I did something today which I haven't done in quite a while: I signed up for beta access to a new MMORPG. The game is called Palia (referral link), and the promise is that it will be a cozy game, kind of a Stardew Valley MMORPG. Although the graphics look more like Legend of Zelda than Stardew Valley. Closed beta starts on August 2, and it is something that I really would like to try out.

I can't know or guarantee that the game will be any good. But it certainly reminds me of a part of my MMORPG history that I liked, and which got lost: Non-combat interaction between players. And it seems somewhat obvious: When you play a cozy game like Stardew Valley, you have a lot of interaction with NPCs, from trade to romance options, and wishing that these people were real is a natural reflex. I have always thought that MMORPGs reducing other players to competitors for loot or PvP-enemies wasted the genre's potential. I remember several times in which I was part of a group of players that staged some other sort of roleplaying event in a game (I once officiated a wedding in DAoC), with basically no support from the game mechanics.

- posted by Tobold @ 8:57 AM Permanent Link