BDO: more expensive overall, than a mmorpg inc. monthly fee

[dude_beutlin]

Black Desert Online is by far more expensive then the generic monthly fee mmorpg, as example world of warcraft, final fantasy 14 online. In black desert online gigantism reigns supreme. It's all about farming and grinding. There's nothing else, it's all about farming and grinding.

Many proponents of Black Desert Online come up with the argument that all microtransactions are not necessary because they would only be pay for convenience and comfort. Without these microtransactions for convenience and comfort, it's virtually impossible to be efficient.

As an example:

You need 12 warehouse maids and market maids for a proper flow of the game. That alone costs about €240.

You need that bloody cash shop tent, if you wanna grind efficiently in the desert region, repair stuff, and doing lifeskill efficiently without the big hassle of going back to towns. So that you can repair your Stuff and buy yourself that handy +50% Drop Rate Buff. That costs another 60€.

In addition, and many hide this: There is this so-called Value Pack. A kind of optional monthly payment subscription, which shouldn't really exist. Without it, an additional 20% tax is added to the already hefty tax of 20% on all marketplace sales (auction house). And so you can't even sell all your precious nice shinies through the marketplace, because it's completely unrentabel! and you know what? Yes, PROFIT is EVERYTHING in black desert online. No Profit = no sense in playing black desert online. So, there you have it:
optional 15€ monthly fee for that greedy as f*c* so called company pearl abyss.

And by the way, there is another possible optional subscription available for a 15 days fee: secret of old moon, + 100% combat xp, 50% lifeskill xp, and other benefits.
So, basically another optional 12 € for 15 days fee for poor pearl abyss.

oh, now I almost forgot the 3rd optional monthly subscription (dang it...) : kamasylve Blessing... ups that one only works half a month too (15 days). + 2 energy regen, + 20% drop rate, among other benefits.
So... another optional possible of 12 € for 15 days fee for poor pearl abyss!

do you want to be a cook, processor or alchemist? It's really die hard boring, but to be able to do it efficiently, you have to spend money again... This time you have to spend your money for maxing out Weight Limit, it only costs about 100€.

And if you don't want to walk around like a rag picker, then just buy a costume for 30€. Now it's not so bad anymore, you've already burned enough money anyway... You can also buy costumes on the marketplace, the classic set costume boxes are best suited for this. Especially now during a season you have good chances to get a set classic costume box within one to four weeks. It's just RNG whether the order goes through or not.


And in Black Desert Online, efficiency is everything.

Honestly, the game is absolutely insane. It is not comparable to World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14 Online or any other MMORPG.

The sole purpose of Black Desert Online is to drive the gamers into jaded undemanding permanent grinders. And then milk them off with tons of microtransactions from the cash shop.

And the game is very clever at it because these microtransactions target the heart of greed...

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

The only thing that you need to do is leave your computer run 24/7. I have most of my 5000+ hours afk and the rest doing mainly life skilling(Guru cooking) along with some bartering and do most of my own gathering.

The only thing that I have paid for are Value Packs, character expansion slots, and I got a few pets when I purchased packs on sale. Value packs are the only thing that I would term necessary. Hedgehog is close to a scam and its importance is way overblown by the community. Don't have a Tent and don't need it either. Fairy is T1 and could care less. No cooks clothes or maids outfits either as they are a hoax. Buy all of my Books of Old Moon off the CM and get enough Blessings of Kama from the free hand outs as I don't run those 100% of the time. Have not paid for any weight or inventory increases for my characters either as I manage well enough without them.

So I have spent a total of $57 on the game of which I still have around $15 left in Pearls. In that time, I have purchased roughly $400 worth of Pearl Items off the in game MP for in game silver and I might be underestimating the figure.

It's stupid easy to make money in the game. A few months ago I saw that the price of Silver was going up and knowing that Yuria accessories are good source of silver, I bought several hundred off of the market and melted them down. Made like $30-40 million in a about 20 minutes which was just me to clicking my LMB about every 7 seconds in the middle of Heidel. Making $100 mill and hour by sitting in the safety of town with no real gear requirements, that doesn't sound bad until you look at the alternatives. Why didn't I continue? I make way more money doing other things. Why don't other people do this? They make way more money doing other things or they just don't know.

