Palia is a life simulation game that is played in an MMO format (Massive Multiplayer Online). It is currently available for personal computers and the Nintendo Switch and is also completely free. ​
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You are a human that suddenly arrives in a world of the Majiri. This is a completely new world and you have to learn how go about. You do this by talking to the villagers, complete quests, grow friendship or romantic levels with the in-game characters, or make friends with other humans playing the game as well.
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This is a conversation that occurs early in the game. The player is learning how to go about in the fictional world by talking to several different characters to get situated. In this instance, the player talks to Reth who is a great cook in Palia. The player requests Reth to teach them how to cook but Reth declines by using a famous proverb but replacing "run" with swim. Then, Reth suggests the player learns how to build a campfire before learning how to cook.
Player asks Reth to teach them how to cook.
Reth declines.
Reth suggests the player learns how to make a campfire first.
Player asks Reth to teach them how to cook.
r/Palia
​This is a discussion thread on the subreddit “Palia.” It has all sorts of information the players may need to know about Palia and is a place where they can ask questions as well. Discussions may include how-to’s, help with completing quests, looking for friends to play with, and a place to just share what they like or dislike about the game.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Palia/comments/1akdhcd/how_do_you_feel_about_requesting_items/
Discord
Discord is a platform for communication and many opportunities for interaction. It’s a free resource with various features that make it a great tool for academic courses.
These features include: servers that focus on a topic, phone call capabilities, video call capabilities, screen-sharing capabilities, image sending, and document sending. Additionally, texts can be modified to italicize, bold, underline, or strikethrough words or sentences as well. Therefore, the official Palia discord server is another great place for learners to have authentic experiences and opportunities for language learning practice.
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Wiki: Palia
Additionally, there is a Wiki page for the game which provides information the players may be looking for. This can be an opportunity for players to practice their reading and comprehension skills. However, players can also fulfill requests from the friends in game that may have asked them for help. With this page, the player then reads up information and relays it. It can go either way as well.
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Encyclopedia for Palia
This site is called PaliaPedia which is very similar to Palia’s Wiki page. However, this one provides various additional information such as if the game is up and running, animal tracking, what characters in the game are looking for, how to attend to gardens, information about the characters in the game as well as how to become closer to them, and many more. The most important feature here is the assistance in becoming closer to characters in the game because it provides players with opportunities to use pragmatic skills such as gifting the character their favorite fruit to earn friendship points.
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This video is made by an official gaming partner for the game and is a guide on the logistics of playing Palia with a group. You can add up to 25 players to your group, so this could be a way for a whole class to play together and incorporate lessons and activities into play. This video can serve as a guide and starting point for educators looking to use this game with whole class interactions.
This is a shorter article that gives a basic breakdown, with some picture examples, of the different personality types in Palia, how they change your answer options when talking with NPCs, and other tidbits of information. Keep in mind that Palia is still a work in progress, so they are often adding more gameplay and lore aspects, such as expanding NPC personality types and potential effects to NPC/Player relationships based on player response choice.This, and the wiki entry for personality types, could be used as a basis for an in-class lesson or activity in a similar vein to the one we have included for Sunrise Village.
This is a player made guide video with tips regarding etiquette and interaction expectations with other players in the game. This could be beneficial if you have students playing the game in a public server, as well as for a starting point of discussion regarding these “dos and don'ts”.