Summarizing BDO's "big picture"?

QuarterStack

So, this question is maybe going to sound facetious or something, but I promise it's not. I'm asking genuinely.

Can someone summarize for me what kind of game/experience BDO is intended to be?

To elaborate on that question...

I've played a lot of MMORPGs over the years, from super linear themepark where you're on rails the whole time, to wide open sandbox where you're pretty much on your own. PvP, PvE, both, etc. In every case, I could quickly get a solid grasp of what it was the game was intended to be, with everything in the game being a cohesive extension of that. There's a clear "big picture" that I can say 'Okay, this is what this game is about, and this is how everything fits and works together." Even in the broadest sandbox, where your experience is "whatever you want it to be, man", it's still anchored to a clear central concept.

Despite trying the game several times, I have no blessed idea what BDO is trying to be. It feels like a confused mash-up of different game ideas. There's so much "noise" - so many things vying for your attention at the same time, all the time -  that I honestly could not tell you what BDO is about or what it's trying to be. And, for me, that makes it very difficult to figure out how I want to approach it, what I want to focus on, what I want to ignore, or hold off on 'til later, etc. I et to Velia, realize "I have no idea what's going on in this game. This isn't fun" and uninstall.

Watching streamers or YT vids doesn't really help, 'cause it seems everyone's just farming xp or upgrading gear. I never see anyone really doing anything else.

So, could someone give me some kind of a high-level, 35,000 foot summary of what exactly it is BDO is trying to, or supposed to be? What central theme or concept are all these random - to me anyway - systems and such built around?

Again, this is a serious request lol. I'm honestly at a loss with this title.

Thanks.

Viper482

I felt it was a sandbox/themepark hybrid with one of the most unique crafting systems ever made. I only stopped playing because of the ridiculous gear upgrade system RNG and the need for afk grinding.

ReaperUk

Its strength is that it's whatever you want it to be. It's a sandpark. If you want a themepark story, it's got it. If you want PvP, it's got it. If you don't, you can avoid it. If you like crafting and trading, it's one of the best games out there. Play the parts of the game you enjoy and ignore the rest.

ananit

the end goal of bdo is your wallet.
everything in this game is tailor-made to make players spend money in the cash shop and once you make that first purchase, they got you.
it's just a pretty casino simulator with great action combat but it's still a casino simulator at the end of the day.

QuarterStack

Mars_Orbital said:

Lets try this. Imagine grinding to level 100.  Think that is what will make BDO ineffective at retaining  players from launch , and they will begin to rely on new players which will dwindle and that will be th eend of BDO . It's hard to have a game like this or even lineage that dangle a carrot. eventually the carrot will get rotten or the horse will die. either or it is not good long term , imo.

I used to play Lineage 2. Dabbled in Beta and then C1 and C2. Started seriously from C3 and up 'til a little after GoD was released. Back then, the worst problem was rmt that basically ran the economy. But anyway, for L2, I knew exactly what it was about.. I knew it was more about leveling up, joining an alliance and getting into player politics and territorial control (PvP), or doing things that influenced it indirectly (PvE). I understood how everything else fit in to that, long before I even got to level cap, and I was okay with that, because the core concept was really interesting to me.

That's just one example of a MMORPG that had a variety of content (believe it or not lol) but was very clear, even self-evident in how everything, PvE and PvP, fit into the overall "big picture" of the game.

That's what I'm trying to figure out with BDO, but it's eluding me.

QuarterStack

ReaperUk said:

Its strength is that it's whatever you want it to be. It's a sandpark. If you want a themepark story, it's got it. If you want PvP, it's got it. If you don't, you can avoid it. If you like crafting and trading, it's one of the best games out there. Play the parts of the game you enjoy and ignore the rest.

See, that's the answer I get from others.

But again, I would think there's ultimately some "bigger picture", or central concept that the game is designed around. Like, in my L2 example, even if you were a PvE'er who only engaged in PvP when you didn't have a choice, you were still contributing to that overall goal/concept, which was the power-struggle between clans and alliances to control castles and territories in the world. Who owned a castle/territory had an effect on everyone playing in that territory, and in turn, everything players did in that territory could have an effect on the PvP/Sieging. It all came back to that "clan/ally wars and territorial conquest" concept.

Now, another way of reading your reply would tell me that my impression of it - that it's like several different games all mashed together with no cohesive central "theme". That just seems weird to me if that's the case lol. But maybe that's why most of what I see people doing is grinding levels or upgrading gear, with some PvP. That's the "version" of BDO that they've chosen to play. That wouldn't be terribly interesting to me, though.

rojoArcueid

ananit said:

the end goal of bdo is your wallet.

The end goal of online video games is your wallet. BDO is not any more greedy than, lets say, the entire Ubisoft library where even single player games have to go online at some point because of their cash shop. At least BDO is cheaper.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

gunklacker

Remali said:

Going back to wow after you ve played bdo is like going gay after you banged the most beutyfull woman in the world

i dont agree with the take, but its funny

Ungood

BDO is a feature check off game, where they just thought of every feature they could think of, and shoved it into the game, and said "Well, go play and have fun"

Now, to be honest, that's not a bad way to make an MMO.

Sovrath

QuarterStack said:

Mars_Orbital said:

Lets try this. Imagine grinding to level 100.  Think that is what will make BDO ineffective at retaining  players from launch , and they will begin to rely on new players which will dwindle and that will be th eend of BDO . It's hard to have a game like this or even lineage that dangle a carrot. eventually the carrot will get rotten or the horse will die. either or it is not good long term , imo.

I used to play Lineage 2. Dabbled in Beta and then C1 and C2. Started seriously from C3 and up 'til a little after GoD was released. Back then, the worst problem was rmt that basically ran the economy. But anyway, for L2, I knew exactly what it was about.. I knew it was more about leveling up, joining an alliance and getting into player politics and territorial control (PvP), or doing things that influenced it indirectly (PvE). I understood how everything else fit in to that, long before I even got to level cap, and I was okay with that, because the core concept was really interesting to me.

That's just one example of a MMORPG that had a variety of content (believe it or not lol) but was very clear, even self-evident in how everything, PvE and PvP, fit into the overall "big picture" of the game.

That's what I'm trying to figure out with BDO, but it's eluding me.

Can't you do that in Black Desert? I seem to remember guilds doing that.

Existentialist

Currently playing it simply because the combat feels good.

The point of this game escapes me also and because of that, when something else comes along that gives me solid goals to achieve I wander away.

I'll try Shai, and in the meantime I've taken my Berserker to 50, I also have a 56 Striker and lots of classes in their 20's.

Once I've explored Shai then I'll probably leave again. A large part of that is probably because I'm not interested in joining a guild. Maybe being in a guild makes you perceive the game differently.