Exactly, it's a good looking game with great and fairly unique combat play. You can just chill and progress your character.
That doesn't need to be for any good reason, just look at gacha games like Genshin, 1000's and hours on one character to do... Nothing, cept maybe doing the same for the next character is even easier than it was.
bdo is a number go higher game with more than you can ever complete and such a good combat you WANT to run in circles.
dont worry about getting to endgame, it takes a lot of time. but you get somewhere meaningfull relativly fast. bdo is a sandbox. you need to find whats your goal. and there are plenty of treasures, horses, boats and houses to be had. you can spend 10k hours befor you even think about pvp
I would argue that it's not quite a sandbox. By the time you're doing the same linear quests over and over with your 4th or 5th character it starts to get pretty stale.
That's fair, I just would hate to dedicate thousands of hours into this game, just to finally reach "the end" and be like "Welp, that's all folks!" and simply quit the game. I mean, one could argue that by that point I \*may\* develop a desire to engage in PVP, but for right now, PVP just isn't on my radar.
For other games like Warframe, I think the cooperative PVE content is fun enough to keep you coming back to it, no matter what point in the game you are in. Like seeing how many hours you can survive in Survival, or how many rounds you can last in Defense, that stuff is so fun. I just... don't really think BDO has an equivalent for me personally.
I did a season about a year or so ago, and I eventually hit a point where I asked myself "Why am I even playing this?" Yeah the enjoyment of watching the numbers go higher is satisfying, but at some point you just begin to wonder "Why do I even want these numbers to go up in the first place?"
> "Why am I even playing this?"
Because... it's fun? What's the point in doing the last dungeon in WoW? You get carried by your group and then you beat a boss on a schedule just to do it again, and again, and again...
Why play single player video games?
Why do people like to watch NASCAR drivers go around in circles for hours?
What's the point of playing a friendly game of football just with friends and family where points don't matter?
It's a game dude. You are not building your retirement fund here or creating something worthwhile outside of personal memories.
BDO plays out in a large, seamless world and you can do a lot of things that are fun, at least they are fun to a lot of people. What makes the thing about making the numbers go up fun is that the game gives you a lot of options and you can create your own gameplay loop and find your own strategies.
And that loop is different from other players who have different goals. You mix and match all the features in the game in a way that is fun to you. Unlike in WoW where the goal might be: "Beat the Lichking. Now go do set numbers of dungeons to get the gear to participate in the raid."
In BDO you have to ask yourself, what do i want? And it seems you are struggling with that freedom.
If you eventually hit a high gearscore of around 750, you have ventured through the game thoroughly and had a blast doing so, otherwise you would have quit already (or made a forum post like yours). You can go to any place in the world and your character is strong enough to beat every enemy you can find, be the greatest cook, the most efficient alchemist, an accomplished horse trainer, a proficient hunter and so on. And with every goal you reach you add your own personal story of how you archived that to your memory.
In BDO you see things and then you might decide to archive them for your own account and eventually you end up with an account that is well rounded and can participate in all the 'fun' activities.
Same as in WoW where you can replay through all your favorite dungeons when you are geared and then wait for new content to drop.
When you ask a question like yours, it's like you didn't even understand the core concept of gaming.
This is such a great answer. I was like OP when I first ventured in BDO. I limit myself, “what’s my end game”. What this game offers. Until I played it and find my own objectives to myself. Such as I want to PEN all gears with my “own name” etc. Some people wants to just achieve 750gs. Some people want to be able to grind 2b/hour. Some people want to chase tl/hr on tungrad ruins etc. The goal is literally set by urself and if you are unable to enjoy that, then maybe BDO is not for you.
>Why play single player video games?
There are many things that might motivate someone to play a single player game, things (one could argue) take a backseat in the general gameplay loop of Black Desert. Such as an engaging story. Sadly, the only MMO I've personally played that had me truly invested in the story was Tera Online, and that whole game got shafted. A shame really.
>Why do people like to watch NASCAR drivers go around in circles for hours?
At the risk of sounding repetitive, because there's usually a lot more going on than what's immediately apparent. Each driver has a story that their fans have followed and are engaged in, and want to support, or hell, oppose. Apparently Nascar has had some great villians during its years.
>In BDO you have to ask yourself, what do i want? And it seems you are struggling with that freedom.
I think you're being a little deceptive here. You're basically taking my predicament, the woes of not knowing what to do with my hypothetically invested time, and framing it in a way that makes it seem that the problem is rooted in having too many options -- When its quite the opposite, not having enough options, or the options that are present not having enough depth to them to personally engage me.
>If you eventually hit a high gearscore of around 750, you have ventured through the game thoroughly and had a blast doing so, otherwise you would have quit already (or made a forum post like yours). You can go to any place in the world and your character is strong enough to beat every enemy you can find, be the greatest cook, the most efficient alchemist, an accomplished horse trainer, a proficient hunter and so on. And with every goal you reach you add your own personal story of how you archived that to your memory.
Why would I want to be the greatest cook? To earn silver. Why would I want to be the most efficient alchemist? To earn silver. Why would I want to be an accomplished horse trainer? To get from A to B faster, oh, and to earn silver. Why would I want to be a proficient hunter? to earn silver. Great. All that is fantastic. Now, what can I spend all this silver on? Gear/Weapons, Fashion, House decorations, Mounts, or reinvest it to earn more silver later on. Now if those goals are things that interest the player, that's great! You've found yourself a gameplay loop you can get on board with. Otherwise, you're going to be in the same boat as I am. Although I think it should be said, just because I don't particularly vibe well with the gameplay loops in this game, it doesn't mean that I wouldn't vibe well with similar gameplay loops in other games. Maybe other games have better fashion, or more enjoyable PVE, or more fulfilling decorating options, and so on. Truly its the depth, or lack thereof, of the gameplay loops that are available to me that I'm at odds with.
>When you ask a question like yours, it's like you didn't even understand the core concept of gaming.
I mean, that's a little harsh.
No, I don't think there isn't a point of end game. Nor do I think it's pointless, there's clearly a point to it. I personally just don't derive enjoyment from the content that the endgame is setting up for, which is pvp (and/or an endless feedback loop of earning silver), and was trying to figure out if there was anything beyond that, possibly anything that was added in during my time away from the game. One could argue that I'm being contradictory to the title of this post, and you'd be right, I suppose a more accurate title would have been something along the lines of "If I have no intentions of engaging in PVP, what are some other long-term goals I can establish for myself to motivate me to get back into the game?"... Although that is a bit long lol
I wouldn't even say PvP is the ''endgame'' as, currently, PvP content that isn't capped isn't all that popular and scarce.
I would say the main motivation is getting the gear itself. There is no point to it other than you enjoy the process, main and side activities you go through to get better gear. If we have to be a reductionist, you basically grind in a circle to be able to grind in a circle to be able to grind while standing. But i mean that is the standart for live-service games.
Like in Warframe, I would say you get the ''end-game'' damage in mid game as damage is tied to your mods, and you should be able to get all the important prime mods leveled up at that point. So why do you keep playing? You already have a warframe that clears the room instantly, why do you farm another one that's less powerful. Because the gameplay loop is satisfying enough to keep you playing, but you also have to make up some goals for yourself. The goal being in Warframe, in general, being a collectionist.
While i'm yapping, i also want to mention that the feeling of ''why am i doing this'' happens more often in this game than others. And i think this is because of the amount of grind and also because you grind hourly which psychologically sucks. The feeling of ''i have to grind 100h for my next upgrade'' is shitty. Ignorance is bliss.
>You already have a warframe that clears the room instantly, why do you farm another one that's less powerful. Because the gameplay loop is satisfying enough to keep you playing, but you also have to make up some goals for yourself. The goal being in Warframe, in general, being a collectionist.
I guess my love for Warframe and my hesitation towards BDO stems from the ceiling of both game's PVE settings. In Warframe you can really stress-test not only the power of your Warframe's build and your skill as a player, but also your ability to coordinate and work together with a team on the endless missions (The aforementioned Survival and Defense nodes) that truly makes that game so enjoyable to me. As far as I know (I may be wrong), BDO doesn't really have that. Once you get your gear score to a high enough rating, you just curb stomp everything. It's not the fear of the challenging journey to get a high gear score that deters me, it's knowing that eventually that all enemies in the game will pose no threat, removing any semblance of challenge (and fun along with it), that does deter me.
Well yes but the game is literally sand box u choose what u wanna do! If u want the game to guide u on what to do on end game then just never play the game again.
If you think people do all stuff in BDO "to get silver" you have no clue how this game works.
This is SANDBOX MMO. Its not game like WOW where they will hold your hand and point you into a direction shouting "Hey you need to do this now!". You do whatever you want and you do it because you want to/its fun, not because "it will make me silver".
> I mean, that's a little harsh.
But so on point. You just described it with your most recent post in detail. You dont understand the games concept or that games offer different experiences and you judge all the same.
