With Palia a particularly interesting MMO is in development. It forgoes typical combat and focuses on content that is usually secondary, including crafting, housing, and relationships with NPCs. The developers have now revealed details about monetization.
What has Palia announced? The new MMO from former developers of Riot Games and Blizzard will be Free2Play. Everyone will be able to play it for free. There will also be no pre-order packages with early access.
To finance the MMORPG, a shop will be introduced that should adhere to the following rules:
- Only cosmetic items will be sold – primarily clothing sets and outfits at the beginning
- You will never be able to pay for something that you can also earn in-game
- There will be no boosters or buffs – the developers want earned achievements to mean something
- There will be no loot boxes with random items
- There will be no rotations in the shop, everything will always be available
- The developers commit to communicating decisions honestly and openly
The developers emphasize that they want to “win together with the players”. The team is committed to paying good salaries and benefits and therefore needs to make money with Palia. But they do not want to force players to pay for anything. The goal is to find players who “like to spend money”.
Palia wants to be a social MMO – Reminds of Animal Crossing
What exactly is Palia? Palia wants to be a social MMO where playing together with others is the focus. It relies on various activities that you can experience alone or together with other players:
- There is housing with thousands of different items. Your friends should be able to come over and help you decorate.
- Activities like fishing, cooking, chopping wood, or building your own farm are part of the core content. These will be accompanied by entertaining mini-games.
- You should be able to explore the world and find hidden lore items.
- You can constantly change the appearance of your character and give them cool outfits.
- You can build friendships and relationships with NPCs in your surroundings.
In Palia there will also be the option to fight against creatures from the environment in special hunting quests, but this is meant to be optional. It will rely on a system of various skills rather than classes.
If you wish, you can completely forgo fighting. There will be no PvP at all. Additionally, dungeons are planned for the future, although it is unclear whether combat or puzzles will take place in them. It could also possibly be a combination of both.
When will Palia be released? The closed alpha for the MMO is set to start in the first half of 2022. You can already register on the official website (via Palia). With a bit of luck, you will be selected for the tests and get to try out one of the interesting MMOs for the coming years.
However, there is still no concrete release date.
What do you think about Palia? Do you find the MMO just as exciting? Or do you always need combat, dungeons, and PvP? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
More about Palia, its content, and the developer studio can be found in this article:
Palia sounds like the perfect MMO for fans of Animal Crossing – Expected to start in alpha in 2022
