Last month, Amazon's New World finally got a minimap. It wasn't from the devs, mind you, but from some enterprising modders that just wanted an easier way to navigate around town. The mod became extremely popular as it finally gave New World that thing gamers have been taking for granted in open-world games for the past two decades.

However, New World's TOS bar the use of third-party apps and overlays, which is exactly what the minimap mod is. Players who installed it risked being banned as if they'd tried to use the gold-duping glitch or some other game-breaking exploit.

Related: New World: The Best Build To Level Up Fast

One month later and it turns out Amazon hasn't banned anyone for using the minimap mod, and now we're finding out why. A developer working on New World posted an explainer on the official forums that provided Amazon Game Studios' take on adding a minimap to New World.

"Right now creating a mini-map is not a high priority for us as we have other items we feel are more pressing," explained Lane, a New World dev. "The high level reasoning is that we have concerns with it meshing with New World’s action combat style and world design, that it could break immersion, may limit the drive for exploration, and there are technical limitations. We feel the compass fulfills the needs, fits the setting, promotes exploration, and supports combat."

The biggest concern from the devs' perspective seems to be having "eyes planted on minimaps as opposed to the play space." They want players to navigate by landmarks and roadways so that they can appreciate the beautiful vistas of Aeternum without needing to look down at a minimap. Furthermore, there's some concern that adding a minimap will make players drive towards efficiency rather than immersion.

Honestly, it's a strange position to take given that all MMOs eventually become a quest for efficiency, and it’s a reminder that New World is Amazon’s first game. They still don't truly know the ins and outs of MMOs yet.

On the plus side, Lane said that Amazon won't ban any player who decides to utilize minimap mods provided those mods adhere to a certain set of rules.

The mini-map can:

  • Show player position.
  • Show folks in group as we do on compass.
  • Only show node placement if they’ve unlocked that node via tradeskills, provided it is within the range that compass would display them.
  • Only show AI that you’ve unlocked via tradeskills as compass and within range of compass.
  • Show quests as they do on compass.

Amazon will continue to monitor minimap mod usage and might “re-evaluate” its position later, depending on how many people are using said mods.

Next: GTA Trilogy Is Full Of Spelling Errors