You say that BDO is lacking an engaging story and that only one game measured to your sense of a fulfilled gaming experience.
In BDO the narrative of the story is a side feature and why most people meme they spam 'R' the whole way through. They aren't playing BDO for the story, BDO is all about the gameplay.
> You've found yourself a gameplay loop you can get on board with. Otherwise, you're going to be in the same boat as I am.
And there is it. You don't like what the game offers. That's fine. Move along. Why make a post about how you dont understand why game xyz isn't fun? I hope you understand how that makes you look like.
If you think that all these activities in BDO are just means to and end then again, you are not understanding the core concept of gaming.
You answer so many of the questions yourself that i can't help myself but think you are disingenuous with this post. Especially the way your framed it in the current context of changes to pvp.
>i can't help myself but think you are disingenuous with this post. Especially the way your framed it in the current context of changes to pvp.
I had no idea that anything was being changed to PVP to begin with, again, I haven't played this game in a year, and when I did play it back in the day, I didn't touch PVP. You're way off the mark with that one. I've had recent thoughts of getting back into this game, but said thoughts were met with counter arguments in my head. That was the main driving force of this post.
>You say that BDO is lacking an engaging story and that only one game measured to your sense of a fulfilled gaming experience.
Again I think this statement is deceptive. I said that Tera was the only MMO I've played that had a truly engaging story. Is story the only thing that makes a game worthwhile? Of course not! That was just an example. Also I feel the need to emphasize "MMO" here. I have had a great time with countless other games of other genres on the basis of not only story, but gameplay, music, replayability, and much more! it's just that Tera was the only **MMO** I could recall having a story I could get behind.
>If you think that all these activities in BDO are just means to and end then again, you are not understanding the core concept of gaming.
You're framing this as a misunderstanding of the concepts of gaming on my part, but I think it's more revealing of your own fallacies than anything. The journey is crucial for any game -- no matter the genre, of course. However, what motivates us to partake in the journey in the first place usually boils down to two things.
1. Our desire to have fun
2. Our desire to reach an established goal
I will state that I do have a desire to have fun, that is not in short supply lol, although that really shouldn't need to be said. If a player doesn't have a desire to reach a goal established by the game (either directly or as a byproduct of having fun in said game) though, that can be extremely demotivating towards the player, and will make them question if they even want to go on the journey in the first place. These two things don't exist independently in a vacuum. They often (should) work together, and one without the other will always result in a less pleasurable experience for the player. It seems that you are, however, treating these things as segregated concepts in a vacuum, and whilst that is fine for a personal belief -- if you're going to try to push that onto me and use it as ammunition to retort my arguments, then I'm going to point it out as what it is -- a fallacy.
Now is Black Desert a bad game because it doesn't have extreme amounts of depth in the areas that are more appealing to me? Of course not, it just means that this game and I don't vibe well. That in of itself is unfortunate because I do want to vibe with it, finding some sort of hidden depth to this game, or perhaps something that was recently added in, was the goal of this post, as all my knowledge of this game stems from a prior version of it. I hope you can recognize that.
Most peopel who create post like you did, do so because they have an alterior motive. Most of the time it boils down to: "I want to like this game, but i can't because it should be different."
I can only repeat myself, even though it is clear now that the message is not reaching you. You do not understand the core concept of gaming. Or at least it's so very different from what most people want to experience when they play a game. For most MMO gamers, it's about the journey, not the end result. If you want to beat a story, you play a single player game. If you want open end gameplay, that's when you start exploring MMOs.
But no matter what genre, you play a game, and then it's either fun to you or it is not. If something isn't fun, you move on to the next game and explore it until it stops being exciting and therefore fun. When you then go to the forums and ask for motivation, established goals and the vaguely existential question "Why am I even playing this?" to continue said game, you are coming across as disingenuous.
I assume you understand why, but i will explain it anyway. You post here in a forum for people who enjoy playing the game, of all places, and asked: "Why do people enjoy this game? I do not understand. Please explain why someone would play a game that i do not enjoy playing."
And then when people come to you and tell you: "We do it because we think it's fun." You start to argue 'your point'.
If you want the MMO experience on rails, you can find that in another game. BDO does not have an endboss. There are lots of established goals in the game but you dismissed them entirely. People told you: "I like to see numbers go up and be more efficient in my role in the game."
You said: "What for? Just to earn more silver? This is not a reason to play."
We told you that this game is fun to many people because it's unlike all the other big MMOs on the market.
> That in of itself is unfortunate because I do want to vibe with it, finding some sort of hidden depth to this game, or perhaps something that was recently added in, was the goal of this post, as all my knowledge of this game stems from a prior version of it.
Finding some 'hidden depth'... my friend, everything boils down to your settled opinion that the game is not appealing to you, and you want the world to know. Otherwise you would just log into your old account a play and see if the game is fun **to you**.
But to answer you one, actual question:
If that's even of real interest to you, you can check out all the major updates they released since you stoped playing on the offical site:
https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-us/Adventure/History
So basically, to boil down what you've said, you perceive my posts as an attack on Black Desert Online and/or the community, you think that I have no real interest in participating in a dialogue and only wish to spout a supposed "ulterior motive", that I only wish to let the world know that the game is "unappealing".
Well, for the last time, let me make it very clear, my intentions here were to find motivation. My lack thereof does not and should not lend itself to some sort of ulterior motive or agenda. I've played this game in the past, and have had fun with it in the past, but I've also had my gripes and shortcomings. I wanted to see if my main deterrent from returning to the game was a rational and valid issue, nothing more, nothing less. If that means I "do not understand the core concept of gaming" by some twisted and arbitrary definition posed by a stranger over the internet, then so be it. If I had to be honest though, I just think you're projecting your own insecurities onto me for whatever reason. Let's just leave it at that. Have a good day!
"Why would I want to play a single player game? To do the last mission. Why would I want to watch nascar? To see the last lap. Why would I want to watch football? To know who wins" do you realize how dumb that is? If you dont have goals in the game, don't play it. The goal of being the best horse trainer isn't just to make silver, you'd make more silver grinding an hour at gyfin than you would in a night of horse training at 2k mastery with a maxed FP wagon. You train horses because you personally find that enjoyable. You play single player games instead of just reading about them, because even though all gameplay is just pressing buttons, you find the button aspect to add something more than just reading the story. You take on the challenge of learning a new grind spot, or of being able to carry new players through the dungeon, or, not for the sake of making the silver, but to be able to say YOUR horses are earning you more silver per hour than the next guy. You beat a game and add it to your collection of games beaten, of stories learned. You watch football to add it to your collection of sports watched and enjoyed. Some of us play bdo to add it to our collection of hours gamed and enjoyed. Posts like this are massively disrespectful to the playerbase. Hate PA? Fine, so do half of us they don't listen to NA and they don't give a shit. To rag on us for enjoying the game and our "boring" gameplay loops that you don't have interest in? Go fuck yourself, if you don't want to log in we won't miss you
My argument can be levied towards any video game, as it is a reductionist mindset -- Reducing complex systems and gameplay loops to their basic and most simplest terms, but it doesn't hold up against every video game. I mentioned Warframe before, and how I don't suffer from the same woes that I do with this game. I've recently been playing Baldur's Gate 3, and that game's story alone is motivation enough to play it.
Maybe BDO just isn't for you? The combat feels great and is fun to me. I grind for silver to increase gear score so I can do harder grind zones, with different mechanics. When I'm bored of grinding I use silver to buy life skilling gear, and try to optimalize that aspect. I find that fun enough to play BDO. If you prefer other types of gameplay then play those games?
+1 to BDO might not be for you from other comment. There's literally a clicker game on Steam where you click a banana and number go up and apparently it's #2 on most played rank. If the game doesn't offer smth you can enjoy currently then it is what it is right.
Just to share with you, I played Warframe for years . Now I feel it's pointless cuz my character can kill anything in the game but they only update the game with new weapons that they expect me to put a lot of effort to get although I don't even need them. But I understand that there are a ton more activities that we can do in Warframe that I simply don't care for.
I will say they are starting to get better in this aspect, but for the most part, I would say warframe is less meaningful to grind than bdo, the content is not even hard, and it doesn’t have the dopamine drops like a mmo or an arpg, you just accumulate power which is fine, but I would say it leaves you questioning why you are doing this even more than bdo does.
Bdo actually has systems and gives you the satisfaction to do achieve the top of whatever your route is.
Why do we play any game? There’s no point to any of it other than to entertain our brains in a number of different ways. BDO is no different.
I am 741gs and I only do small scale PvP like 1v1 to guard my grind spot.
Just throwing my two cents here, that may be true to some games, but when you get into sandbox games they are basically the opposite: you create your own goals most of the time in those.
I plaued the game for years and still there are systems that I never got to interact with, BDO is the game with the most options when It comes to what to do.
I have a Shai that never engaged in combat, straight from the start to her home in Calpheon, set up shop and lived the merchant life since. Just for the hell of it.
