It's TiPalia time!

 On the fourth day of Blaugust 2023... something something something... Tipa shares some thoughts on Palia's closed beta.  It's TiPalia time!

 Tipa starts out comparing Palia to Free Realms:

"Free Realms, in particular, I miss. Like Gatheryn (which won’t really mean anything because I doubt few ever actually played it), Free Realms was a collection of minigames that were based off popular arcade games and casual PC/Mobile games." - Tipa

 Well I happen to be one of the folks that did play Free Realms (see my tagged posts) but I have no idea what Gatheryn is/was.  I started skeptical with Free Realms but then enjoyed a few hours before throwing my hands up at the number of times the game asked for a credit card (oh SOE how I miss ragging on you -- little did we know you were just ahead of your time).

 Tipa continues to discuss how Palia is less "do anything you want" like Free Realms and more guided as someone would expect from a traditional theme park MMORPG.  Players get quests and go about the non-combat equivalent of "kill ten rats" (Palia has no combat outside of hunting creatures like deer).

 From the quests players move onto gathering materials to then build various things on their plot.  Building things requires materials, blueprints, and time.  Lots of time from Tipa's account.  As Palia described the game after her initial few hours:

But right now, just a couple hours in, it reminds me most of EverQuest 2’s crafting. You go outside and mine, gather, fish and hunt, then do some crafting.

  I have some more general thoughts on Palia which I am debating whether to share.  Why am I debating?  Because I got my closed beta invite this morning so figure I would be best served to actually try it before saying anything further (even though my comments are out there in various places).