The MMORPG model lends itself to all kinds of fiction genres. For instance,New Worldis 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 Worldhas seen mixed receptionso 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.Paliais 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.
Paliaisn’t a game about conquest and combat likeNew World.Singularity 6 describesPaliaas a unique type of social simulator, letting players live, work, and craft together in a peaceful fantasy world. It intends to deliver anAnimal Crossingexperience in a huge multiplayer world. As different asPaliais fromNew 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.Paliahas to dodge some very similar pitfalls if it wants to succeed.
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Significant Flaws for Palia to Avoid
Paliacould easily run into the same optimization and server stability issues asNew World.Many fans have complained about connectivity problems when playingNew World,especially when players gather in large groups. The game sometimes stutters and slows to a crawl, making it extremely difficult to play.Paliahas less combatthan other MMOs, so there are fewer stakes for weak servers than inNew World,but server crashes or game lag would be an easy way to ruin the immersion inPalia.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 charmingPalia.
Paliaalso needs to make sure its NPCs are unique.New Worldplayers 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. AlthoughPaliamight 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, unlikeNew World’s many reskinned characters.IfPaliaachieves a world of NPCswith unique personalities and storylines, then it really could feel like anAnimal Crossinggame on an unprecedented scale.
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Palia and New World Want the Same Thing
Overall, there’s also the simple issue of bugs to address.Paliahas pre-alpha sign-ups available on its website, suggesting fans will get to try it before its full release, just like howNew Worldbrought fans in for beta testing.New Worldplayers have found some pretty major bugs in the beta, though. The finished version of the game certainly shouldn’tbanNew Worldplayers for milking a cowor crash the game while fishing.Paliawants 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 polishPaliaas best it can, even ahead of testing periods. After all, games only get one chance at a first impression.
New Worlddefinitely hasn’t made a perfect first impression on players, but there’s still room for it to grow beyond that impression.Paliahas much more development time left thanNew World,so hopefully, Singularity 6 uses that time tomakePaliarise aboveNew 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 Worldhas shownPaliahow fans could respond if it stumbles in development. Hopefully,Palialearns as much as possible fromNew World’s experiences and manages to make a better impression on fans when it goes public.