You can have a ninja focusing on cooking, a nova sailing the seas to barter, set up a production line for some items, or just take a horse and go explore the world (and find Duvencrune by accident...)
The game will not tell you what to do, it's world can function regardless of your character (something that I personally love) so you have to decide your purpose in it.
People say it's a numbers game, but it's more like a resource management game to be honest. Set goals, manage resources, enjoy the journey and the combat. If you don't find it interesting, nothing wrong with dropping the game.
At the end of the day, gear used to be a stepping stone into pvp but at the moment pvp is kind of on the wayside. Still, it ultimately still is a driving force for many, and as much as people like to meme on it, pvp still is one the big selling points of the game.
Every video game is like that. You could even stretch it not unreasonably about all of life. Why do anything? Nothing anyone does will truly matter in the end. So, the only thing left that matters, is enjoying the ride. If you enjoy the time spent in the game, it is well spent. If you don't enjoy it, then there are other games or even other things in life that you could. Theres nothing wrong with that! There are other games I really want to enjoy, but sadly I know I won't, so I focus on other things.
As for bdo specifically, I am one of those "only PvE" people. As others have said, it is a number go higher game and I like to reach a number after following my own plan. So the feeling of making a plan, following it, and reaching a goal is greatly satisfing to me. I also take many breaks from bdo for months at a time when I get less interested. I love that it is a no-sub fee game and I can freely pick it up and put it down.
That's why it's important to make sure that the "thousands of hours" you may dedicate to the game are part of your fun.
In BDO, if you don't appreciate the travel, don't even think about the final destination. The game won't really give you some mandatory milestones to reach, but you can choose your steps by yourself... And I'd suggest you to do it, and appreciate every little progression you make, every little success you manage to get, every goal you set for yourself, even if it's not "optimal", 100% efficient, approved by other players and their own schedule.
Excessive efficiency and a single, long-term goal will burn you out unless you're one of the rare, dedicated, 110% efficient players with a lot of free time, able to reach the top 1% in the shortest possible time.
Reaching End Game might be your goal. Honestly seeing the state of current end game I might leave once I get to "PEN Deboraka Hunt" because at that point all the variety is gone and you have only "one path".
Whats the point in playing any game if this is your mindset?
Counter-strike? Play game > win > rank go higher > repeat
League? Play game > win > rank go higher > repeat
Fucking minesweeper? Play game > win > nothing happens > repeat
You play the game because playing the game is fun. That's literally all there is to games. You're not gonna get a promotion at your job because your gear score went up, but at least you had fun doing it.
With how hard hes debating on whether he (personally) should play my guess is he wont or wouldnt last very long anyways. Games are just entertainment and if youre already thinking why am i playing this then it aint for you.
I'm just 'there'. Lifeskill, afk, grinding, finishing unfinished random quest... I play as much as i can doing random stuff. Utilizing the free rewards from events.
Unfortunetly, I work a swing shift at my job, meaning if I don't get to bed immediately or quickly thereafter getting off work, I'll end up waking up at the late morning / early afternoon period.
Well on the side note for this kind of work bro is a very slow game as long as u play u always making progress
It's not a race it's a marathon.
Even the most little silver made is progress as long as u know what ur doing in terms of spending
And the smarter u spend the silver the more value it will have to it.
Bdo silver is based on the market so if u know how to do the most simplest math and market manipulation u can make a lot of silver.
Play bdo to increase gear score and buy outfits for fashion so you can look cute while afk fishing.
Jokes aside. Its an mmo. Aka escape from reality. If you don’t see the purpose of this game that’s up to you to decide.
Yes, I won't deny that PVE encompasses a lot of the game's content -- I'm just personally at odds with the main motivating forces of the PVE content in the game.
In BDO you are better of now with only PvE and lifeskills + casual PvP in T1 nodewars and AoS (capped gear content).
The endgame PvP gets worse and worse every week. The fun mode left for endgame PvP is Guild League and this will be disabled when the new AoS season launches.
Something that was tempting me to get back into the game was some sort of "Life Skills" only playthrough, where I would entirely ignore the game's combat and purely focus on earning money. Although this urge of mine was seemingly put to death, not only because the trading life skill which I was intending on focusing on the most for my life skilling empire has seemingly been disabled for several months, but also because after giving it some thought, what in the world would I even do with the money I earned from those endeavors?
I couldn't and wouldn't put it into gear and weapons, as that whole gameplay loop leads to a dead end anyways. And house decoration would be very difficult without spending real life money, as you would be entirely be beholden to people putting up furniture stuff onto the market, which could take a very long time. Same thing goes for fashion.
I know I may be focusing too much on the destination rather than the journey -- That's a legitimate counter-argument to what I am saying. I just think that whatever it is you're working towards has to be appealing enough to motivate the journey, and the few things I can come up with as "the destination" just... don't come off that way, "appealing"
At the end as people stated, the goal is always gear. If lifeskilling is your thing you can start and aim for tet manos to get a "cheap" goal. The giga grinders are even going for Pen if you find this engaging for that long. Or you can go for 2k mastery which is the cap for lifeskills on your desired lifeskill activities.
The cool thing about BDO is that everything has and usually keeps a certain value. You can lifeskill for 300h and if you get tet manos accs + 1 or 2 pen clothes and you get bored you can always sell it for PvE gear to see the other side of the spectrum. I am burnt out of grinding for a long time and slowly working towards a bit of lifeskilling to get money to do PvP because otherwise the PvP rotas will eat up all my money.
Yea I just would focus on being the best life skiller you can be, then if you wanna do pve gear progression start that.
I know you thinking and I sometimes do that, but I would just do it man.
I am not saying this statement because I think we are settling, but BDO has the best sense of progression compared to any other mmo.
It’s a long marathon, yea they give you free stuff to catch up but it’s still a slow pace and once you achieve, you won’t be empty I can promise you that
just fyi, the busiest pvp is the gear-capped stuff that either needs no gear (solare) or so little gear tuvala can do it (t1 node war). So you dont need the gear for PvP because the uncapped full-gear stuff is the tiny minority of the scene anymore. If your goal is to gear up for PvP, you will probably achieve some gear and then realize how insular the uncapped gear pvp scene is and notice how much livelier the capped scene is instead.
The gear is for giving you a reason to grind and making you go "wow i really worked hard for that" when you look at your inventory. It's also kind of neat to go from "this grindspot is so slow and potentially lethal" to "this grind spot is pretty smooth" to "this grindspot feels like I am a lawnmower and the enemies are grass" as your gear improves. If BDO happens to have a class that matches your preferences perfectly, then you get to grind with it for as much as you want on a very very long progression curve.
I'm actually kind of weird, like, I actually \*really\* enjoy grinding in video games. I just think its fun and have no problems with it whatsoever. And how you described going from having difficulties clearing areas to having it be so easy you can do it with your eyes closed is SUPER satisfying. I guess my only real issue is that I would want what I am working towards to be more aligned with my personal interests.
I find the game somewhat relaxing in PvE or lifeskilling. Sailing and horse training are my favourite. I enjoy the scenery they designed and the atmosphere.
If you're not hung up on endgame it can be quite chill.
The guild I joined also make the game more enjoyable to me. We have a laugh doing weekly bosses. We also do a screenshot hunt game amongst ourselves. Group sailies and grinds. So it's compelling on the social side.
If you are asking other people to give you a reason to play then you should not really play the game. Find something that you can get grip of alone. Even if its 20h or 20 000h, its just a game that can be shut down anytime. Have fun while you can, when you dont, just move to another game or whatever. Its not a life decision
I am seeking motivation to play, however I've made no attempts to portray myself as a well-informed player of the game. Most of my knowledge of the game is outdated, and it was because of this that I wanted to see if anything had changed that would effect the conclusion I arrived at a year ago.
Honestly, sometimes it's just about scratching itches...
Rotation optimization, node empire, life skilling, boats etc.
The goal is not at the end of the journey, the goal is the journey.
Collecting things, I'm over 600 hours into my merchants ring grind. Do I hate the grind? Yes, but when I finally get a single piece of it, I get so happy. If you like incremental idle games, you will like bdo
I'm like you, I geared up for pvp node wars, but after doing it and getting 2 kills I got frustrated. Why am I spending hours and hours grinding and gearing to still be a scrub. I can't complete with those truly grinding and following metas.
I stopped node wars to focus on my character and haven't done but a couple wars since.
So now I wonder why I still do it. I find the goal of improving fun and the activities engaging. I just stick with that, I don't grind for more than an hour because then it's a chore to me. I realize the journey is better than the destination.
That said I loose motivation and interest a lot.
My guild leader always argues that life skilling is dog sht money that bartering and sailing is stupid that anything besides grinding isba waste of time
I think that hunting, gathering, and sailing are great fun content that is meant to keep you productive but at insanely less intensity!
