Proposed changes to how players earn gear, and how effective it is, in Amazon's MMORPG New World's playerbase up in arms.

As revealed in the game's latest public test realm build and detailed in an official blog post from Amazon, New World's upcoming December patch will bring some major changes to the game, including changes to endgame content and the game's current High Watermark system. Watermark will become a new system called Expertise, and while it will largely function the same as it once did, with players having to earn progressively better items with higher gear score through participating in endgame activities, there is one major change that is causing a whole lot of controversy.

As it currently stands, the High Watermark system only affects item drops, and has no effect on the actual effectiveness of that item. That means that players with a low Watermark on a particular gear slot could still equip and use higher gear score items--such as crafted items--at maximum effectiveness, as long as they met the level requirements.