Cozy MMO Palia's first big event isn't what players signed up for: "Maji Market is not 'cozy' or 'non-FOMO'"

Palia, the new cozy MMO on the block, is continuing its journey through open beta, kicking off its first big event to give players a sense of the sort of thing that comes along to break up the regular gameplay loops. While there's a lot that players love about the chill online game though, plenty feel the event is another instance of introducing something that goes against Palia's core tenets, which is being a stress-free experience that respects your time. 

The Maji Market event brings a bustling night market to the Kilima Village Fairgrounds. As the developer explains in a blog, night markets take place all over Palia at various times, though differ to reflect cultural sights and activities unique to their respective regions. Kilima's history is that of a trade hub, so expect to see that in the festivities alongside the food, music, and fireworks. 

Now that the event is live, players have unlocked a new mini-area within the village to check out some of the new quests and tasks that'll earn them prizes. The reaction so far hasn't been stellar. Fans feel the appeal of Palia is that of something that doesn't spark FOMO in players by demanding a chunk of your time across multiple brief windows.

Over on Reddit, one player has crunched the numbers to find that playing every hour of every day for 15 days straight is required to feasibly get every item from the event, which reportedly roughly amounts to 166,000 gold. The event itself runs to September 26, so you have a fair amount of time to get heaps of goodies, and the event items will likely return if you've missed out. However, the community feels the time demands of it all create the sort of FOMO that Palia is supposed to work against.

"Thank you for doing the math, this is exactly my concern as a casual player I won't have time to do the event every hour," one player replies. "I'm only able to play on the weekend for a few hours so even if the game is a month long, it doesn't matter for me."

Digging further into some of the gripes players have with the event, getting some of the goodies on offer requires taking part in events, though doing so is theoretically trickier on the weekends due to increasing competition with others for spaces. 

For example, one mini-game sees you chase down a Chappa when it spawns, though one frustrated fan reports incidences of 30 players duking it out for the four of them that spawned at a certain point. 

"You wait around bored until the game starts so that you can fight it out in a rather rude way with way too many people fighting over four fat squirrels," they say. "If I wanted to be rude and stressed I could just go play a game of League [of Legends]."

As often happens with live service games, Palia's launch has been met with plenty of twists and turns. Fans – us included! – adore the cozy nature of it on the whole, though the developer has already been called into action to fix some bugbears prior to the event. Thankfully, the devs have so far been quick to respond to the community's issues, so the cozy MMO should get all the more tranquil as we tootle toward a full release.

Just recently, Palia got its "first real patch" after a mixed open beta response.