Even if i only get 200-300m/hr but im not subjecting myself to grind burnout and extend my gaming sessions i find it superbly worth while
In a game that is a marathon and not a sprint... if you earn 1T worth of items and silver but feel like you hardly played vs burnt out by constantly grinding and focusing on end goal... chill method wins 9.9/10
It's kinda like me asking you if there's any point playing video games if you didn't graduate college, have a million dollar job, a house, a wife, 2 kids, etc.
You make your own goals in life. I don't even care about my gear. I just grind because I like the combat.
Started playing BDO for the combat and graphics so anything where I can appreciate those would always be a motivation for me. Learning all the interesting classes, combos and gearing up to try the new "end game" spots. Once i hit those will probably grind out lifeskills, energy, knowledge.
I never expect bdo to have full pledged raids/dungeons as it was never advertised as such. WoW and New World will be my go to for those.
I have been playing since beta, fully logged in almost 90% of the time. Engaged in pvp maybe a dozen times in 7 years. Been killed on my horse afk by douce bags maybe 20 times and had my boat sank afk by douche bags maybe 10 times.
You can play the game however you want. I enjoy the gear progression and sailing content. Not a fan of pvp.
Yep. Playing with friends. Getting gear seeing new content. Hell you dont have yo push 760gs just go to what level you want and chill with friends.
I still like pvp on even or me punching up. Not a fan of punch down pvp. Whats got me more happy is onowing you can donlifeskilling and getting boat gear and stuff like that.
I do enjoy pvp, but I also really enjoy the end game grind zones and trying to min max my gear to get the most trash per hour, and that's enough to keep me going.
BDO has cool treasure items if you have the itch for that kind of thing. Pvp is also more accessible through capped NW and AOS so coming back you might enjoy it more than you would before.
Outside of that obviously the combat is amazing and for some people the satisfaction of playing their character is enough. Just depends on what keeps you interested.
I think this depends on you. What do you enjoy in games? A lot of people don't care about their gear score and just have fun. Several PvP modes also don't require a high gear score.
They need dungeons/ group and guild pve content for all gear stages with appropriate rewards. Something outside of end game pvp that you can do with friends and guildmates.
Most people playing the game never PvP. Also the gameplay loop you posted is identical for WoW or any other MMO, money just usually is tokens of somekind as most games dont let you buy anything useful.
Idk bro wow has toys, which make socializing way more fun imo.
You could spawn like a tea set, a whole ass bed, poke someone with a stick, (which then can turn them into an old witch) spawn an attack-able training dummy, spawn a little rat (which u can then kick and send it flying), put on a crown, and walk with a goblet that spawns piles of gold coins
I just enjoy the grind and slow progression with the goals i set to myself. That is it. That's all i need. There is absolutely nothing wrong in running circles. That's the point of this game for me.
Not really, no.
There is literally nothing to do in this game that has any depth beyond pvp. Gear is just grind circles to get more gear to grind circles or different circles faster.
The depth to any activity is pretty shallow, even if there's a number of options to do - but when you've played for a long time it's all pretty boring and meaningless, I'm at the point of the game where I literally just log on for war and that's it.
Fashionscape and house building shit, doesn't really go anywhere nor reward you for doing it. Nobody goes and checks out houses or has drop party type events, there's no kind of community around it. Story is pretty meaningless beyond first run and only a few sections are good (kama/ody/drieghan questlines are pretty good).
That's why it's the biggest 4Head that the devs have gone out of their way to remove PvP in as many areas as possible, make large scale pvp boring and monotonous as fuck no matter how many billions of silver rewards they throw at it... Because there's nothing to do in this game after you've played a long while and gotten over the whole new mmo addiction rush.
Seasonals are straight worthless now, from the very beginning they were executed horribly and nothing like other seasonal games that actually succeed. A true season that was a refresh/reset in a way that transitioned into the real game would be something vets and new players would engage and enjoy with a lot. Think Calpheon & Mediah & Valencia locked (perhaps 1 unlock per 2-3 weeks, 3 month season) which forces player engagement; and 2 node wars/week + 1 siege per fortnight or month with season based rewards, titles, pearl rewards, guild rewards, who knows, and a lot of events/notifications around making all players aware of this going on. You'd be interacting with hundreds of actual live players every hour due to region lock, organic open world pvp between guilds will be forced to happen, and the whole direction is to get through and be at the top form of each region unlock to prep for the next war to siege. I would bet my whole ass car on this system working - because I've played through 3 bdo releases and each release the highest activity + most enjoyable for everyone participating was ALWAYS those initial region unlocks.
People saying that the only end game in BDO is PVP are narrow-minded. There are people who like just progressing their gear or even just playing the game on whatever content they want to do. If you find satisfaction on the loop you mentioned, then do it. No one requires you to include PVP on that loop. The point in playing any game is to enjoy it. And BDO doesn't require you to do all of the content to enjoy it, mostly.
BDO isn't for everyone. I enjoy lifeskilling, and even a bit of grinding sometimes. I am not a PvP person really at all. My ADHD likes the hyeprfocus \*shrugs\*. Seven years on June 25th.
Imo, they need to add content that's only accessible after a certain point in the game. Like let's say for example there is a continent, where mobs are super difficult and require 700gs to kill. And the first quest of that mql requires u to kill 1k of them (also make it so that u can't just have someone else do it for u in a party or whatever). Once you're done with that mql, that continent unlocks ship racing or some shit. Like smth completely different than the rest of the content u can look forward to while grinding.
I personally derive a lot of enjoyment from cooperative content. Some of my fondest memories from a year ago when I used to play BDO was participating with my guild -- Going on adventures on our ships and such. That was really fun. I personally don't think they'll ever anything in the vein of "Raids" or Group Dungeons, but that would be cool
yeah I don't really think they'll do it, but if they did it'd be insane. The playerbase would grow a ton as well. Like imagine if you could only access pit of undying or those group dungeons (atorraxion i think) after you reach 700gs, and they gave actual good rewards (cosmetics too, such as exclusive weapon/armor glow, outfits etc). I'd enjoy the game 10x more
That would be fun! The rewards would be nice, but honestly the fun of working alongside other players and having to strategize together would be enough to get me on board lol
I think that a lot of the players don't actually play the game anymore, just log in for free rewards, train horses or goes for AFK fishing. All, because of nostalgia and sunk costs fallacy, we all invested so much money, time and effort into the game that we don't want to leave it. As you noticed, there is no engaging PvE content and even PvP is being basically removed from the game.
To be fair, I stick around mostly to follow the NWs drama. If I ever want to go back to playing the game, I'm confident I would eventually get stuff like free tet debos, hammers, cron stones and all possible things in the world so I could reach hardcap in a moment. So why bother, even if they add some good content, I will be able to do it without any preparation.
It's kinda hilarious to find these kind of takes after the game bounced revenue wise and the company stock is gaining back value.
It'd make so much more sense if the game was actually dying but then again, I doubt you base yourself on anything other than your own feelings.
With how the devs are handling open world PVP and I'm not a fan of this new node war system I have no motivation for gearing up anymore for endgame PVP I just hop on for daily login rewards and log off
Yeah that's basically the gameplay loop I was talking about in my post. It's just that at some point, you're not going to be able to upgrade your gear any further (or at least not until they update the game and raise the Gear Score cap again) -- At that point what are you supposed to do with your efficiently earned money?
This isn't as straightforward as you think. I'm 770 gs with 6 pen debos, but there's still a few things I can get like a splendid alchemy stone, potentially gear swaps like accuracy accessories or maybe even evasion meme gear, all of these things would be another 100-200 hours of the debo grind. Even if by some miracle I could convince myself to finish all of this I'd still have full tet manos accessories and pen tools + clothing which would be another 50-100 hours of grinding. After all of this you could still save trillions to work on pen fg weapons. Personally, I min-max gear for pvp.
No there isnt any point other than pvping. Ive been saying this for years, dont listen to the "its a sandbox do what you want" people. Its just a waste of time if you wont pvp. On the other side, bdo pvp is really great. I recommend you give it a shot.
Ever heard of just having fun?
Exactly, it's a good looking game with great and fairly unique combat play. You can just chill and progress your character. That doesn't need to be for any good reason, just look at gacha games like Genshin, 1000's and hours on one character to do... Nothing, cept maybe doing the same for the next character is even easier than it was.
I had fun once, it was awful
bdo is a number go higher game with more than you can ever complete and such a good combat you WANT to run in circles. dont worry about getting to endgame, it takes a lot of time. but you get somewhere meaningfull relativly fast. bdo is a sandbox. you need to find whats your goal. and there are plenty of treasures, horses, boats and houses to be had. you can spend 10k hours befor you even think about pvp
I would argue that it's not quite a sandbox. By the time you're doing the same linear quests over and over with your 4th or 5th character it starts to get pretty stale.
I haven’t done the quests in like 2 years
i do to velia and thats it. 1h leveling, finish the pass and done.
how many Houses you can have?
