How Kakao & Pearl Abyss scam customers (New Class version)

deadtrack

Black Desert Online has relied on releasing new classes every few months for the last 2-3 years.  While this may sound great and seem similar to "Seasons" there is a huge problem.

• How this system is abused for profit $$$
  

To fully understand this you need to know a few things about the design

• Character Locked items
• Premium Outfits
• Expensive Inventory Space
• Nearly required Weight Upgrades
• Weapon Exchange
• Exp/Skill Progression
  

These are all designed to lock your REAL CASH into a specific character.  So where is the scam? This is part 1 the setup.  Getting customers to invest into their character.

Now comes a new class release!

• The new class is MODIFIED to be completely OP upon release (Not how it plays in Korea)
• The new class may simply counter your class making it impossible for you to PVP them
• The entire META of the game shifts to the new ridiculous OP class as they dominate everything
• Your CASH investment and PLAY TIME become useless
• If you don't reroll the new class you get trolled and griefed for months

Pearl Abyss used this tactic repeatedly.  Destroying the game META.  RUINING the REAL LIFE CASH investments of players.  It's been Blatant and intentional.

This type of business practice is only one of the many reasons both Kakao & Pearl Abyss have a terrible reputation.  This was completely unnecessary.  The company has not been struggling financially.  This is just a way to abuse customers and lose customer moral.

Please do not endorse these business practices as this is NOT healthy for the future of MMO's. 

Azaron_Nightblade

- "The new class is MODIFIED to be completely OP upon release (Not how it plays in Korea)"

Ehhh... Lahn was never OP, and she's the most recent class.
Mystic was. Striker as well. DK had a brief time of being OP too. So I won't say it never happened.


But yes, that's their business model essentially. New classes are meant to make them money.
What? You somehow expected they were paying developers and artists just so you could enjoy them for free? LOL xD

deadtrack

Xodic said:

It's not a game. It's a product.

POE is a product that doesn't use these shady tactics.

• BDO committed illegal activity with false advertising telling people "you need consent to PVP" to cover up the toxic game environment.
• BDO is abusing under age gambling systems due to the laws in gaming not being adequate yet to cover this type of issue.
  

FlyByKnight

Watching somebody complain about P2W and RNG idiocy in Black Desert Oct. 2018 is hilarious. 

deadtrack

FlyByKnight said:

Watching somebody complain about P2W and RNG idiocy in Black Desert Oct. 2018 is hilarious. 

You're a step behind on the scams.  It's getting customers to dump $2,000 into upgrades for a character then ruining that investment and trying to make them pay $2,000 again and again every few months.

They wouldn't put any effort into fixes for older classes or doing much with them.  They just scrap them like old content.

This was all unnecessary.   Unlike Bless they have an actual working game.  They didn't need to scam customers.

The player base has been declining for months now and reaching dangerous levels due to all their shady garbage.  Many of their reviews are highly negative including steam.

This is NOT what happens with POE, Final Fantasy, WOW, etc.  Their updates contain content for players that rake in a lot of revenue and the player base spikes.  BDO is all self inflicted wounds.

ChildoftheShadows

Don't pay and don't play. 

deadtrack

ChildoftheShadows said:

Don't pay and don't play. 

Good advice for all Kakao / Pearl Abyss games.

That includes AIR when it's released by Kakao.  Kakao has a history of lying to it's customers and not taking care of issues like botters/hackers.

It's going to be the same poor service.

Raquis

i was so angry when BDO was IP locked for South-Africa but now that i bought it i see that its just leveling and then pvp not a real mmo,i am bored already.

deadtrack

Rhoklaw said:

deadtrack said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Don't pay and don't play. 

Good advice for all Kakao / Pearl Abyss games.

That includes AIR when it's released by Kakao.  Kakao has a history of lying to it's customers and not taking care of issues like botters/hackers.

It's going to be the same poor service.

I've been saying this for a very long time now and it's not just BDO. Same crap happened in ArcheAge, Blade and Soul, Revelation Online, Bless Online and I'm sure A:IR will suffer the same worthless P2W bandwagon development as well. When you figure out what all these games have in common, then you know exactly what games to avoid in the future.

It's a shame because half the bricks of this system are built from the sheer stupidity of the gaming community.  A large portion of the commenters can't even comprehend the basic business principles for long term success.  Including future projects, reputation, and customer retention.

They want to remain behind a sheer wall of ignorance pretending there are no consequences to these actions.  I recently saw a Youtube Video on BDO with nearly 100% negative comments.  Pearl Abyss & Kakao are not leaving the gaming market.

They intend on releasing tons of future projects over the years and have a massive following of haters.  People they ripped off along the way.

Renoaku

Yep but at least Kakao, actually does stuff Arche Age doesn't do though they need to give a bigger pearl inventory and bring new features.

- Expand Pearl Inventory
- Better Pet Sorting based off Skills
- Aqua Farming for coral / Node for workers to gather like in Arche Age
- Better Farming System
- Better Housing System / Fame system, Housing sucks all it is is decotr / pay 2 win rank 1 housing and looks all messy.
- Undo Fishing Nerf very few afk fishers now.

At least they offer pearl inventory for storing costumes unlike Arche Age which offers no cash shop inventory.

The other unlimited customization $15 a month isn't bad comapred to other Korean MMO.

deadtrack

Renoaku said:

Yep but at least Kakao, actually does stuff Arche Age doesn't do though they need to give a bigger pearl inventory and bring new features.

- Expand Pearl Inventory
- Better Pet Sorting based off Skills
- Aqua Farming for coral / Node for workers to gather like in Arche Age
- Better Farming System
- Better Housing System / Fame system, Housing sucks all it is is decotr / pay 2 win rank 1 housing and looks all messy.
- Undo Fishing Nerf very few afk fishers now.

At least they offer pearl inventory for storing costumes unlike Arche Age which offers no cash shop inventory.

The other unlimited customization $15 a month isn't bad comapred to other Korean MMO.

Giving storage space for cash shop items isn't credible in any way.  Do you really want to "Thank them" for allowing you to spend cash?

Regnor

And here I thought the biggest problem with the game was that it just sucked and wasn't fun.

Scot

The OP is quite right even if he has exaggerated the issue. Lets not forget the P2L that occurs to level up gear at top(pish ) level.

deadtrack

Scot said:

The OP is quite right even if he has exaggerated the issue. Lets not forget the P2L that occurs to level up gear at top(pish ) level.

When you focus on the fact it's real cash they are dealing with in all these situations it's not so exaggerated.

• The RNG system is illegal for minors. You can't do this in a casino

You will literally be sent to prison for this type of activity.

• To deliberately destroy the value of all the upgrades spent on characters is borderline fraud.

The issue is the willful deceit to make more money.  They have an incentive in this system to screw over their own customers.  There is a large difference between trying something new and resulting in balance issues vs intentionally making a class completely OP with intent.  This destroys the value of millions of dollars spent on all the other classes and leaves many customers feeling cheated and pissed at the company.

The Pay2Win as you mentioned is now full blown (which the entire point of paying for the game).  However, the issues I'm referring to takes it further by adding deceit.

Kakao also covers up a lot of issues like this by removing them from their forums, twitter, reddit, etc.

sirtarik

How exactly is RNG Crates gambling ??? When i go to the casino and place my chips down and lose i get nothing in return....I buy a crate I do get something for it.......thus its not gambling in any way

cheyane

Gambling is a game of chance it does not hinge on the loss but on the chance aspect in return for a thing of value. Loss does not change the act itself.