It’s The Journey That Matters

SBFord

It’s The Journey That Matters

A Reddit thread caught my eye this morning with the topic titled “How hard would it be to start today and catch up and be competitive”. Despite some solid responses from the Black Desert Online community, I thought it was a particularly strange subject to raise and one that unearthed a variety of preconceived ideas as to what Black Desert Online is and what it’s offering.

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Lurianar

Agreed. This is a big problem and it's a bit sad that some people cannot let this go. On the other hand, being thoroughly under-powered is sad, but Black Desert shouldn't be tackled like other MMOs. It's really unique and its charm is in having complete freedom in what you do.

monochrome19

I think the post raises a legitimate question. The journey only matters if you are having fun along the way, though. But if everything you do is only pointless buildup to endgame ... well, who would enjoy that? At that point, your only priority is getting to the "fun part."

gunmanvlad

I think that the "people who compete for the top" are a pretty good % of the player base (not the majority, but still significant).

So if you're one of those people (like myself), the MMOs you play are always dependant on whether you can actually compete. Competitiveness can only help the life of a game imo, as at the end of the day a majority of most successful/popular games are competitive (MOBAs, Multiplayer FPS, etc.), the Minecrafts and Skyrims of the world are rare.

holdenhamlet

I really do wish I wasn't a competitive person for this MMORPG specifically. There's more to the virtual world than any other MMORPG, and I've missed much of it racing to endgame.

However BDO offers the best GVG of any MMORPG I've played, and to contribute in it, you need to have a certain gear/level threshold. So even though I started months late, I've been racing to endgame (well, not really racing, but I've been spending my play time with that goal in mind).

I'm on my way- Level 55.5, almost all my gear is +15. I'll never be able to take the top guys that started months before me, but that's not really a concern. It's a guild focused game, so you don't need to worry about 1v1 so much.

I do think either way to approach the game is valid- trying to be competitive or just chilling and enjoying all the game has to offer. I think the latter is probably better, since BDO uniquely has so much to offer in that department and PVP can be found most anywhere in gaming, but you can play BDO either way and have a good time, even if you started late like me, imo.

Shinobe

IMO the thing is, If PA would open a PVE Server with no open world PVP and no Guild Wars, just Arena and Node Wars and alowe everyone who wants to move once to that Server, with all perks, this Server would be crowded like hell.

I really like BDO and yes i know i will never ever be able to have all Boss Gear +20, on that PvE Server i would not care. BUT the Problem on my Server is, there are a sh....load of aXXholes that just PK ppl for the fun.

I mean i knew that it is open world PVP, but what i didnt knew is that gear matters soooo much in this game and that the community is soooo bad.

So yes, you can try to enjoy this game, it has alot to offer, till the Point when someone with high gear has the Feeling of PK you over and over or take your grind spot because he feels like...

JDis25

That's just it though, the Journey ends at 50- then the grind begins.

Albatroes

"Enjoying the journey" is fun every once in a while when you get tired of doing end game. When most people look into a new MMORPG, they look at how they will be spending most of their time in it and what activities/systems are in place for progression. For some, it aligns. For others, it does not. Most people will honestly experience the 'leveling' experience twice and it only diminishes the more you do it tbh. Rushing to the end isn't really going to kill the experience unless you let it since you'll have to level other classes again anyway if you like them. Also, many experienced MMORPG players tend to want to rush to the end the first time so they can build up a foundation to enjoy other character leveling more. Unless you're wow and just give away free characters that start 10 levels away from cap which skips the establishment leveling phase.

Sovrath

monochrome19 said:

I think the post raises a legitimate question. The journey only matters if you are having fun along the way, though. But if everything you do is only pointless buildup to endgame ... well, who would enjoy that? At that point, your only priority is getting to the "fun part."

I'm a big believer that people make their own hells.

There are a slew of players out there who are not interested in "the journey" but just being high level with best gear for "end game". They don't like leveling and will complain and cry because a game raises the level cap.

It boggles my mind in Elder Scrolls Online when people say that doing the quests in the other factions are "a grind". It's the same type of content, reasonably well done that the players experienced from 1 - 50.

My only guess is that they really just want to be high level at pvp as quickly as possible. But then why play a game that has leveling when one can play a game that doesn't rely on leveling.

Uhwop

A friend of mine told Daum how he's been botting and exploiting the game for 4 months now, and exactly how to stop it....

They've done not a thing about it.

The games all about making silver and getting rare drops in order to progress.
The journey is worthless when the cheating is rampant, and it's rampant; far more than people realize.

cesmode8

I think the answer to this is simple.

In a themepark, endgame is traditionally more important, quality endgame is much more desired, etc.

