New World, Amazon’s new MMO, has officially launched, but many gamers were quickly caught in large lines as they waited to log in. And Twitch streamer Asmongold, who was in position 10413 in the New World queue, was one of these players.
New World‘s apparent decision not to grant streamers queue priority or unique accounts appears to be the source of this unexpected predicament.
Asmongold has already criticized New World for bugs and gameplay shortcomings, but he may not have anticipated having to deal with significant wait periods on top of those concerns.
On launch day, Reddit user GoldDogYT published a 50-second clip of Asmongold failing to enter New World. Asmongold waited for the New World’s Aeternum setting to load in the video, becoming increasingly angry as the screen remained black.
After confirming that New World will not offer him queue priority, he remains pretty calm, but when his queue position eventually displays on the screen, he becomes vocally upset.
Streamers can act as free or cheap promotions for MMO games like New World, which is one of the reasons new games may give streamers some priority. However, this may be seen as favoritism, which could lead to resentment from other players. Asmongold has had trouble loading MMOs in the past, but the problem is generally traced back to his numerous fans cluttering up the servers, which could explain his seeming anger at being stuck in the line.
Other New World fans do not appear to be sympathetic to Asmongold at the time of writing. One Redditor joked that Asmongold would have to wait 13 hours in line, while another boasted that they just took 40 minutes to get through a 1000-person line. Several other users criticized him for his outrage, comparing his reaction to a nobleman finding out he had to queue with commoners and peasants.
Regardless, opinions on whether New World’s apparently equal-opportunity server access was a wise idea appeared to be more divided. Some users felt that this made game access more equitable, while others pointed out the possible commercial benefits of treating streamers differently. In one exchange, a user brought up Asmongold’s numerous spectators, who were presumably also stuck watching a blank screen with him and not playing the game. The response was that on a Tuesday afternoon, New World still had 960,000 viewers, showing that the game was doing just fine.