Last week, former Blizzard and Riot developers announced an upcoming MMORPG called Palia. Like what those studios are known for, Palia will bring together gamers in a unique world. But unlike games that Blizzard and Riot are known for, such as World of Warcraft and League of Legends, Palia will focus on the relaxing experience. Developer Singularity 6 markets its debut game as a "community sim."
But because Palia is changing up the traditional MMORPG experience, veterans of the genre have raised some concerns about the gameplay. Asmongold, for example, had a pretty intuitive reaction to the game. While he thinks the game looks stunning with a lot of potential, even comparing it to both Valheim and Breath of the Wild, overall, he's concerned whether or not the game will be fun because there's less fear of dying.
Asmongold's Concerns About Palia
Most video games involve some type of stakes and, typically, they revolve around death in-game, whether that's making the wrong decisions in Mass Effect and losing, or dying and losing souls permanently in Dark Souls. MMOs are, oftentimes, no different, which gives meaning to PvP and PvE modes. The concept of dying and losing something or winning and gaining something over another player or the game itself offers motivation for gamers to keep playing.
Because Palia is meant to be a calmer game than other MMOs, Asmongold thinks it will be difficult to keep gamers playing because of the lowered stakes. To many gamers used to the traditional MMORPG format, Palia may likely be "boring," he said, "it's not going to have that same level of excitement." He went on to say that it's an "issue" that there's no concern of losing or dying.
It's worth mentioning that, at the time, Asmongold had some misconceptions about combat, under the impression that it doesn't exist at all. Palia will have combat, but it will play an equal part to the other portions of the game, such as exploration and crafting. Players can still expect some level of dungeon crawling and looting like other MMOs, but it won't be the main draw.
What Palia Brings to the Table
That being said, Asmongold also had many good things to say about the initial Palia trailer. He was drawn to the game after seeing the crafting and house customization elements that Singularity 6 will focus on and believes modeling an MMO after games with no stakes like Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an ambitious project with major potential. But most importantly, Asmongold was excited to see a game bringing something new to the genre rather than being more of the same. At the end of the day, if Palia does what it's aiming for successfully, it will likely be a great game, Asmongold explained.
Singularity 6 will be essentially creating the first mainstream, relaxing MMORPG, getting the attention of players who thrive with games within that genre, like A Short Hike and Firewatch. While some people enjoy combat grinders like Bloodborne and Hades and use them to blow off steam, others like to player relaxing sims at the end of a long day. Likewise, while some MMO players get adrenaline from PvP and raids, others become addicted to cleaning up debilitated land and romancing adorable villagers.
No, Palia won't be like most MMOs currently on the market, but that isn't to say it won't be exciting. Rather, it markets to a different group of gamers. In the same way that gamers still start new Stardew Valley files years after its release, Palia can keep players around so long as there's content that they personally find entertaining. As Asmongold put it, Palia could change the "paradigm" of what's considered an MMORPG because it doesn't rely on combat and action for entertainment.
Palia is currently in development.