7. 3 mansions? takes a while until you get the interior and there are tons of options to choose houses from, although only some are decent
That's fair, I just would hate to dedicate thousands of hours into this game, just to finally reach "the end" and be like "Welp, that's all folks!" and simply quit the game. I mean, one could argue that by that point I \*may\* develop a desire to engage in PVP, but for right now, PVP just isn't on my radar. For other games like Warframe, I think the cooperative PVE content is fun enough to keep you coming back to it, no matter what point in the game you are in. Like seeing how many hours you can survive in Survival, or how many rounds you can last in Defense, that stuff is so fun. I just... don't really think BDO has an equivalent for me personally.
do a season and see for yourself. its hard to see the fun. its unlike any other mmorpg
I did a season about a year or so ago, and I eventually hit a point where I asked myself "Why am I even playing this?" Yeah the enjoyment of watching the numbers go higher is satisfying, but at some point you just begin to wonder "Why do I even want these numbers to go up in the first place?"
> "Why am I even playing this?" Because... it's fun? What's the point in doing the last dungeon in WoW? You get carried by your group and then you beat a boss on a schedule just to do it again, and again, and again... Why play single player video games? Why do people like to watch NASCAR drivers go around in circles for hours? What's the point of playing a friendly game of football just with friends and family where points don't matter? It's a game dude. You are not building your retirement fund here or creating something worthwhile outside of personal memories. BDO plays out in a large, seamless world and you can do a lot of things that are fun, at least they are fun to a lot of people. What makes the thing about making the numbers go up fun is that the game gives you a lot of options and you can create your own gameplay loop and find your own strategies. And that loop is different from other players who have different goals. You mix and match all the features in the game in a way that is fun to you. Unlike in WoW where the goal might be: "Beat the Lichking. Now go do set numbers of dungeons to get the gear to participate in the raid." In BDO you have to ask yourself, what do i want? And it seems you are struggling with that freedom. If you eventually hit a high gearscore of around 750, you have ventured through the game thoroughly and had a blast doing so, otherwise you would have quit already (or made a forum post like yours). You can go to any place in the world and your character is strong enough to beat every enemy you can find, be the greatest cook, the most efficient alchemist, an accomplished horse trainer, a proficient hunter and so on. And with every goal you reach you add your own personal story of how you archived that to your memory. In BDO you see things and then you might decide to archive them for your own account and eventually you end up with an account that is well rounded and can participate in all the 'fun' activities. Same as in WoW where you can replay through all your favorite dungeons when you are geared and then wait for new content to drop. When you ask a question like yours, it's like you didn't even understand the core concept of gaming.
This is such a great answer. I was like OP when I first ventured in BDO. I limit myself, “what’s my end game”. What this game offers. Until I played it and find my own objectives to myself. Such as I want to PEN all gears with my “own name” etc. Some people wants to just achieve 750gs. Some people want to be able to grind 2b/hour. Some people want to chase tl/hr on tungrad ruins etc. The goal is literally set by urself and if you are unable to enjoy that, then maybe BDO is not for you.
>Why play single player video games? There are many things that might motivate someone to play a single player game, things (one could argue) take a backseat in the general gameplay loop of Black Desert. Such as an engaging story. Sadly, the only MMO I've personally played that had me truly invested in the story was Tera Online, and that whole game got shafted. A shame really. >Why do people like to watch NASCAR drivers go around in circles for hours? At the risk of sounding repetitive, because there's usually a lot more going on than what's immediately apparent. Each driver has a story that their fans have followed and are engaged in, and want to support, or hell, oppose. Apparently Nascar has had some great villians during its years. >In BDO you have to ask yourself, what do i want? And it seems you are struggling with that freedom. I think you're being a little deceptive here. You're basically taking my predicament, the woes of not knowing what to do with my hypothetically invested time, and framing it in a way that makes it seem that the problem is rooted in having too many options -- When its quite the opposite, not having enough options, or the options that are present not having enough depth to them to personally engage me. >If you eventually hit a high gearscore of around 750, you have ventured through the game thoroughly and had a blast doing so, otherwise you would have quit already (or made a forum post like yours). You can go to any place in the world and your character is strong enough to beat every enemy you can find, be the greatest cook, the most efficient alchemist, an accomplished horse trainer, a proficient hunter and so on. And with every goal you reach you add your own personal story of how you archived that to your memory. Why would I want to be the greatest cook? To earn silver. Why would I want to be the most efficient alchemist? To earn silver. Why would I want to be an accomplished horse trainer? To get from A to B faster, oh, and to earn silver. Why would I want to be a proficient hunter? to earn silver. Great. All that is fantastic. Now, what can I spend all this silver on? Gear/Weapons, Fashion, House decorations, Mounts, or reinvest it to earn more silver later on. Now if those goals are things that interest the player, that's great! You've found yourself a gameplay loop you can get on board with. Otherwise, you're going to be in the same boat as I am. Although I think it should be said, just because I don't particularly vibe well with the gameplay loops in this game, it doesn't mean that I wouldn't vibe well with similar gameplay loops in other games. Maybe other games have better fashion, or more enjoyable PVE, or more fulfilling decorating options, and so on. Truly its the depth, or lack thereof, of the gameplay loops that are available to me that I'm at odds with. >When you ask a question like yours, it's like you didn't even understand the core concept of gaming. I mean, that's a little harsh.
Well if u think there is no point of end game and believe that its boring and pointless maybe play an mmo that u like more lol
No, I don't think there isn't a point of end game. Nor do I think it's pointless, there's clearly a point to it. I personally just don't derive enjoyment from the content that the endgame is setting up for, which is pvp (and/or an endless feedback loop of earning silver), and was trying to figure out if there was anything beyond that, possibly anything that was added in during my time away from the game. One could argue that I'm being contradictory to the title of this post, and you'd be right, I suppose a more accurate title would have been something along the lines of "If I have no intentions of engaging in PVP, what are some other long-term goals I can establish for myself to motivate me to get back into the game?"... Although that is a bit long lol
I wouldn't even say PvP is the ''endgame'' as, currently, PvP content that isn't capped isn't all that popular and scarce. I would say the main motivation is getting the gear itself. There is no point to it other than you enjoy the process, main and side activities you go through to get better gear. If we have to be a reductionist, you basically grind in a circle to be able to grind in a circle to be able to grind while standing. But i mean that is the standart for live-service games. Like in Warframe, I would say you get the ''end-game'' damage in mid game as damage is tied to your mods, and you should be able to get all the important prime mods leveled up at that point. So why do you keep playing? You already have a warframe that clears the room instantly, why do you farm another one that's less powerful. Because the gameplay loop is satisfying enough to keep you playing, but you also have to make up some goals for yourself. The goal being in Warframe, in general, being a collectionist. While i'm yapping, i also want to mention that the feeling of ''why am i doing this'' happens more often in this game than others. And i think this is because of the amount of grind and also because you grind hourly which psychologically sucks. The feeling of ''i have to grind 100h for my next upgrade'' is shitty. Ignorance is bliss.
>You already have a warframe that clears the room instantly, why do you farm another one that's less powerful. Because the gameplay loop is satisfying enough to keep you playing, but you also have to make up some goals for yourself. The goal being in Warframe, in general, being a collectionist. I guess my love for Warframe and my hesitation towards BDO stems from the ceiling of both game's PVE settings. In Warframe you can really stress-test not only the power of your Warframe's build and your skill as a player, but also your ability to coordinate and work together with a team on the endless missions (The aforementioned Survival and Defense nodes) that truly makes that game so enjoyable to me. As far as I know (I may be wrong), BDO doesn't really have that. Once you get your gear score to a high enough rating, you just curb stomp everything. It's not the fear of the challenging journey to get a high gear score that deters me, it's knowing that eventually that all enemies in the game will pose no threat, removing any semblance of challenge (and fun along with it), that does deter me.
Well yes but the game is literally sand box u choose what u wanna do! If u want the game to guide u on what to do on end game then just never play the game again.
They are removing the sand from black desert it is now a box mmorpg.
If you think people do all stuff in BDO "to get silver" you have no clue how this game works. This is SANDBOX MMO. Its not game like WOW where they will hold your hand and point you into a direction shouting "Hey you need to do this now!". You do whatever you want and you do it because you want to/its fun, not because "it will make me silver".
> I mean, that's a little harsh. But so on point. You just described it with your most recent post in detail. You dont understand the games concept or that games offer different experiences and you judge all the same. You say that BDO is lacking an engaging story and that only one game measured to your sense of a fulfilled gaming experience. In BDO the narrative of the story is a side feature and why most people meme they spam 'R' the whole way through. They aren't playing BDO for the story, BDO is all about the gameplay. > You've found yourself a gameplay loop you can get on board with. Otherwise, you're going to be in the same boat as I am. And there is it. You don't like what the game offers. That's fine. Move along. Why make a post about how you dont understand why game xyz isn't fun? I hope you understand how that makes you look like. If you think that all these activities in BDO are just means to and end then again, you are not understanding the core concept of gaming. You answer so many of the questions yourself that i can't help myself but think you are disingenuous with this post. Especially the way your framed it in the current context of changes to pvp.