Is cooking, processing, and alchemy boring? It is if you stare at the screen the whole time. I think most people have second screen or even if they don't, they put BDO in the tray and do something else. For most of my cooking, I was using SE +3 clothes and had my cooking time at 2.3 seconds. 2.3 was fine, because I could do a batch of 1100 meals in 15 minutes which is how long the Verdure's last. So it is basically, start a batch and put BDO in the tray or just go do something else and come back in about 15 minutes. It's really not that bad as long as you don't stare at the screen the whole time.

I feel a little guilty at how little money that I have sunk into the game given how much that I have played it and there is no way that WoW of FF14 would come close with the same amount of money.

[Chewtoy]

you get pets and maids for free from events, i literally bought 0 pets and maids, yes they dont give them out all the time, but you can still can get them, same with horses, its actually better then it was XD

BDO is still pay 2 win, but its less then it was XD

You really dont need all the pay 2 win stuff unless you do PvP, and if you do PvP might as well play something else that is more balanced.

I think if you do PvE, the game is actually not that bad if you like to grind mobs, you can buy anything with silver as long you grind for it.

Life skills are useless in my opinion because your limited by energy, you make more money grinding mobs, but thats is personal opinion as i hate life skills, pretty sure life skill people can make lots of money, but I just like playing my character then just sit there and do life skills.

[Darksurgeon]

This posts hits the nail on the head and people are still defending this greed.

Sad...

[MelAU]

You guys really don't know what a pay to win is.



p2w is ever never about "spending money and catching up with other people easily". i mean duuuhhh, of course! This is the whole point. Some people have lot of time, some people have money so these games utilize both of these for more people possible to increase their user base. This is understandable. This is MANDATORY, otherwise no game can stay in business.



Let me tell you what p2w is. Let's say you can buy pen weapon for 1k usd, and that is the ONLY way. You can not buy it via silver at all. Now, this would be real p2w. This is what a p2w is. And this game is not p2w.



These games must earn money in order to stay in business. i still don't know why people criticize the games according to their cash shop. Without those "p2w" guys, this game would never stay in business, it doesn't matter how many million of f2p gamers out there who surprisingly "show off" with the fact that they spend nothing. i mean since when this is something to boast about? You really think grinding 10h/day and not spending a dollar is being a pro or something? you realize you waste your very valuable time? Time is more important than money.


remember this, if a game, like any game, is not viable for all kind of people it will never be successful. You claim that it is not fair if i spend 1k usd for costumes and extract them for crones, why? i also invest my time for the money? i work full time this is required for sustaining your life lol. How come you having no problem with life yet and being able to farm 10h/day is fair, but me working full time and trying to utilize my limited time is not fair?



Seriously stop being selfish. you will all understand us when you are grown up enough and working full time and still trying to enjoy gaming.

[Tsel13]

Pets

For pets not looting the area fast enough, I think there is also the aspect of the player and their grind speed.

I’ve seen some players blast through and area so fast that if I blinked, one second monsters are there, blink…. the next second all of the monsters are dead on the ground. I’m not writing about only a group. I mean the whole grind area. I found it remarkable! that there are people who can grind that good, I certainly see their pets not looting fast enough.

Me, I have only bought one pet ever. All of my other pets Pearl Abyss has given away through quest [Events] or I won them from PA RNG box giveaways. I have a lot of free pets. I have RNG’d some to Tier 4, 3, and 2. I grind with 2 Tier 4, 2 Tier 3, 1 Tier 2. Because I am not a lightning-fast grinder, like other players, my pets loot everything for me. I find no problem with their loot speed. 😊

That is why I add the players ability to clear a grind area is an aspect that needs to be calculated into this.

[Nhika]

Not bad if you drop $200 a year.
F2P is very possible with mount stash and free maids you get.
And honestly if you are grinding 1000+ weight loot you should slow down, maybe lifeskill or something lol

[Max17]

Originally posted by Diablo:

You guys really don't know what a pay to win is.



p2w is ever never about "spending money and catching up with other people easily". i mean duuuhhh, of course! This is the whole point. Some people have lot of time, some people have money so these games utilize both of these for more people possible to increase their user base. This is understandable. This is MANDATORY, otherwise no game can stay in business.



