Amazon Games clarify stance on the Overwolf New World minimap
Amazon Games is not banning New World minimap users either.
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Amazon Games issues a rather long statement regarding the debate over the Overwolf New World minimap addon. As it stands, the addon presents quite a few design issues, so Amazon Games is not particularly a great fan of the minimap idea. However, they are okay with third-party minimap addons as long as they follow a few rules.
What’s the deal with the Overwolf New World minimap?
Anyone who decides to make a New World minimap addon needs to make sure their minimap follows a few rules. These rules include the following:
- Show player position.
- Show folks in group as Amazon does with the compass feature in the default UI.
- Only show node placement if they’ve unlocked that node via tradeskills, provided it is within the range that compass would display them. Aka, don’t make trade skill helper addons.
- Only show AI that you’ve unlocked via trade skills like the compass does with tracking and within regular compass range rules.
- Show quests as they do on the compass.
The current Overwolf New World minimap addon that has gotten very popular meets the criteria and is simply a minimap. That is why Amazon Games state they have not outlawed the addon and banned any players from using it. The New World dev team has reached out to developers regarding how they made it to ensure it remains an accepted third-party addon.
However, Amazon Games is not entirely happy with the situation. Amazon Games’ lack of interest in making their own minimap comes down to its belief it ruins several design principles. The dev studio believes their MMO world is filled with reasons for players to explore and find their farm routes, see breathtaking sights and discover Aeternum’s landmarks. Likewise, players need to take a look at a compass and their natural surroundings to avoid danger, including PvP. The developers feel that it will change the way the game plays, especially if players stare at a minimap rather than the rest of their monitor.
However, Amazon Games are confident the Overwolf New World minimap doesn’t do that. The functionality is essentially the same as the compass, albeit in a minimap design rather than a compass design.
If you’re interested, you can read the response from Amazon over on the second New World dev blog article in the forums.
How to download the Overwolf New World minimap?
After all of this, are you still interested in trying out the Overwolf New World minimap? Well, you can grab it on Overwolf’s website. You’ll need to download the Overwolf client and make sure that Overwolf is registering your New World client to install it correctly. Once when both of those requirements are met, it should be working as intended.
You can download the minimap addon here.
