New World developer handing out penalties to AFK players

New World is the latest game to take the MMO world by storm. Although it was previously delayed, Amazon Games finally released the highly anticipated title on September 28. Already, players have been exploring the game’s vast world, completing quests, and doing whatever else y’all do in MMOs. However, a problem that was noticed almost instantly is how many AFK players are present in New World servers.

Apart from encountering players who are automatically running into walls, going AFK also causes another frustrating issue. Players going AFK for extended periods of time does not help New World server queues. If you purchased the game at launch, you will know just how lengthy those server queues can be. While the developer is creating new servers to reduce long wait times, booting people who are not actually playing the game could help the situation.

You can go AFK in New World, but time is ticking

The New World community manager, HardcoreHenry, published a blog post on the problem. The post updates fans on how AFK users will be dealt with, although any detailed information is pretty scarce right now.

That’s because the details of the solution have not been shared, only the consequences are outlined. If you are first detected as being AFK for too long, you will be kicked to the New World main menu. Then, if you carry on repeating AFK behavior, you will be handed harsher penalties. It is unknown what these harsher penalties could entail, but we’d say they aren’t worth risking.

Finally, detection of AFK players in New World is not instant and it will be rolled out over a period of time. Even if the affects are not obvious straight away, we are now reassured that the issue is getting fixed. It is promising to see the developer respond to community concerns, although we’d like a little more detail on their findings.