Let me tell you what p2w is. Let's say you can buy pen weapon for 1k usd, and that is the ONLY way. You can not buy it via silver at all. Now, this would be real p2w. This is what a p2w is. And this game is not p2w.



These games must earn money in order to stay in business. i still don't know why people criticize the games according to their cash shop. Without those "p2w" guys, this game would never stay in business, it doesn't matter how many million of f2p gamers out there who surprisingly "show off" with the fact that they spend nothing. i mean since when this is something to boast about? You really think grinding 10h/day and not spending a dollar is being a pro or something? you realize you waste your very valuable time? Time is more important than money.


remember this, if a game, like any game, is not viable for all kind of people it will never be successful. You claim that it is not fair if i spend 1k usd for costumes and extract them for crones, why? i also invest my time for the money? i work full time this is required for sustaining your life lol. How come you having no problem with life yet and being able to farm 10h/day is fair, but me working full time and trying to utilize my limited time is not fair?



Seriously stop being selfish. you will all understand us when you are grown up enough and working full time and still trying to enjoy gaming.

^This. And people still don't understand how life works imho: Time >>>>>>>>>> Money.
Btw i'm a f2p player with 24 maids, 5 T4 pets. Months of Value Pack/Kamasylve/Oldmoon buff in storage. Never spent a single dime in the game and still enjoying it :)
PS i'm not playing this game 24/7 i have other things to do too :P

[lElysiuM]

no offense bro, i came from console and spend a few thousands, so I KNOW that you CAN spend money. now playing on PC for around a months, i only bought the tend so far (with a 30% coupon) and i can tell you, people are forgetting the free ♥♥♥♥.

i have 3000+ crons rn, 4 FREE costumes, around 50-90 days of FREE kama, value pack and old moon + the other thing that you forgot to talk about.

[player7112]

I suck at math so I'll just leave the bad P2W game for better ones.

[H3llF!r3]

yeah if u playing casualy like i do aka not competing with top player u can play without spending a dime, but if u want to be competitive gl competing with whallet warriros. so this game is p2w by core mechanics. all the freebies are sample to make u buy in the long run.

still a good game if ur not in a rush or trying to min/max everything. (i have 8k+hours in, spend like 300euro over 6years)

[Asher]

Originally posted by H3llF!r3:

yeah if u playing casualy like i do aka not competing with top player u can play without spending a dime, but if u want to be competitive gl competing with whallet warriros. so this game is p2w by core mechanics. all the freebies are sample to make u buy in the long run.

still a good game if ur not in a rush or trying to min/max everything. (i have 8k+hours in, spend like 300euro over 6years)

You have spent 8000 hours mindlessly grinding in BDO? The problem is that there is no reward for grinding that, there is no endgame that would reward that pain.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Vambrace:

Originally posted by Asher:

You have spent 8000 hours mindlessly grinding in BDO? The problem is that there is no reward for grinding that, there is no endgame that would reward that pain.

You are operating under the assumption that all people consider grinding mobs and collecting loot, building gear and just hanging out with friends in chat/discord for 1000s of hours equals "Pain"... It doesn't.

There is no loot just tons trash that makes you buy weight upgrade from $$$ shop also you have to buy +530% EXP scrolls for $$$ to not go insane while grinding lvl. No builds or building anything. Everyone has the same gear with shady hazard roulette enhacement. No endgame content. You cant even pvp on open world in normal way.

In fact this is not an MMO there is no group activities at all and no communities.

[FluxFader]

Originally posted by Darksurgeon:

This posts hits the nail on the head and people are still defending this greed.

Sad...

It’s a Korean mmo, implies cash shop.

And there are tons of zero cash shop guides and tutorials.

Not defending anything I didn’t already know before I started playing back in 2018

Every Korean mmo grinder has been very similar and people act like it is so astounding all the convenience options in cash shop.

