I've blogged a fair amount about Palia, the cozy social MMO, but Dr. Ruth Diaz has been diving deeply into it, and has an in-depth write up from her unique POV:
With over 100 hours in, I can say: this isn’t just a game—it feels like a gentle experiment in what it means to listen through both the verbal and non-verbals of the (non-playable characters) NPCs, to repair misunderstandings, and to grow alongside others, both human and not. It doesn’t always get everything right. But what it invites, and what the players often bring, is something rare: the chance to co-create an experience where belonging is a process, not a prize.
There is no combat. No leaderboard. No high-stakes drama. And still, the pace never feels empty. In Palia, the tension isn’t between players—it’s between effort and ease, between being seen and being new. The in-game chat is generous. Players help each other, share resources, and often go out of their way to make sure others are included. It isn’t perfect, but I’ve yet to see a toxic moment.
And Dr. Diaz knows from toxicity: A former Community Design Developer at Meta (featured here), she also founded the Troll Project, seeking to understand (and address) why people troll in virtual worlds. As I read her, giving virtual worlds more interactions like in Palia might help.
You can see that in how rare resources are deployed, and how the game's dead are depicted:
Even the way rare resources are handled reflects the community’s evolving culture. Magical trees respawn every in-game day (about every 24 real-world minutes). No one is told what to do—but over time, the community seems to have developed its own rhythm. Players tend to wait until 3:00am Palia time to cut the trees together. Around midnight, people scout and post locations in chat. And then they just… hang out. Sit. Dance. Talk. If someone cuts early, and others join in before everyone gets there, others sometimes apologize in the chat on their behalf, out of a shared sense of respect—not control. It’s a ritual, held together by collective implicit knowing and carried forward by each new player that begins to understand and respect that sometimes waiting means we all win together.
Above the village, perched on a quiet rise, is the cemetery. It rests at one of the highest points in the world—not hidden, not buried, but elevated. The dead in Palia are not forgotten—they are lifted up, honored, and made visible. Candles burn there at all times, steady flames marking presence across time. Each family has its own small plot, with inscriptions that carry love, regret, memory, and meaning. These aren’t just decorations. They’re archetypes—echoes of family systems and generational wisdom, carried forward through loss.
Read it all here. Palia reported 3 million players last year across multiple platforms, though peak concurrency on Steam is usually less than 10,000 per day. (That could be because Steam's main user base skews toward competitive/combat gaming, or other reasons.) Anyway, more on the topic soon!
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