New World devs start AFK player crack down to solve server queue problems

Amazon Game Studios is finally cracking down on New World players using crafty methods to stay logged in for hours while being AFK, which has contributed to long queue times.

New World is Amazon Games’ breakout MMO that’s been garnering early success and seeing strong views from streamers. Interest has naturally transformed into new people wanting to try the game – but a lot have run into problems getting in.

Servers have been reaching their capacity and players have been waiting in long queue times to hope for a spot in New World.

To make matters worse, people have been using sneaky methods like the one below to stay logged in. The good news, though, is that the developers are finally doing something about it.

New World devs take action against “AFK Timer Subversions”

“We have seen a lot of frustration around individuals who may be artificially remaining active enough in servers to avoid the automatic AFK mitigation that is built into New World,” they said.

“We certainly agree that this is not acceptable.”

For that reason, they’ve created a “new solution” to identify and take action against “bad faith” AFK players. Players caught doing it will be kicked to the main menu. Repeat offenders will receive harsher penalties.

“This effort is going to be rolled out over a period of time, so results may not appear immediately,” they said. “But this is something we are dedicated to bringing online as quickly as we feel comfortable.”

New World’s AFK Timer Subversion issue explained

New Worlds logs players out of their current session if the game detects they are AFK and unresponsive, to make room for more people that haven’t gotten in a session yet. But, if there’s a hurdle, gamers will find a loophole.

“People stand in queue for 12 hours… Meanwhile in the game,” one reddit user said after their clip showed about 10 players AFK while doing minimal movements to not get kicked from the server.

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This is why some people want Amazon to get a bit more active on that the AFK front with a more aggressive cue from Square Enix.

“FFXIV solved this in Shadowbringers launch by just restarting the server twice a day force kicking the AFKers,” user ‘Tykero980’ said. “It worked pretty well at keeping things manageable by purging the people cheating the system.”

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While this could come with other growing pains, it would open up a lot more slots for people to fill in rather than have long queue times while waiting for the system to clear out anyone who registers as AFK.

New World has been giving MMO players a great alternative to the genre, and now it’s up to Amazon Games to keep everything running well.

Additional reporting by Dexerto’s Alex Tsiaoussidis.