decisions clearly invoke famous historical periods of colonization (especially the colonization of the Americas). Truth be told, there’s been a debate about New World’s colonialism themes and visual design elements since the game was first revealed. At the moment, a lot of debate about New World is focused on whether or not it lives up to those expectations and what it tells us about whether or not Amazon is “ready” to enter this space for reasons other than profit potential. We’ll dive into this more in a bit, but when a trillion-dollar company decides to start making video games, it’s only natural for people to have certain expectations regarding the quality of those video games. While the baggage that comes with the Amazon name is certainly a big part of the ongoing New World debate, it’s been interesting to see how a lot of the debate about Amazon’s involvement so far is less about the company’s reputation and is more about the ways that New World doesn’t necessarily feel like it was made by a company with Amazon’s resources. Not only have Amazon’s previous games largely been met with scorn or indifference, but the company’s numerous ongoing controversies (many of which involve allegations of employee abuse and predatory business practices) mean that pretty much everything they do is guaranteed to face an extra level of (not unwarranted) scrutiny. The fact is that New World’s association with Amazon (the game’s publisher and developer) was always going to be controversial. So why is New World so divisive? Well, there’s certainly no shortage of opinions about this game floating around the internet wilds at the moment, but these are a few of the major talking points that have inspired most of the New World debates so far. We’re used to seeing major games inspire one reaction or the other, but it’s truly rare to get a modern Triple-A title that inspires both from such a wide array of people. While there are certainly some (myself included) who still have mixed feeling about New World, it’s becoming clear that millions of gamers have already decided that they love or hate this game and likely won’t be swayed from their views anytime soon. While New World‘s tumultuous development, numerous delays, and widely debated betas strongly suggested that the game was destined to be divisive, nothing could have quite prepared us for its sudden onslaught of record successes and immediate controversies.
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