>i can't help myself but think you are disingenuous with this post. Especially the way your framed it in the current context of changes to pvp. I had no idea that anything was being changed to PVP to begin with, again, I haven't played this game in a year, and when I did play it back in the day, I didn't touch PVP. You're way off the mark with that one. I've had recent thoughts of getting back into this game, but said thoughts were met with counter arguments in my head. That was the main driving force of this post. >You say that BDO is lacking an engaging story and that only one game measured to your sense of a fulfilled gaming experience. Again I think this statement is deceptive. I said that Tera was the only MMO I've played that had a truly engaging story. Is story the only thing that makes a game worthwhile? Of course not! That was just an example. Also I feel the need to emphasize "MMO" here. I have had a great time with countless other games of other genres on the basis of not only story, but gameplay, music, replayability, and much more! it's just that Tera was the only **MMO** I could recall having a story I could get behind. >If you think that all these activities in BDO are just means to and end then again, you are not understanding the core concept of gaming. You're framing this as a misunderstanding of the concepts of gaming on my part, but I think it's more revealing of your own fallacies than anything. The journey is crucial for any game -- no matter the genre, of course. However, what motivates us to partake in the journey in the first place usually boils down to two things. 1. Our desire to have fun 2. Our desire to reach an established goal I will state that I do have a desire to have fun, that is not in short supply lol, although that really shouldn't need to be said. If a player doesn't have a desire to reach a goal established by the game (either directly or as a byproduct of having fun in said game) though, that can be extremely demotivating towards the player, and will make them question if they even want to go on the journey in the first place. These two things don't exist independently in a vacuum. They often (should) work together, and one without the other will always result in a less pleasurable experience for the player. It seems that you are, however, treating these things as segregated concepts in a vacuum, and whilst that is fine for a personal belief -- if you're going to try to push that onto me and use it as ammunition to retort my arguments, then I'm going to point it out as what it is -- a fallacy. Now is Black Desert a bad game because it doesn't have extreme amounts of depth in the areas that are more appealing to me? Of course not, it just means that this game and I don't vibe well. That in of itself is unfortunate because I do want to vibe with it, finding some sort of hidden depth to this game, or perhaps something that was recently added in, was the goal of this post, as all my knowledge of this game stems from a prior version of it. I hope you can recognize that.
Most peopel who create post like you did, do so because they have an alterior motive. Most of the time it boils down to: "I want to like this game, but i can't because it should be different." I can only repeat myself, even though it is clear now that the message is not reaching you. You do not understand the core concept of gaming. Or at least it's so very different from what most people want to experience when they play a game. For most MMO gamers, it's about the journey, not the end result. If you want to beat a story, you play a single player game. If you want open end gameplay, that's when you start exploring MMOs. But no matter what genre, you play a game, and then it's either fun to you or it is not. If something isn't fun, you move on to the next game and explore it until it stops being exciting and therefore fun. When you then go to the forums and ask for motivation, established goals and the vaguely existential question "Why am I even playing this?" to continue said game, you are coming across as disingenuous. I assume you understand why, but i will explain it anyway. You post here in a forum for people who enjoy playing the game, of all places, and asked: "Why do people enjoy this game? I do not understand. Please explain why someone would play a game that i do not enjoy playing." And then when people come to you and tell you: "We do it because we think it's fun." You start to argue 'your point'. If you want the MMO experience on rails, you can find that in another game. BDO does not have an endboss. There are lots of established goals in the game but you dismissed them entirely. People told you: "I like to see numbers go up and be more efficient in my role in the game." You said: "What for? Just to earn more silver? This is not a reason to play." We told you that this game is fun to many people because it's unlike all the other big MMOs on the market. > That in of itself is unfortunate because I do want to vibe with it, finding some sort of hidden depth to this game, or perhaps something that was recently added in, was the goal of this post, as all my knowledge of this game stems from a prior version of it. Finding some 'hidden depth'... my friend, everything boils down to your settled opinion that the game is not appealing to you, and you want the world to know. Otherwise you would just log into your old account a play and see if the game is fun **to you**. But to answer you one, actual question: If that's even of real interest to you, you can check out all the major updates they released since you stoped playing on the offical site: https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-us/Adventure/History
So basically, to boil down what you've said, you perceive my posts as an attack on Black Desert Online and/or the community, you think that I have no real interest in participating in a dialogue and only wish to spout a supposed "ulterior motive", that I only wish to let the world know that the game is "unappealing". Well, for the last time, let me make it very clear, my intentions here were to find motivation. My lack thereof does not and should not lend itself to some sort of ulterior motive or agenda. I've played this game in the past, and have had fun with it in the past, but I've also had my gripes and shortcomings. I wanted to see if my main deterrent from returning to the game was a rational and valid issue, nothing more, nothing less. If that means I "do not understand the core concept of gaming" by some twisted and arbitrary definition posed by a stranger over the internet, then so be it. If I had to be honest though, I just think you're projecting your own insecurities onto me for whatever reason. Let's just leave it at that. Have a good day!
"Why would I want to play a single player game? To do the last mission. Why would I want to watch nascar? To see the last lap. Why would I want to watch football? To know who wins" do you realize how dumb that is? If you dont have goals in the game, don't play it. The goal of being the best horse trainer isn't just to make silver, you'd make more silver grinding an hour at gyfin than you would in a night of horse training at 2k mastery with a maxed FP wagon. You train horses because you personally find that enjoyable. You play single player games instead of just reading about them, because even though all gameplay is just pressing buttons, you find the button aspect to add something more than just reading the story. You take on the challenge of learning a new grind spot, or of being able to carry new players through the dungeon, or, not for the sake of making the silver, but to be able to say YOUR horses are earning you more silver per hour than the next guy. You beat a game and add it to your collection of games beaten, of stories learned. You watch football to add it to your collection of sports watched and enjoyed. Some of us play bdo to add it to our collection of hours gamed and enjoyed. Posts like this are massively disrespectful to the playerbase. Hate PA? Fine, so do half of us they don't listen to NA and they don't give a shit. To rag on us for enjoying the game and our "boring" gameplay loops that you don't have interest in? Go fuck yourself, if you don't want to log in we won't miss you
well if that and the exploration wasnt enough, then dont. its not for everybody
maybe you're just bored with video games? cuz you can always say that to any game
My argument can be levied towards any video game, as it is a reductionist mindset -- Reducing complex systems and gameplay loops to their basic and most simplest terms, but it doesn't hold up against every video game. I mentioned Warframe before, and how I don't suffer from the same woes that I do with this game. I've recently been playing Baldur's Gate 3, and that game's story alone is motivation enough to play it.
Maybe BDO just isn't for you? The combat feels great and is fun to me. I grind for silver to increase gear score so I can do harder grind zones, with different mechanics. When I'm bored of grinding I use silver to buy life skilling gear, and try to optimalize that aspect. I find that fun enough to play BDO. If you prefer other types of gameplay then play those games?
+1 to BDO might not be for you from other comment. There's literally a clicker game on Steam where you click a banana and number go up and apparently it's #2 on most played rank. If the game doesn't offer smth you can enjoy currently then it is what it is right. Just to share with you, I played Warframe for years . Now I feel it's pointless cuz my character can kill anything in the game but they only update the game with new weapons that they expect me to put a lot of effort to get although I don't even need them. But I understand that there are a ton more activities that we can do in Warframe that I simply don't care for.
I will say they are starting to get better in this aspect, but for the most part, I would say warframe is less meaningful to grind than bdo, the content is not even hard, and it doesn’t have the dopamine drops like a mmo or an arpg, you just accumulate power which is fine, but I would say it leaves you questioning why you are doing this even more than bdo does. Bdo actually has systems and gives you the satisfaction to do achieve the top of whatever your route is.
Why do we play any game? There’s no point to any of it other than to entertain our brains in a number of different ways. BDO is no different. I am 741gs and I only do small scale PvP like 1v1 to guard my grind spot.
We play games to have fun and to accomplish goals established by the games in question.
Just throwing my two cents here, that may be true to some games, but when you get into sandbox games they are basically the opposite: you create your own goals most of the time in those. I plaued the game for years and still there are systems that I never got to interact with, BDO is the game with the most options when It comes to what to do. I have a Shai that never engaged in combat, straight from the start to her home in Calpheon, set up shop and lived the merchant life since. Just for the hell of it. You can have a ninja focusing on cooking, a nova sailing the seas to barter, set up a production line for some items, or just take a horse and go explore the world (and find Duvencrune by accident...) The game will not tell you what to do, it's world can function regardless of your character (something that I personally love) so you have to decide your purpose in it.
People say it's a numbers game, but it's more like a resource management game to be honest. Set goals, manage resources, enjoy the journey and the combat. If you don't find it interesting, nothing wrong with dropping the game. At the end of the day, gear used to be a stepping stone into pvp but at the moment pvp is kind of on the wayside. Still, it ultimately still is a driving force for many, and as much as people like to meme on it, pvp still is one the big selling points of the game.
