The Most Wholesome Aspect of Palia is the Community

I've been addicted to playing the cozy MMO Palia, ever since it became available for open beta. Palia promotes cooperative gameplay. When there are multiple people fishing together, you get a buff that makes your fishing rod lose less durability. There are certain late game recipes that have so many stages of cooking that it's just better to do it as a group, there are even cake parties. Resources are shared across everyone that taps them. For example if there is a mining ore, everyone who hits it once will share the loot. The loot won't be split. If you are trying to catch the same bug alongside other players, all those who attempt to catch the bug can also loot it once the bug is dazed. Coopeative gameplay is heavily encouraged.

There are two specific rare resources that are tricky to farm. One of them is the flow infused tree. To chop down this tree, multiple people are required cause the tree heals itself automatically after taking damage. The other one is the palium ore. Unlike the flow infused tree, palium ore doesn't require multiple people to mine. Anyone can just take it. 

In the case of the flow infused tree, you are forced to ask for help if you are playing solo, so one can easily understand why people report it. But for palium nodes, you can singlehandedly mine them. Yet people still inform each other about this resource and wait until everyone arrives at the location. Everyone taps the mining node one time and the palium ore is shared between multiple players.

People are actually patient enough to wait for a few minutes. There were times after I finally arrived at the location, I'd find 5-6 people waiting for me. I've had experiences when 7-8 people waited for around 8-10 minutes until everyone arrived. People even ask in chat if there is anyone else coming before taking the resource.

This one time I was trying to find a flow infused tree but was struggling to do so. The player, who reported its location, used arrows to guide me towards it. I never imagined using arrows for this purpose so I started doing same tactic for others now. People are quite helpful and informative about describing the locations of these resources. If the first description isn't enough, you can ask them to specify it further and they often do so.

Other people doing this for you also encourages you to do it for others. I always report when I see these rare resources, tap them once and wait for people to arrive. If anyone struggles to find the location, I do my best to be as detailed as possible to further inform others.

I've seen people do this for more common resources too. For example with an upgraded mine pick, you can loot a clay node in 2 hits. If I see someone also farming clay alongside me, I hit the node once, wait until the other player also hits it, and we both get loot. I also happened to witness 2 players informing each other of the location of a vampire crab, which is an uncommon bug, and catching it together. All this really warms my heart. It makes the game even more special and all the more joyful to play.

Does this mean the opposite of these experiences don't exist? No it doesn't. Of course there are those who play solo exclusively and don't want to wait around for others. There are instances where I personally witnessed people taking a rare resource without reporting it. That definitely happens too. Depending on your server, you can get insanely lucky or not so lucky. But the general consensus is that people try to be mindful of each other and share resources. If you end up in a server where people are coopeative, prepare for the game to become as wholesome as a game can be.

I still would rather have instanced resources. Sometimes a person doesn't want to wait for 10 minutes per palium ore or flow tree. Or they simply don't feel like socialising that day. People should be free to farm their resources at a pace they pick for themselves without putting anyone else in a disadvantage. Also if someone takes a resource without reporting they can get called out and be shamed in the server chat too. I've seen many examples of people getting frustrated because someone didn't wait and I can understand it but I can also understand the opposite point of view. Considering that this adds minimal socialisation, Palia developers might not be willing to change it.