Here is my primary issue with New World:
The design feels Schizophrenic. From a distance, this seems to be built on a core game pillar of territory PvP (ala DAOC), and one would think that the game systems would loop around that, but that's just not how this game has been built.
The content it does have feels like content for contents sake. The PVE has no real purpose. The cosmetic gear has very little variety, and the purpose behind holding territory or waging War is very, very thin (and the penalty for losing a war is too high on the town). I think there was potential here, but it fell short. The crafting, initially, starts off good, but falls off over time. its far more beneficial to grind portals for XP than questing. PVP missions are just a chore and boring....and are only called PVP because you have to be flagged, but to be honest, there is little risk if any at all. The quests are largely fetch/kill, with very little variety.
Things really fall apart at max level. Once you no longer are actively grinding to level, your supply of gear slows greatly, thus repair parts becomes a premium. Be ready to spend hours mindlessly farming useless, old, low level content to get trash to Salvage and re-stock repair parts (or farm mats to make repair kits). Its because of this that greens and blues will sell for much greater on the AH due to max level players wanting to buy it up to salvage...only, Gold has no real purpose or value either. The only people farming gold will be the ones selling it for RMT, but in reality there is no purpose in game for Gold. Resources are too scarce, so most wont sell the good stuff.
As you play, you really just get a sense that there is no cohesion. It's a game that doesn't know what it wants to be...so its just a mish mash of a bunch of ideas and things. Its not Sandbox, its not theme park, its not crafting/survival, its not PVP-centric...its just...a bunch of things thrown in a pot of art and animation with some loot to be had.
Its a half baked MMO that (obviously) pivoted one too many times in design and lacks in creative vision. There is no understanding of what the core game pillars are, and the systems within the game are not well interconnected. Overall, its a bit of a mess.
As for why Amazon is struggling in games. It all comes down to this: They do not understand the customer.
Warren Buffet famously said 'Never invest in a business you cannot understand". Amazons venture into gaming has been one of hubris.
(this comes after a few hundred hours in Alpha. I gave this game a very deep dive)