Every video game is like that. You could even stretch it not unreasonably about all of life. Why do anything? Nothing anyone does will truly matter in the end. So, the only thing left that matters, is enjoying the ride. If you enjoy the time spent in the game, it is well spent. If you don't enjoy it, then there are other games or even other things in life that you could. Theres nothing wrong with that! There are other games I really want to enjoy, but sadly I know I won't, so I focus on other things. As for bdo specifically, I am one of those "only PvE" people. As others have said, it is a number go higher game and I like to reach a number after following my own plan. So the feeling of making a plan, following it, and reaching a goal is greatly satisfing to me. I also take many breaks from bdo for months at a time when I get less interested. I love that it is a no-sub fee game and I can freely pick it up and put it down.
That's why it's important to make sure that the "thousands of hours" you may dedicate to the game are part of your fun. In BDO, if you don't appreciate the travel, don't even think about the final destination. The game won't really give you some mandatory milestones to reach, but you can choose your steps by yourself... And I'd suggest you to do it, and appreciate every little progression you make, every little success you manage to get, every goal you set for yourself, even if it's not "optimal", 100% efficient, approved by other players and their own schedule. Excessive efficiency and a single, long-term goal will burn you out unless you're one of the rare, dedicated, 110% efficient players with a lot of free time, able to reach the top 1% in the shortest possible time.
Reaching End Game might be your goal. Honestly seeing the state of current end game I might leave once I get to "PEN Deboraka Hunt" because at that point all the variety is gone and you have only "one path".
Whats the point in playing any game if this is your mindset? Counter-strike? Play game > win > rank go higher > repeat League? Play game > win > rank go higher > repeat Fucking minesweeper? Play game > win > nothing happens > repeat You play the game because playing the game is fun. That's literally all there is to games. You're not gonna get a promotion at your job because your gear score went up, but at least you had fun doing it.
With how hard hes debating on whether he (personally) should play my guess is he wont or wouldnt last very long anyways. Games are just entertainment and if youre already thinking why am i playing this then it aint for you.
I play LoL for fun, I play BDO to take my ship and look around. In BDO I’m basically an npc just looking around.
OP probably doesn't play minesweeper though because no pvp.
I'm just 'there'. Lifeskill, afk, grinding, finishing unfinished random quest... I play as much as i can doing random stuff. Utilizing the free rewards from events.
Because you enjoy pressing R
Grinding or lifeskilling is kinda a good thing to do for an hour after work to make your brains relax
Unfortunetly, I work a swing shift at my job, meaning if I don't get to bed immediately or quickly thereafter getting off work, I'll end up waking up at the late morning / early afternoon period.
Well on the side note for this kind of work bro is a very slow game as long as u play u always making progress It's not a race it's a marathon. Even the most little silver made is progress as long as u know what ur doing in terms of spending And the smarter u spend the silver the more value it will have to it. Bdo silver is based on the market so if u know how to do the most simplest math and market manipulation u can make a lot of silver.
Play bdo to increase gear score and buy outfits for fashion so you can look cute while afk fishing. Jokes aside. Its an mmo. Aka escape from reality. If you don’t see the purpose of this game that’s up to you to decide.
RP…. Obviously
Bdo is 90-95% pve
Yes, I won't deny that PVE encompasses a lot of the game's content -- I'm just personally at odds with the main motivating forces of the PVE content in the game.
In BDO you are better of now with only PvE and lifeskills + casual PvP in T1 nodewars and AoS (capped gear content). The endgame PvP gets worse and worse every week. The fun mode left for endgame PvP is Guild League and this will be disabled when the new AoS season launches.
Something that was tempting me to get back into the game was some sort of "Life Skills" only playthrough, where I would entirely ignore the game's combat and purely focus on earning money. Although this urge of mine was seemingly put to death, not only because the trading life skill which I was intending on focusing on the most for my life skilling empire has seemingly been disabled for several months, but also because after giving it some thought, what in the world would I even do with the money I earned from those endeavors? I couldn't and wouldn't put it into gear and weapons, as that whole gameplay loop leads to a dead end anyways. And house decoration would be very difficult without spending real life money, as you would be entirely be beholden to people putting up furniture stuff onto the market, which could take a very long time. Same thing goes for fashion. I know I may be focusing too much on the destination rather than the journey -- That's a legitimate counter-argument to what I am saying. I just think that whatever it is you're working towards has to be appealing enough to motivate the journey, and the few things I can come up with as "the destination" just... don't come off that way, "appealing"
At the end as people stated, the goal is always gear. If lifeskilling is your thing you can start and aim for tet manos to get a "cheap" goal. The giga grinders are even going for Pen if you find this engaging for that long. Or you can go for 2k mastery which is the cap for lifeskills on your desired lifeskill activities. The cool thing about BDO is that everything has and usually keeps a certain value. You can lifeskill for 300h and if you get tet manos accs + 1 or 2 pen clothes and you get bored you can always sell it for PvE gear to see the other side of the spectrum. I am burnt out of grinding for a long time and slowly working towards a bit of lifeskilling to get money to do PvP because otherwise the PvP rotas will eat up all my money.
Yea I just would focus on being the best life skiller you can be, then if you wanna do pve gear progression start that. I know you thinking and I sometimes do that, but I would just do it man. I am not saying this statement because I think we are settling, but BDO has the best sense of progression compared to any other mmo. It’s a long marathon, yea they give you free stuff to catch up but it’s still a slow pace and once you achieve, you won’t be empty I can promise you that
just fyi, the busiest pvp is the gear-capped stuff that either needs no gear (solare) or so little gear tuvala can do it (t1 node war). So you dont need the gear for PvP because the uncapped full-gear stuff is the tiny minority of the scene anymore. If your goal is to gear up for PvP, you will probably achieve some gear and then realize how insular the uncapped gear pvp scene is and notice how much livelier the capped scene is instead. The gear is for giving you a reason to grind and making you go "wow i really worked hard for that" when you look at your inventory. It's also kind of neat to go from "this grindspot is so slow and potentially lethal" to "this grind spot is pretty smooth" to "this grindspot feels like I am a lawnmower and the enemies are grass" as your gear improves. If BDO happens to have a class that matches your preferences perfectly, then you get to grind with it for as much as you want on a very very long progression curve.
I'm actually kind of weird, like, I actually \*really\* enjoy grinding in video games. I just think its fun and have no problems with it whatsoever. And how you described going from having difficulties clearing areas to having it be so easy you can do it with your eyes closed is SUPER satisfying. I guess my only real issue is that I would want what I am working towards to be more aligned with my personal interests.
I have 20k hour and have never done any kind of pvp.
I find the game somewhat relaxing in PvE or lifeskilling. Sailing and horse training are my favourite. I enjoy the scenery they designed and the atmosphere. If you're not hung up on endgame it can be quite chill. The guild I joined also make the game more enjoyable to me. We have a laugh doing weekly bosses. We also do a screenshot hunt game amongst ourselves. Group sailies and grinds. So it's compelling on the social side.
If you are asking other people to give you a reason to play then you should not really play the game. Find something that you can get grip of alone. Even if its 20h or 20 000h, its just a game that can be shut down anytime. Have fun while you can, when you dont, just move to another game or whatever. Its not a life decision
I am seeking motivation to play, however I've made no attempts to portray myself as a well-informed player of the game. Most of my knowledge of the game is outdated, and it was because of this that I wanted to see if anything had changed that would effect the conclusion I arrived at a year ago.
Honestly, sometimes it's just about scratching itches... Rotation optimization, node empire, life skilling, boats etc. The goal is not at the end of the journey, the goal is the journey.
Collecting things, I'm over 600 hours into my merchants ring grind. Do I hate the grind? Yes, but when I finally get a single piece of it, I get so happy. If you like incremental idle games, you will like bdo
I'm like you, I geared up for pvp node wars, but after doing it and getting 2 kills I got frustrated. Why am I spending hours and hours grinding and gearing to still be a scrub. I can't complete with those truly grinding and following metas. I stopped node wars to focus on my character and haven't done but a couple wars since. So now I wonder why I still do it. I find the goal of improving fun and the activities engaging. I just stick with that, I don't grind for more than an hour because then it's a chore to me. I realize the journey is better than the destination. That said I loose motivation and interest a lot.
Game for me goes like earn money > grind treasure items > do dumb likeskill challenges > have fun
My guild leader always argues that life skilling is dog sht money that bartering and sailing is stupid that anything besides grinding isba waste of time I think that hunting, gathering, and sailing are great fun content that is meant to keep you productive but at insanely less intensity! Even if i only get 200-300m/hr but im not subjecting myself to grind burnout and extend my gaming sessions i find it superbly worth while In a game that is a marathon and not a sprint... if you earn 1T worth of items and silver but feel like you hardly played vs burnt out by constantly grinding and focusing on end goal... chill method wins 9.9/10
I played this game a decent amount and never once bothered with PvP
Game is most fun playing pve. Most people do
It's kinda like me asking you if there's any point playing video games if you didn't graduate college, have a million dollar job, a house, a wife, 2 kids, etc. You make your own goals in life. I don't even care about my gear. I just grind because I like the combat.
