“One of the problems we observed with this system was that some high level players were killing low level players, A LOT,” Amazon Game Studios explains. “Sometimes exclusively. This often led to solo or group griefing scenarios that created a toxic environment for many players. To be clear, this behavior was not shown by all PvP players, but enough to cause significant issues.”
“We set out to build a compelling world full of danger and opportunity that begs to be explored. The intended design was never to allow a small group of players to bully other players.” AGS clarifies that it’s not “[moving] away from PvP” and still wants it to have a “significant role” in New World, meaning “fair fights that are organized, skill based, and opted into by all participants” rather than “predatory behavior that relies on exploiting another player’s lack of experience, progress, readiness, or willingness.”
(Source)