BDO's Greatest Enemy is Information

SBFord

BDO's Greatest Enemy is Information

The recent buzz surrounding Black Desert Online these past few weeks hasn't been all that positive. There's been a fervent argument back and forth about it being pay-to-win, not having any relevant endgame, and even a vocal minority still attacking it for not being free-to-play. All of those are conversations worth having, but after several dozen hours spent playing Black Desert Online, its biggest problem isn't any one of those issues.

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borghive49

I'm glad this game doesn't hold your hand. It kind of reminds me of the old days when you didn't have all the resources outside the game. This game might struggle though, since a lot of younger gamers today don't have the attention spans to play games with complicated systems.

kitarad

What I have seen here is people taking the weasel way out and dismissing it as another Korean grinder dressed up with nicer graphics. Pity that people cannot take the time to appreciate the game and enjoy it in spite of the lack of information. Anything worth taking time and learning should be good for the genre in the long run.

Mardukk

I couldn't agree more with the article. The game's systems are really really foreign feeling. Even after looking for guides online, I'm still pretty lost. Like "owning a node" and investing in a node and having workers there are different? I have to feed the workers beer but I have to cook it first. You need a house to put a cooking station in, I think? You need some kind of a warehouse or someplace for the workers to stay. Are the workers regional only, I'm guessing? And on and on...

Edit:  I'm enjoying the BDO bible linked below.  Good info.

Thane

borghive49 said:

I'm glad this game doesn't hold your hand. It kind of reminds me of the old days when you didn't have all the resources outside the game. This game might struggle though, since a lot of younger gamers today don't have the attention spans to play games with complicated systems.

errm... yea, keep up your hopes, but as soon players will play the game, they will log what they did and where, and you WILL be able to google the shit out of it

if you wanna play like it's the 80s, switch of your internet and start playing c64 again :>

Foncl

This game, just like EvE, isn't going to appeal to people who lack patience. There are several other MMORPGs for those people.

Here is all the information you need to get started in the game, the BDO Bible: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JnFambQifvui7-V68QMsfuXuhAuu4C0NsVJCxJIv84E/preview?pref=2&pli=1

mcrippins

I personally like the idea of discovery. Adds a bit of mystery to the game, and feels good when I figure it out. I know these features aren't really industry standard, and it's great to see them again.

Anthur

Didn't try BDO but anyway...

@OP Did you try and ask in game for help ? I know we old farts did this in the past and it worked most of the time. You know something like:

You: I am on this bird quest but can't find it anywhere. Can anybody help ?
Someone: Yes, it only spawns every 8 hours* and I just caught it recently.
You: Too bad, thanks for info.
Someone: Btw, maybe you want to join us , we are killing giants over here.
You: Oh, great. Omw.

Nah, probably too old fashioned.

Sad part is, OP is right. Rather anyone nowadays has the time or will to talk to others or even try to figure things out by themselves. What a "waste" of time. And OP would probably just get a nice "F**k you.", "Internet is your friend" or just silence.

*time interval modified to oldschool values.

Dahkoht

Good lord did the author ever play EQ , the real EQ ?

I very much enjoyed figuring everything out at launch , maybe every game doesn't have to have glowing arrows and safety rails and hand holding ?

odinthor021

So if a game doesn't tell you exactly what to do then you are lost? One of the best things about Black Desert is the fact that you actually have to explore and talk to the natives in order to progress. If you need a guide or a walkthrough to understand a game I guess it kinda takes the fun out of it?
Gimme a break.

BillMurphy

Holy crap, how did I not know about that bible? Thanks, @Foncl!

PsYcHoGBR

I must be doing something wrong then because I love learning new things to do in a game. I have spent a fair amount of time watching youtube videos and reading about the game mechanics. One of the things I loved about Eve online was having to learn, it was like a drug to me. Its when I know a game from back to front that things can get a bit stale. I played Eve for 3-4 years until I had learned all that I wanted to learn. I don't want to jump into a new game and be able to play with one hand while watching TV and eating my supper :P

Dan2607

Not sure I agree with OP. Tutorial Walk throughs ??. Wonder how he wouldda got on in UO.
Dumped in town with...well nothing.

Looking forward to this one. 

Gdemami

Mardukk said:

I couldn't agree more with the article. The game's systems are really really foreign feeling. Even after looking for guides online, I'm still pretty lost. Like "owning a node" and investing in a node and having workers there are different? I have to feed the workers beer but I have to cook it first. You need a house to put a cooking station in, I think? You need some kind of a warehouse or someplace for the workers to stay. Are the workers regional only, I'm guessing? And on and on...

Edit:  I'm enjoying the BDO bible linked below.  Good info.

Never played Zynga games...?

GeezerGamer

Is this complaining because the game has a complex discovery process? That would be on the "plus" list for me.