In a more sandbox game such as BDO, endgame is almost irrelevant. Not totally, but along the way you are doing so many more things that just leveling and combat. You can spend days just trading at low levels if you really want to, and stay at that level forever. Aside from some build progression and some GvG(maybe??), theres no need to level in BDO if you dont want to.

fed79

The game is a grown up version of the worst kind of click bait mobile game that just is focused on pure profit. Yes all game companies are for profit, but there are ones that also care about what they create. Daum is in the same category as Trion for me.

Sovrath

Uhwop said:

A friend of mine told Daum how he's been botting and exploiting the game for 4 months now, and exactly how to stop it....

They've done not a thing about it.

The games all about making silver and getting rare drops in order to progress.
The journey is worthless when the cheating is rampant, and it's rampant; far more than people realize.

hmmmm, maybe.

Is this really a "friend" of yours or a friend you know online? The internet is filled with people we meet online, some great, some not so great, who can say anything and how would be really know?

Right now I can say the same thing "I bot and exploit all the time, you know, just to see if I can do it. I've e-mailed Daum with my very specific details on how it can be stopped but they don't care".

Truth is all of that, coming from me, would be bogus.

Additionally, let's say your friend does exploit and bot and did let them know. This is a very "in the trenches" point of view. Every gamer thinks they have a clue as to what will be the silver bullet to stop cheating. Not realizing companies have metrics on everything, they can see the patterns.

It's like the players who say "do you know what will stop gold sellers? Having a person online who bans every gold seller who appears in chat/the world as well as the botters. That will stop it."

Not taking into account that it is a fraction of what is going on and developers spend time gathering and banning thousands upon thousands over time.

Now this doesn't mean that they shouldn't take care of people in chat/the world but in truth that's not going to solve the issue. What it does help to solve is a perception/customer service issue. But I get the feeling that developers don't quite get that.

Shaigh

Sovrath said:

monochrome19 said:

I think the post raises a legitimate question. The journey only matters if you are having fun along the way, though. But if everything you do is only pointless buildup to endgame ... well, who would enjoy that? At that point, your only priority is getting to the "fun part."

My only guess is that they really just want to be high level at pvp as quickly as possible. But then why play a game that has leveling when one can play a game that doesn't rely on leveling.

When the only type of game that serves an endgame with community that you wish for while having a journey you dislike you bite the bullet and do the leveling. The other option is paying someone to do the leveling for you.

H0urg1ass

The journey matters.

Being able to contribute at the end of the journey matters.

BDO has one half of the equation down, but has blown it on the other one.

monochrome19

H0urg1ass said:

The journey matters.

Being able to contribute at the end of the journey matters.

BDO has one half of the equation down, but has blown it on the other one.

This is the correct response.

LacedOpium

While all of these attempts at justifications for rushing to end game may be perfectly reasonable since we are all entitled to our own opinions based on game play preferences, they are all nevertheless off the mark excuses since they miss the entire point of how, inherently, an MMORPG was meant to be played.  

MMORPGs are, in fact, about journey.  That's why the are called "massively multi-player role playing games." One can play with that definition until their face turns blue in an attempt to give the acronym a different meaning than originally intended but its meaning is self explanatory.  It is all about "role playing" the journey of your character in a virtual world, based on guidance through a story line that is advanced by lore, and provided in the game through level based quest completion.  If they weren't about journey we wouldn't have levels, story lines, quests, vertical gear progression, etc.  Oddly enough, all of the aforementioned game systems that are essential to MMORPGs are the exact same things that many of these detractors complain about.

So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?

This is the main problem plaguing the MMORPG industry today.  A large segment of the gaming population is so used to the instant gratification provided by PvP platform games such as those provided by FPSs and MOBAS that they bring those expectations to the MMORPG genre thereby managing to successfully bastardize the MMORPG genre into the unrecognizable state it is in today.  

That all being said, it is the developers and publishers who are wholly to blame for the mess that the MMORPG genre is in today, and not the players.  They are so beholden to, and driven by profit, that they have intentionally bastardized MMORPG game play due to greed and the ol' mighty dollar.  Most gamers of today's generation do not even know the meaning of the acronym MMORPG, much less the difference between an MMORPG and an FPS/MOBA, or how they should be played.  They are all under the misguided expectation that since they paid for the game, the game should cater to their own individual game play preferences.

eddieg50

I have a hard time enjoying a game when I constantly have to go online to figure out what to do in the game and how to do it, kills the immersion for me

Leiloni

Sure the journey matters but only if the endgame is good. Eventually you'll get to max and want to participate in things. For me if a game's endgame isn't good, I won't bother playing even if I know I'll be taking it slow and may take forever to get there, because the journey will be a big waste of time otherwise. I can't have fun if I know I can't invest long term.

