While the entire world suffers into an eternal economic crisis, thanks to a pandemic and an unsustainable economic system, Amazon’s recent MMO, New World, is facing a crisis of its own as a result of deflation.

What Is Happening In New World?

Massive multiplayer online (MMO) games are often unique in how players can interact with the game’s economic systems, leading to player-driven economies that fiscally savvy players can take advantage of. Look no further than an Eve Online player who created and ran an in-game bank, only to run off with over 800 billion ISK (equal to about 11,000 GBP) once enough players had deposited their hard-earned money.

New World is similar to other MMOs in that respect, except deflation of the in-game currency has led to a barter economy. Essentially, the ways of gathering coin in the game: monster drops, salvaging, and quests, are not offering enough to replace the number of coins players are using. This is leading to the prices of goods like crafting materials to drop significantly because the value of currency is much higher. 

Many servers now operate on barter economies, as no-one is willing to trade in coin. One Redditor mentioned the effect it has had on their server on the New World subreddit, with trades like 1000 linen for 600 iron ingots and 20 eggs becoming a common sight. 

Why is New World having a currency crisis?

The main culprits to this problem, aside from the scarcity of ways coin is acquired, seem to be the high tax burden for crafting, homeownership, and armour repair. Companies (New World’s version of guilds) are also taxed for territories they own, which is halting PvP between companies because the costs of ownership outweighs the benefits. 

The lack of NPC vendors also means there is no baseline for prices, so more deflation will cause each good to be priced as low as possible, at 0.01 coin. This in turn makes professions useless because taking the time to craft something will harbour almost no profit, which is a big disincentive to crafting of any sort.

Can New World's currency crisis be fixed? 

It’s up to the developers to find a way to fix the economy, but some players have sensible suggestions that could help balance things back out somewhat. NPC traders in each town would be a good starting point, to create a price-floor for items that is sustainable and allow players to sell unwanted gear. Missions rewarding higher cash return is also a simple fix, along with more currency sinks to prevent constant accumulation of coin.

For anyone wanting to get into New World at this point, the economic issues certainly present a barrier of entry. Our beginner tips still apply to those want to make the jump, and you can also read our review if you’re still wondering if it’s for you. But for anyone wanting to live out their fantasies as a Bronze Age farmer, before currency bogged down our simple lives, New World has accidentally become the game for you.