New World Won't feature forced PVP according to interview with German website

In an interview with German site Mein-MMO.de, New World Game Director Scot Lane seemingly confirms that the upcoming MMO will not feature forced PvP.

The entire site, as expected, is in German, so here is our best Google-fu translation:

• forced PvP and survival elements have been removed
• PvP can now be turned on and off in the open world using the drop-in function. If you want, you can avoid PvP completely
• there are now NPCs giving you quests
• Mass battles can be played against others in PvP or cooperatively against AI opponents
• there are now 3 factions in the game that you can join
• multiple weapons now get skill trees that are heavily based on RPGs. There will still be no character classes.
• In general, the MMO is now a little more accessible, the combat system is made faster and smoother, and a lot of PvE content is now added

The reason, it turns out, was that forced PvP bothered many testers as explained by Scot Lane. Again, excuse the Google-fu,

“We learned in our early alpha tests that many of the MMO players wanted more content on the one hand and that they didn't like the “Open World Gank Festival” on the other. As a result, they lost the fun of New World. So what we did was add more direct content. We have added quests, objectives, missions and community goals. We are now more of an open world MMO than a sandbox as it was before.”

As a result, PvP looks like it’s now going to be an opt-in feature for players. In case you missed it, read our extensive reveal preview here.