Black Desert is a game where being competitive takes an insane grind - I'm not even talking about being the top 1%, but just not getting your teeth kicked in after 5 seconds, requires an insane grind because the power gap in that game is crazy. So it's not worth it to me even to be a casual player because eventually I'd reach endgame and want to participate, and unless you no life it and join a good guild, you might as well just quit.

That's not even considering the payment model which requires you to spend a ton in the cash shop on top of the box fee, just for basic necessities like not looking like a hobo and having a few pets to loot so you don't get carpal tunnel.

Cogohi

If I want a journey I'll play a single player CRPG.  I play MMO's for group content.  In my admittedly limited experience the best place to find a population doing group content is end-game.  The last thing I really want is a "journey" to get in the way.

GeezerGamer

This article has nothing to do with BDO. Reread the article with the following edit: Black Desert Online World of Warcraft

Hero001

When you have over 500 nrg/300 cp begin your end game does...

DztBlk

I am not typically competitive. However, I felt the pressure to be competitive from other players and forums right away with BDO. I quickly learned that the game is literally a world! Though my criticisms about BDO are still present and valid. It has always struck me as a game that you could be super casual if you like and pick it up as you like. Unfortunately, that contributes to me personally playing the game entirely alone. None the less it has tons to offer in my opinion so take it easy and check out the world. For $30, I think Daum has done great, and it will continue to improve as it ages.

People who rush to end game to me aren't really ppl who enjoy mmorpgs specifically.  It again goes to the whole mmo vs moba (or whatever other types) type game if you ask me.  People who don't really want to invest in their character (identity, rpg) nor the world are just misplaced Streetfighter types who want to pick up a game and fight somebody.  Doesn't mean they aren't part of the gaming community, they just belong to a sub-category that keeps getting lumped into a big group of "gamers". 

SomeHuman

I think part of the missing out is the whole land rush sense of being part of the larger gaming group. Who wants to play their journey in unpopulated lands because all the players are so far ahead of them. If I want end-game, I'll go play an arena type game (LoL, HotS, Smite, Nosgoth, CS:GO, Overwatch). I play MMORPG's to experience group-play to objectives like building a guild fortress or raiding one (Darkfall) or enjoying a good dungeon run (ESO, LotRO, GW2) or just chatting with friends as we clear a PVE area. I admit I want to be part of the group. So, the people who feel the missing out, are those that don't have games to scratch that itch of PvP group-play.

Viper482

BDO is def a MMO you can just take your time in and enjoy. I am level 54 now, but I slowly got here over time since release. This is the only MMO I have played in quite some time where I was not worrying about keeping up with everyone else. I don't care.

The open world pvp is not an issue, ganking is minimal if not nearly non-existent. Even if you do get killed you lose nothing.

LIOKI

While I agree that playing a game is meant to be a fun journey, that journey quickly begins to feel a little purposeless when you realize that after you have caught that horse, catching every other horse for the rest of the journey is an identical exercise. This spans the whole entirety of Black Desert Online and everything you can do in it.

Normally I don't care, at all. However, there seems to me that there are magical blinders placed over players eyes the moment they log into the game. I read that there are places to explore, I played the game, a lot.. more than what was healthy when it was released (leveled every class to 50+ except ranger wizard). I found none of these places. I merely discovered the next place that had the best exp mobs, if that place was overrun with other players I'd simply go to the next best place and so on and so forth. Not one of those places gave me the feeling of exploring or discovering. Maybe it's due to almost the entire area of the game (pre mediah & valencia) looking exactly like the last one.

PvE content boiled down to little more than AFK leveling certain life skills, fishing skill, or horse level. When you did active play & you "discovered" an area you went in a circle for X amount of hours performing the same attack combo's on the same mobs in a very dull and endless merry-go-round. This is not immersive or compelling gameplay in any shape or form. Let's not even discuss the hot mess that field boss's are.

Crafting in Black Desert Online is a lot like the slave trade, you "hire" workers, aka slaves, to do the work for you and then you pick the best from the lineup and dispose of the weaker ones. Hell you can even trade workers, aka slaves, on a trade market.

I built a fishing boat, went onto the ocean and "discovered" empty islands save for a trade/node manager, and invisible walls to run my boat into. The best time I had on the water was sailing straight into a typhoon and getting killed by it.

So in my worthless opinion there is nothing in the game that warrants the praise some people seem to gush upon it, at the same time it really isn't the worst game I've played. I merely have a gripe with how they took our money as a buy to play game and treat us worse than free to play players, and the way content is handled and released is so obviously on a money grab agenda it's embarassing.

Rant over.
TLDR:
I can't wrap my head around why people praise this game so much.