New World hasn't been getting a lot of good press lately. With unpopular updates, bugs, and a lot of downtime for maintenance, the playerbase seems to have already had enough of Amazon's flagship MMO. In fact, the news has been so bad lately that New World won last place in The Game Awards' Players' Choice category – not a great way to greet its first holiday season.
Now, it looks like Amazon is aware of this, and has a pretty unorthodox way of countering the negativity. Fans believe that the developer is using bots on the subreddit to spread positive comments, as several responses have been spotted using the exact same, strange language.
"Gotta admit, the game feels good different in the PTR". Reads one reply. "the games feels good different in the PTR. The event stuff is nice too", says another. "Gotta admit the game feels good different in the PTR. The event stuff is nice too". Yeah, you get the idea.
It's clear that these replies aren't from actual players. Reddit user LegitimateDonkey is spreading the theory that it's Amazon using bots to make the subreddit appear less negative, after many have already accused the company of writing fake reviews on Steam. LegitiamateDonkey goes on to accuse the moderators of covering it up, as threads that discuss the topic are being deleted. "Is this subreddit just a place for amazon to advertise their game or a place for actual discourse about the state of New World?", they comment.
An alternate possibility is being put forward by the subreddit's mod steam, however. They refute that Amazon is doing this to boost the game's reputation, and that they're helping it advertise the MMO.
"We reviewed these users as these users have odd user histories but are not likely to be what people think they are", says a moderator. They claim that the bots are likely spamming generic messages in the subreddit so they can build up fake comment histories. This is so they can later scam other users, without their account looking suspiciously new.
Whatever the case, fans seem to have made up their minds. Many players are replying with fake bot comments on their own, seemingly unconvinced that these are simply scam accounts trying to look more legitimate. Even if it turns out the fans are wrong, it goes to show that Amazon will have quite the uphill battle when it comes to getting back in their good graces.
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