I have to admit that I still think Black Desert Online is a terribly greedy game in terms of its cash shop offerings. Yes, the pay to win might be minimal but there are so many other systems that have been needlessly tied to the cash shop purchases in order to remove restrictions.
I am a rather weak willed person though and even after the $50 pre purchase pack I’ve already dumped in $60 into the game and cash shop. Yes I am a horrible person and I hate myself too but in doing so it made me realise even more how utterly ridiculous this is. So much about it just seems designed to annoy enough to make money and while that might be a profitable approach because of idiots like me it doesn’t make me, and I assume others feel that happy about the game. It makes me angry again. Angry at the developers and publishers, and angry at the industry for bringing the genre into this state.
What I ended up purchasing was incredibly minimal too. Enough that I’m wondering what help it even did considering I’m still noticing a lot of needless systems and restrictions that are more a marketing than a game play choice. I still don’t even feel like I’ve got half of a game, and with $60 extra spent its more like I’ve only unlocked a bare fraction of useability, of the quality of life functionality that should just be standard.
The first thing I bought was 2 extra pets. The one form the preorders wasn’t cutting it with picking up all the stuff and it really does take way to long to loot everything yourself. The pop-up box and confirmation I think are designed to be intentionally slow to annoy even more. And for fucks sake… WHY 3 pets are needed is absolutely beyond me. One pet should be easily enough to function as an area loot but no, greedy fuckers.
Add to that, like I’ve said before about the higher tiers of pets and to get them you actually need to sacrifice your cash shop pets to get them. Fuck whoever designed that.
The other thing I bought early on was an inventory increase. Now I wasn’t the kind of person to skip every quest on my grind to 50 and completed quite a few of the ones giving a single inventory space but even then the amount you get to start is woefully inadequate. Once the pets started looting my bag filled up very quickly as each mob type has a number of junk loot things they drop that you might want to keep in order to return to certain npc’s for money. Weapons and gear drops around, a million freekin crystals that for some reason don’t stack with the same type and so much else. I was also trying to gather at the start too but nope, forget that unless you’ve already spent a fortune on inventory spaces.
Later on I put in for more inventory space and also an increase to the carry weight. I didn’t realise just how much the silver can weigh you down. I like that it is a mechanic but the way they have designed it to obviously need cash shop upgrades quickly into the game is unnecessary. Just pick a system and bloody stick with it. You want inventory spaces fine, you want weight… WHY not but don’t needlessly add them both just to double dip in the cash shop. And then there is that each city warehouse spaxe is incredibly minimal to start yet you need to upgrade each of them individual.
And there you go, that’s what spending 60 dollars into he cash shop will get you and looking at it after is just truly pathetic. A few miserable restrictions removed and this is with their pathetic, and a little insulting, sale that is going on right now because of the cash shop outcry.
The only thing I actually felt good about buying was the wardrobe for my personal house. I don’t know why but it just looked like it made the room more compete so I picked it up with the spare pearls in my kitty. That’s it.
The costume selection right now is rather pathetic as well. The tamer has like one main outfit to pick from and God damn that’s some ugly, impractical, and shitty design. It annoys me as well that there are so few cosmetic options in game to pick from and that you are forced into these expensive garments to look a little more different – not to mention just how stupid the dye system is right now as well. Cosmetics are a huge part of mmo game play, a big part of progression, personal goals, and just that sense only ownership and connection to ones characters and for that to mostly be stuck to that expensive cash shop shit is really… Really pathetic. Yes you are allowed to make money but you also have to develop some content, cosmetic and such for the actual in game activities. I don’t know though, even if it was better I still wouldn’t buy any. I’ve gotten to the stage where I’m just thinking fuck em. 100 dollars is enough now and it should be enough to get a full game experience, to get an enjoyable, and cash shop annoyance free experience but no it just makes you feel worse inside. The more you spend the bigger an idiot you feel.
I really do hate this cash shop with every fibre of my being but honestly, am just so desperate for a decent mmo right now. I’ve been desperate for so long now that it’s more like a lone traveller wandering through he desert and finding a water merchant. It might be a glass of green, foul smelling puddle water but fuck it… You’re gonna pay and unfortunately Daum kinda know this. They’re bastards for wanting to charge so much for such swill but then it’s the industries fault as well for shovelling such crap for so long.
I like mmorpg’s and that might sound a little stupid. I don’t want some shared world shooter, or a moba, or anything else. I just want a world I can kinda lose myself in and black desert does does this. It’s a feeling that is definitely strained quite heavily form this cash shop bullshit, and probably something that will eventually sour that feeling for me (seriously, fuck them for ruining another good mmo with cash shop greed) but right now I’d rather have a dip than bake in his sand any longer.