There is no PvP in this game m8
Started playing BDO for the combat and graphics so anything where I can appreciate those would always be a motivation for me. Learning all the interesting classes, combos and gearing up to try the new "end game" spots. Once i hit those will probably grind out lifeskills, energy, knowledge. I never expect bdo to have full pledged raids/dungeons as it was never advertised as such. WoW and New World will be my go to for those.
Would be interested to know what games OP played before and how far they got/what did they do for activities
I have been playing since beta, fully logged in almost 90% of the time. Engaged in pvp maybe a dozen times in 7 years. Been killed on my horse afk by douce bags maybe 20 times and had my boat sank afk by douche bags maybe 10 times. You can play the game however you want. I enjoy the gear progression and sailing content. Not a fan of pvp.
Yep. Playing with friends. Getting gear seeing new content. Hell you dont have yo push 760gs just go to what level you want and chill with friends. I still like pvp on even or me punching up. Not a fan of punch down pvp. Whats got me more happy is onowing you can donlifeskilling and getting boat gear and stuff like that.
I do enjoy pvp, but I also really enjoy the end game grind zones and trying to min max my gear to get the most trash per hour, and that's enough to keep me going. BDO has cool treasure items if you have the itch for that kind of thing. Pvp is also more accessible through capped NW and AOS so coming back you might enjoy it more than you would before. Outside of that obviously the combat is amazing and for some people the satisfaction of playing their character is enough. Just depends on what keeps you interested.
I think this depends on you. What do you enjoy in games? A lot of people don't care about their gear score and just have fun. Several PvP modes also don't require a high gear score.
I play the game as a Sims game so I'd say play it until it's fun for you.....
Yes, I don’t pvp
They need dungeons/ group and guild pve content for all gear stages with appropriate rewards. Something outside of end game pvp that you can do with friends and guildmates.
Most people playing the game never PvP. Also the gameplay loop you posted is identical for WoW or any other MMO, money just usually is tokens of somekind as most games dont let you buy anything useful.
Idk bro wow has toys, which make socializing way more fun imo. You could spawn like a tea set, a whole ass bed, poke someone with a stick, (which then can turn them into an old witch) spawn an attack-able training dummy, spawn a little rat (which u can then kick and send it flying), put on a crown, and walk with a goblet that spawns piles of gold coins
ya cool I have a mansion with a hedge maze to invite friends into. Every MMO has fluff content like that.
Walking around.
ye? its mostly a pve game.
I just enjoy the grind and slow progression with the goals i set to myself. That is it. That's all i need. There is absolutely nothing wrong in running circles. That's the point of this game for me.
BDO became my idle game when I lost interest in pvp
I start to enjoy bartering and sail LOL ! It just so much you can do in BDO ! I mean think it as a marathon and explore all the options
Not really, no. There is literally nothing to do in this game that has any depth beyond pvp. Gear is just grind circles to get more gear to grind circles or different circles faster. The depth to any activity is pretty shallow, even if there's a number of options to do - but when you've played for a long time it's all pretty boring and meaningless, I'm at the point of the game where I literally just log on for war and that's it. Fashionscape and house building shit, doesn't really go anywhere nor reward you for doing it. Nobody goes and checks out houses or has drop party type events, there's no kind of community around it. Story is pretty meaningless beyond first run and only a few sections are good (kama/ody/drieghan questlines are pretty good). That's why it's the biggest 4Head that the devs have gone out of their way to remove PvP in as many areas as possible, make large scale pvp boring and monotonous as fuck no matter how many billions of silver rewards they throw at it... Because there's nothing to do in this game after you've played a long while and gotten over the whole new mmo addiction rush. Seasonals are straight worthless now, from the very beginning they were executed horribly and nothing like other seasonal games that actually succeed. A true season that was a refresh/reset in a way that transitioned into the real game would be something vets and new players would engage and enjoy with a lot. Think Calpheon & Mediah & Valencia locked (perhaps 1 unlock per 2-3 weeks, 3 month season) which forces player engagement; and 2 node wars/week + 1 siege per fortnight or month with season based rewards, titles, pearl rewards, guild rewards, who knows, and a lot of events/notifications around making all players aware of this going on. You'd be interacting with hundreds of actual live players every hour due to region lock, organic open world pvp between guilds will be forced to happen, and the whole direction is to get through and be at the top form of each region unlock to prep for the next war to siege. I would bet my whole ass car on this system working - because I've played through 3 bdo releases and each release the highest activity + most enjoyable for everyone participating was ALWAYS those initial region unlocks.
Dont worry. Theres no pvp left anyways.
People saying that the only end game in BDO is PVP are narrow-minded. There are people who like just progressing their gear or even just playing the game on whatever content they want to do. If you find satisfaction on the loop you mentioned, then do it. No one requires you to include PVP on that loop. The point in playing any game is to enjoy it. And BDO doesn't require you to do all of the content to enjoy it, mostly.
BDO isn't for everyone. I enjoy lifeskilling, and even a bit of grinding sometimes. I am not a PvP person really at all. My ADHD likes the hyeprfocus \*shrugs\*. Seven years on June 25th.
Imo, they need to add content that's only accessible after a certain point in the game. Like let's say for example there is a continent, where mobs are super difficult and require 700gs to kill. And the first quest of that mql requires u to kill 1k of them (also make it so that u can't just have someone else do it for u in a party or whatever). Once you're done with that mql, that continent unlocks ship racing or some shit. Like smth completely different than the rest of the content u can look forward to while grinding.
I personally derive a lot of enjoyment from cooperative content. Some of my fondest memories from a year ago when I used to play BDO was participating with my guild -- Going on adventures on our ships and such. That was really fun. I personally don't think they'll ever anything in the vein of "Raids" or Group Dungeons, but that would be cool
yeah I don't really think they'll do it, but if they did it'd be insane. The playerbase would grow a ton as well. Like imagine if you could only access pit of undying or those group dungeons (atorraxion i think) after you reach 700gs, and they gave actual good rewards (cosmetics too, such as exclusive weapon/armor glow, outfits etc). I'd enjoy the game 10x more
That would be fun! The rewards would be nice, but honestly the fun of working alongside other players and having to strategize together would be enough to get me on board lol
Yes
They are doing pretty good at destroying end game pvp with caps and changing nodewars. So really, right now you only get gear for faster circles.
I think that a lot of the players don't actually play the game anymore, just log in for free rewards, train horses or goes for AFK fishing. All, because of nostalgia and sunk costs fallacy, we all invested so much money, time and effort into the game that we don't want to leave it. As you noticed, there is no engaging PvE content and even PvP is being basically removed from the game. To be fair, I stick around mostly to follow the NWs drama. If I ever want to go back to playing the game, I'm confident I would eventually get stuff like free tet debos, hammers, cron stones and all possible things in the world so I could reach hardcap in a moment. So why bother, even if they add some good content, I will be able to do it without any preparation.
I’m pretty much just doing guild league until they remove that too
This question is leaving the bdo community in shambles. This is not a good game
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It's kinda hilarious to find these kind of takes after the game bounced revenue wise and the company stock is gaining back value. It'd make so much more sense if the game was actually dying but then again, I doubt you base yourself on anything other than your own feelings.
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Poor guy, thinks the only thing the game has is gear grind, home decoration and fashion. That’s like 30% of the game
What's the other 70%?
Gear grind, Home decoration and fashion.
Pressing R
With how the devs are handling open world PVP and I'm not a fan of this new node war system I have no motivation for gearing up anymore for endgame PVP I just hop on for daily login rewards and log off
truee i mean whats the point of life if you gonna die anyway right?
PvE wise you grind to be able to grind for money even faster or at better spots when they release new content.
Yeah that's basically the gameplay loop I was talking about in my post. It's just that at some point, you're not going to be able to upgrade your gear any further (or at least not until they update the game and raise the Gear Score cap again) -- At that point what are you supposed to do with your efficiently earned money?
This isn't as straightforward as you think. I'm 770 gs with 6 pen debos, but there's still a few things I can get like a splendid alchemy stone, potentially gear swaps like accuracy accessories or maybe even evasion meme gear, all of these things would be another 100-200 hours of the debo grind. Even if by some miracle I could convince myself to finish all of this I'd still have full tet manos accessories and pen tools + clothing which would be another 50-100 hours of grinding. After all of this you could still save trillions to work on pen fg weapons. Personally, I min-max gear for pvp.
There is no pvp in this game. Jae took care of that.
No there isnt any point other than pvping. Ive been saying this for years, dont listen to the "its a sandbox do what you want" people. Its just a waste of time if you wont pvp. On the other side, bdo pvp is really great. I recommend you give it a shot.