Bosscore

Can't agree with this article at all. I still remember the feelings I had when I first entered the MMO world through WoW. Everything was absolutely new, I didn't look up anything on the web, just figured it out by myself or through the help of other players in-game. Very slowly. And that was awesome, I loved every second of it. After countless hours of gameplay I was still figuring out simple aspect of the game, like: "I should have repaired my armor 2 weeks ago? Oh boy xD" and that learning process is a very important part of the game experience to me. It was also what drawn me towards EvE Online at some point. Apart from that, my MMO experience for the past half decade has been lacking, a lot, because I instantly know everything there is to know about a new game from the moment I login. That's boring, not supposed to happen. If it doesn't feel new and fresh, why the hell am I wasting time with it? So yes, I look forward to getting lost for a whole month or so in this game, googling as LESS as I can and having fun being wow'ed all the way through.

muppetpilot

I had some fun with CB1 and CB2, and while I appreciate the fact that the game doesn't hold your hand and that there is more depth to it than many give it credit for, I found that there are some glaring graphical issues that apparently many people are experiencing.
The terrain and texture pop-in just killed my immersion; that's my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. But I myself have a high-end PC, as do many others, and this pop-in seems to cross all hardware boundaries. I'm sorry, but in a game in which OWPvP is supposed to be the end-game (or most of it), having such a bad draw distance and other players and NPCs look like gray shadows until you are 5 meters from them is bordering on being unforgivable.
It's unfortunate and also hard to understand, given the beauty of the game in general. Add to that the fact that attempting to play in full-screen mode is causing some peoples' monitor refresh rates to be forced to 24Hz by the game and I'm left wondering how long this thing will last if these issues are left unfixed. From what I have read, these have been going on since the KR version launched. Options for shadows and draw distance are essentially nonexistent.
I have no problem with their cash shop, and I much prefer B2P or P2P games over the endless spawn of F2P games we are inundated with. But I had high hopes for BDO really drawing me in immersion-wise, and it's tough to do that when the grass and bushes and trees are changing shape before your eyes.

Jonnyp2

If this game was a theme park type mmo I'd be extremely annoyed at the lack of information. However I'm glad black desert is presented in this way. If you're not an idiot, it won't be hard to figure out how to play. Regardless there will be thousands of guides holding your hand through every aspect of the game in a month or so.

Bosscore

muppetpilot said:

I had some fun with CB1 and CB2, and while I appreciate the fact that the game doesn't hold your hand and that there is more depth to it than many give it credit for, I found that there are some glaring graphical issues that apparently many people are experiencing.
The terrain and texture pop-in just killed my immersion; that's my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. But I myself have a high-end PC, as do many others, and this pop-in seems to cross all hardware boundaries. I'm sorry, but in a game in which OWPvP is supposed to be the end-game (or most of it), having such a bad draw distance and other players and NPCs look like gray shadows until you are 5 meters from them is bordering on being unforgivable.
It's unfortunate and also hard to understand, given the beauty of the game in general. Add to that the fact that attempting to play in full-screen mode is causing some peoples' monitor refresh rates to be forced to 24Hz by the game and I'm left wondering how long this thing will last if these issues are left unfixed. From what I have read, these have been going on since the KR version launched. Options for shadows and draw distance are essentially nonexistent.
I have no problem with their cash shop, and I much prefer B2P or P2P games over the endless spawn of F2P games we are inundated with. But I had high hopes for BDO really drawing me in immersion-wise, and it's tough to do that when the grass and bushes and trees are changing shape before your eyes.

Agreed, that and the foliage shadows flickering.

trash656

All I read here is a bunch of whining and complaining about a game because this 26 year old was more used to playing MMORPG's like Retail EvE Online were his hand was held every step of the way.

All Korean MMO's have bad localization. All Korean MMO's have spelling mistakes. All Korean MMO's have missing information. Even Archeage did. This has been known since the dawn of time to most people who have been playing MMORPG's from around the world for the last 15+ years.

Maybe the games good, maybe the game is garbage. But this article is misinformed. It would of been more informative if Bill wrote it.

Sovrath

muppetpilot said:

I found that there are some glaring graphical issues that apparently many people are experiencing.
The terrain and texture pop-in just killed my immersion; that's my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. But I myself have a high-end PC, as do many others, and this pop-in seems to cross all hardware boundaries. I'm sorry, but in a game in which OWPvP is supposed to be the end-game (or most of it), having such a bad draw distance and other players and NPCs look like gray shadows until you are 5 meters from them is bordering on being unforgivable.

did you try this?

alkarionlog

i'm guessing not only most players will not really like it, but also will have a pretty lack of players in the long run, why? they are limiting the number of people who can log in the game with that ip block thing, I never saw a MMO survive long with much players with this kind of thing

Sovrath

alkarionlog said:

i'm guessing not only most players will not really like it, but also will have a pretty lack of players in the long run, why? they are limiting the number of people who can log in the game with that ip block thing, I never saw a MMO survive long with much players with this kind of thing

I imagine they are doing that because they have agreements with other regions who want those players for their own version of the game.

YashaX

I had exactly the same problem with trying to work out how the nodes worked and the workers, even though I had watched and read various tutorials about it.

I found what worked for me was to decide what I was going to do in a play session and just focus on that. Because the game is so open with so many systems and is hit and miss on leading you through them, having a plan and taking on one aspect at a time seemed to make it more enjoyable.

Lord.Bachus

This topic really shows the OP will not like this game..

The game is for people that like the deep systems and are prepared to invest time and have fun discovering how all these systems work..

Personally i think its very badly written by someone that sadly does not understand why people would love these kinds of games, what he calls limitations, i see things differently.

Lord.Bachus

BillMurphy said:

Holy crap, how did I not know about that bible? Thanks, @Foncl!

Its been posted on your own forums two times so far..

And yes, a 250 pages bible shows the depth of this game..