At the time around its early access release, Palworld is a heated main topic in the circles gathered around gaming news. The game has sold at least 8 million copies already in its first week, exceeding all expectations. This has sparked a lot of discussion about why this game is finding its success. In my brief participation in some discussions in various parts of the internet, I consistently found that others would try to slot me into one of two camps: A freak for Game Freak who believes Nintendo can do no harm, or some techbro weirdo defending modern generative AI and plagiarism. This is based on whether I'm expressing positivity or negativity about the game, with no regard for what is praised or criticized. Conversations have turned into vitriolic flamewars under these dogmatic perspectives.
Palword isn't doing much new while being responsible for all of this heated debate. All of this hubbub is happening around a game that would be, in a vacuum detached from the present's perspective, ordinary and uninspiring. This game lifts a bunch of ideas from other games, and makes them all shallow enough to unobtrusively stick together. It's a baffling blurred mess of familiar popular ideas. You'll see Pokémon, Ark, Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom, and Fortnite all jarringly mishmashed into a clumsy excuse for a game.
In the game's evoked confusion, there's something fascinating about it all. The game, for me, ended up being a mildly fun experience and a mildly funny joke. These lifted elements of gameplay, as jarring as they are, make an interesting base for the gameplay to work from. The loop keeps me more hooked in your standard open world survival crafting experience than anything else I've tried in the past decade's deluge of these games. The mimicry of Palworld's inspirations leads to some hilarious exaggerations in Palworld's interpretations. There's always some goofy goal or weird new Pal to keep me engaged. The game, whether by accident or intention, serves as a parody of the modern gaming landscape.
As of writing this, Palworld has only just entered "Early Access"/"Game Preview" but in its current state, it might effectively be seen as a condensed reflection of current common interests. Palworld is everything that makes a game popular in January 2024.
Palword isn't doing much new while being responsible for all of this heated debate. All of this hubbub is happening around a game that would be, in a vacuum detached from the present's perspective, ordinary and uninspiring. This game lifts a bunch of ideas from other games, and makes them all shallow enough to unobtrusively stick together. It's a baffling blurred mess of familiar popular ideas. You'll see Pokémon, Ark, Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom, and Fortnite all jarringly mishmashed into a clumsy excuse for a game.
In the game's evoked confusion, there's something fascinating about it all. The game, for me, ended up being a mildly fun experience and a mildly funny joke. These lifted elements of gameplay, as jarring as they are, make an interesting base for the gameplay to work from. The loop keeps me more hooked in your standard open world survival crafting experience than anything else I've tried in the past decade's deluge of these games. The mimicry of Palworld's inspirations leads to some hilarious exaggerations in Palworld's interpretations. There's always some goofy goal or weird new Pal to keep me engaged. The game, whether by accident or intention, serves as a parody of the modern gaming landscape.
As of writing this, Palworld has only just entered "Early Access"/"Game Preview" but in its current state, it might effectively be seen as a condensed reflection of current common interests. Palworld is everything that makes a game popular in January 2024.