Highlights
- Palia fosters a positive and cooperative community, with players supporting and helping each other, as encouraged by the game's Code of Conduct and unwritten rules of etiquette.
- Flow Tree etiquette promotes collaboration, with players calling out the location of Flow Trees and waiting for others to join in resource gathering activities, ensuring everyone gets a chance to participate.
- Stealing loot is discouraged in Palia, with the game's shared loot system preventing players from taking drops belonging to others. Gift-giving is also encouraged, fostering a helpful and friendly atmosphere among players.
Palia is a cozy MMO game that puts player positivity front and center within many of its gameplay mechanics and community practices. While still in Open Beta, Palia is growing in popularity and is establishing a dedicated player base where players support and help each other, albeit not without its challenges. While Palia has a set of Code of Conduct community rules and guidelines to follow that encourage positive player behavior traits like helpfulness and cooperation, a lot of unwritten in-game etiquette also comes into play.
Given the game is currently still in development with continual updates added, it's likely the unwritten rules of Palia may adapt and change over time as the game grows. Yet, given the game's focus on online cooperative gameplay activities, some of these may endure, depending upon what changes or additions studio Singularity 6 makes to the game in future updates.
Changes Palia Needs To Make If It Wants to Thrive as an MMO
Palia is innovating in both the cozy game and MMO genres, but it needs to keep growing and make some big changes to enjoy continued success.
Follow Flow Tree Etiquette
Gathering resources with friends and other Palians, such as chopping down Flow Trees, is one of Palia's most charming features that can help bring the online community together. Flow Trees are infused with magical energy, with the largest requiring at least two players to cut them down using a particular type of axe, rewarding all participating players with the benefits. As a result, it's become a common unwritten rule to call out the location of Flow Trees in the server chat, with many players asking if anyone wants to join in before felling.
This kind of unwritten Flow Tree etiquette continues with many players politely waiting till others respond and arrive before chopping begins, within reason, so everyone participating gets at least one hit. Even those who might not possess the right Palia tools and equipment to join in may also helpfully point out their location. While not everyone always follows the rules or, equally, might simply sometimes prefer solo play, it's best that players don't continually grab loot spawns like Palium Ore before anyone else has a chance to. While not every resource is group-orientated, being considerate of other players is the general go-to approach when resource gathering, wherever possible.
Be A Helpful, Considerate Palian Citizen, And Don't Steal Loot
Stealing is also frowned upon in Palia. Although not really stealing, grabbing items before others becomes an accepted part of some gameplay features, such as the Chappaa Chase mini-game in Palia's time-limited Maji Market event, where players must catch Chappaas before others can. While some players have experienced problems with loot disappearing from plots, Palia also helpfully reduces the chances of loot being stolen by other players through its shared loot systems, as when players hunt Sernuk or Chappaas, the loot is shared providing all players contribute. This system prevents players from stealing loot drops belonging to others. However, it's best to still be respectful and considerate of other player's hunting space.
Helping others is also encouraged through Palia's gift-giving systems, wherein players can request items they need, and others can fulfill their request via a gift. One particular quest even makes gift-giving compulsory, as a means of becoming a fully-fledged Palian citizen, which is also a neat way of mixing up quest styles and enables players to learn the ropes. Although totally optional, many players may still continue to help other players with gifts and pay it forward. While many online games face challenges like toxic player behavior or bots, and Palia could also add more to flesh out its MMO offering, the existence of such unwritten rules and etiquette is a testament to how players are helping it become the welcoming, friendly, and cozy MMO it sets out to be.
Palia is currently available in Open Beta on PC. It will fully release on PC and Nintendo Switch at a later date.