[vkobe]

Originally posted by dude_beutlin:

Black Desert Online is by far more expensive then the generic monthly fee mmorpg, as example world of warcraft, final fantasy 14 online. In black desert online gigantism reigns supreme. It's all about farming and grinding. There's nothing else, it's all about farming and grinding.

Many proponents of Black Desert Online come up with the argument that all microtransactions are not necessary because they would only be pay for convenience and comfort. Without these microtransactions for convenience and comfort, it's virtually impossible to be efficient.

As an example:

You need 12 warehouse maids and market maids for a proper flow of the game. That alone costs about €240.

You need that bloody cash shop tent, if you wanna grind efficiently in the desert region, repair stuff, and doing lifeskill efficiently without the big hassle of going back to towns. So that you can repair your Stuff and buy yourself that handy +50% Drop Rate Buff. That costs another 60€.

In addition, and many hide this: There is this so-called Value Pack. A kind of optional monthly payment subscription, which shouldn't really exist. Without it, an additional 20% tax is added to the already hefty tax of 20% on all marketplace sales (auction house). And so you can't even sell all your precious nice shinies through the marketplace, because it's completely unrentabel! and you know what? Yes, PROFIT is EVERYTHING in black desert online. No Profit = no sense in playing black desert online. So, there you have it:
optional 15€ monthly fee for that greedy as f*c* so called company pearl abyss.

And by the way, there is another possible optional subscription available for a 15 days fee: secret of old moon, + 100% combat xp, 50% lifeskill xp, and other benefits.
So, basically another optional 12 € for 15 days fee for poor pearl abyss.

oh, now I almost forgot the 3rd optional monthly subscription (dang it...) : kamasylve Blessing... ups that one only works half a month too (15 days). + 2 energy regen, + 20% drop rate, among other benefits.
So... another optional possible of 12 € for 15 days fee for poor pearl abyss!

do you want to be a cook, processor or alchemist? It's really die hard boring, but to be able to do it efficiently, you have to spend money again... This time you have to spend your money for maxing out Weight Limit, it only costs about 100€.

And if you don't want to walk around like a rag picker, then just buy a costume for 30€. Now it's not so bad anymore, you've already burned enough money anyway... You can also buy costumes on the marketplace, the classic set costume boxes are best suited for this. Especially now during a season you have good chances to get a set classic costume box within one to four weeks. It's just RNG whether the order goes through or not.


And in Black Desert Online, efficiency is everything.

Honestly, the game is absolutely insane. It is not comparable to World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14 Online or any other MMORPG.

The sole purpose of Black Desert Online is to drive the gamers into jaded undemanding permanent grinders. And then milk them off with tons of microtransactions from the cash shop.

And the game is very clever at it because these microtransactions target the heart of greed...

depend of your goal, if you want be top yes it will cost you a lot $$$$

but if you dont care and just play it for fun it will only cost you 10$

[jjs82x]

Originally posted by dude_beutlin:

Black Desert Online is by far more expensive then the generic monthly fee mmorpg, ...

Eh, as a former Wow player and current ESO player (though not paying, atm), I disagree; for at least three reasons:

1. Monthly fee games are... a monthly fee. So you gotta play your heart out for that money you've already laid down. As a BDO player, there is not that pressure to get your money's worth. You can play at your own pace. So if you want to stop for a while, the cost for your "vacation" from the game (OT at work, or taking the dog to the vet, or whatever) is $0.00, not $15/month.

2. Assuming that a paying player averages roughly 75 hours/month, that is about $0.20 per hour, not including the original game and expansion costs. Cheap, to be sure; but so far, my BDO expenses are $0.00 per hour; which is ~ZERO~ dollars per month: Really hard for a commercially viable MMO game to beat that.

3. If you play something like ESO, and go in whole hog, I think the discounted rate is about $13/month. Plus there is a $40 expansion, at least once per year; so, that is a total of about $194 per year. If you limit yourself to $15.00/month ($180/year) for BDO niceties, then you can play it for less than a paying ESO player. (You can play ESO for free, but storage is severely throttled if you do, and you do not have access to expansion areas, which is most of the game, now.)

Wow, I got this game for free, and so far, have not given them a penny. I'm going to have to man up and buy something, so as I don't feel like a leech.