The MMORPG model lends itself to all kinds of fiction genres. For instance, New World is taking the MMO model in a new direction with its fantasy world inspired by North and South America during the age of European colonialism. In spite of its unique premise, New World has seen mixed reception so far due to several technical challenges. In other words, premise isn't everything. That's a lesson that another upcoming game can take to heart. Palia is a very unique MMO in the works at newfound studio Singularity 6, but if Singularity doesn't polish the game in development, then it can't be carried by its premise alone.
Palia isn't a game about conquest and combat like New World. Singularity 6 describes Palia as a unique type of social simulator, letting players live, work, and craft together in a peaceful fantasy world. It intends to deliver an Animal Crossing experience in a huge multiplayer world. As different as Palia is from New World, though, there are still many lessons it can learn from the latter game. New World's recent beta period revealed a number of important flaws that the game needs to fix before its release at the end of September 2021. Palia has to dodge some very similar pitfalls if it wants to succeed.
Significant Flaws for Palia to Avoid
Palia could easily run into the same optimization and server stability issues as New World. Many fans have complained about connectivity problems when playing New World, especially when players gather in large groups. The game sometimes stutters and slows to a crawl, making it extremely difficult to play. Palia has less combat than other MMOs, so there are fewer stakes for weak servers than in New World, but server crashes or game lag would be an easy way to ruin the immersion in Palia. It's hard to feel like a part of an MMO's world when the game isn't performing well, and immersion is particularly important in the charming Palia.
Palia also needs to make sure its NPCs are unique. New World players often found that the enemies they encountered were often reskinned versions of each other, which both lowered the game's difficulty and got in the way of player engagement. Although Palia might not have as many monsters to fight, it definitely looks like it has a lot of NPCs for players to interact with. It needs to develop consistently unique NPCs to fill its world, unlike New World's many reskinned characters. If Palia achieves a world of NPCs with unique personalities and storylines, then it really could feel like an Animal Crossing game on an unprecedented scale.
Palia and New World Want the Same Thing
Overall, there's also the simple issue of bugs to address. Palia has pre-alpha sign-ups available on its website, suggesting fans will get to try it before its full release, just like how New World brought fans in for beta testing. New World players have found some pretty major bugs in the beta, though. The finished version of the game certainly shouldn't ban New World players for milking a cow or crash the game while fishing. Palia wants to be a huge game with tons of social activities, which means there's plenty of places for bugs to crop up. Singularity 6 needs to polish Palia as best it can, even ahead of testing periods. After all, games only get one chance at a first impression.
New World definitely hasn't made a perfect first impression on players, but there's still room for it to grow beyond that impression. Palia has much more development time left than New World, so hopefully, Singularity 6 uses that time to make Palia rise above New World. In a sense, these MMOs have the same goals: they're new MMORPGs trying to establish a unique brand in a game genre largely dominated by a short list of huge games. New World has shown Palia how fans could respond if it stumbles in development. Hopefully, Palia learns as much as possible from New World's experiences and manages to make a better impression on fans when it goes public.
Palia is in development for PC.