I love love LOVE Black Desert Online so prepare yourself for tl;dr. I mean it, this is going to be really disorganized. Grab a snack and a nice drink to help you get through this.



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BDO has a lot going for it--meaning that there are a lot of different things you can focus on doing--which means that the learning curve is steep. I began playing it after my boyfriend was trying it out and even with him warning me about the learning curve, it still hit me hard and I had to take lots of breaks from it.

The character creation and customization is ridiculous. I spent a few hours making my character when I started and I loved it. The only thing I want to warn you is that some of the classes are sex-restricted. They're since made different sex counterparts to some of them, like there is now a Sorceress for the Wizard, but it still sucks that you can't click on a class and then select the sex.
The combat is really fun in that it handles exactly like a fighting game! But that means there are combos to memorize, but they're easily accessible if you're forgetful like me.

You can capture and tame your own horse, breed them, sell them, buy armor for them, make armor for them. Not to mention you can also ride camels, elephants, and, if you're a Tamer like my main, you can eventually ride a giant feline-monster-thing with kind of a human face.

You can craft, cook, do alchemy, fish, gather plants, drain blood from almost all of your enemies (because who doesn't like putting 30 goat blood on the market?? makes you feel like a badass), mine, have your own little farm, buy your own house AND decorate it and invite friends over to chill, dye your clothes.. the list goes on, man. There's so much to do that it's hard to feel bored, plus the game admins (or whatever you call them) usually have some kind of event going on everything month which adds another thing to do, like this month if you're logged in a certain amount of time, you get crafting goodies.

Also fun to mention that you can buy or make your own DAMN SHIP which is pretty awesome. And then you can sail your ship to places ONLY ACCESSIBLE VIA SHIP and explore. You can also fish off of them which is???? really cool to me??

The story and lore is intricate, but I'm one of those weird people who hardly ever pays attention to that, so don't ask me how good it is lmao. I've heard it's good, though! And the cutscenes are always interesting.

The quests are varied and pretty fun, though the auto-pathing sometimes gets in the way of getting from point A to B for quests. I'll auto-path and walk away to do some errands and come back to find my dumbass horse is stuck on a pole or something and we've traveled, like, a yard.

Not to mention that the game world is HUGE and open. You can go pretty much anywhere you want, though I have run into an invisible wall, like, once since I started playing. I think it was a level restriction but also I have a tendency to climb mountains and I think that part of the game I was trying to explore hadn't been built yet.

A drawback my boyfriend has found recently now that he's near level 60 is that the PVP crowd are nasty, but it's fair to mention that you only run into them in the higher levels. They'll kill other players for no reason in the areas that allow it. And I really mean it when I say that there is no reason to do it, other than maybe hogging an enemy spawn to yourself, but there's hardly ever a really unique enemy that people can hog, so...? Yeah. The game has "karma" built into it, and killing another player is a serious blow to your karma which does actually harm you (I think it increases your chances of losing your items/having them break when you die?), so I really don't know why anybody would do it.

I can't speak toward how good the RP community is. There is an RP chat channel, but people will literally yell at you if you enter it and they'll tell you to get out. Idk, I guess it's a joke? It's kind of like "get out of that channel, nobody goes in there, you weirdo!" Speaking of that, the community in BDO is a little standoffish, you could say, but you could also say that they're kind of rude. I honestly don't play MMOs to make friends or chat, so I have the chat off except for the general, which is almost always quiet.


It's a SUPER fun MMO, I'd highly recommend it despite its learning curve, rude PVPers in the higher levels, and weird sex restrictions in the character classes. Also, dude, I'd play with you! I need to make a second character because certain things are family bound--when you create a character, you choose their "family name" which is basically a tag to let people know who plays the character, and any subsequent characters you create will have that same family name--and I need to use that to my advantage on a lower level character, so yea! I'd be able to jump on a lower level character to help you with early quests.

I personally couldn't get into it ;; Only MMO's I play now are WoW and GW2

@Holly/Corgi leg (hehe)

The game packs, if you're talking about these, give you the full game permanently and lots of neat additions, including a guest pass that you can give to somebody who wants to try out the game for 7 days.

[edit]

I forgot to mention something important! The game graphics tend to be.. uh, I don't know how to say it. Hard on your average graphics card? Graphically intense? I'd really recommend looking into the game specs. I have to play it on low graphical settings and seeing my boyfriend run it on medium to high settings is a drag. The game still runs well and looks gorgeous on low settings, but it's not as pretty :^P

FishBiscuit,
That does all sound great, and my new lappy SHOULD be able to handle it. I was a bit irked about the sex restrictions though. I prefer playing males (though I will occasionally play a female) so the ranger being female only annoyed me. And you'll get grumpy PvPers anywhere you go so that doesn't bother me.

I think between you and couple of others I'm convinced to at least try it. Though, do you think the Explorer's Pack is worth it or should I just stick with the $5 Starters?

And I would absolutely love to play with you. I find it hard to be on at the same time as people so more people to play with would be great. That goes for any other games too. <3 We should add each other on Discord. ^^

Wake!!!!
Play wiff me. ;3;

Soli,
Well, you can always GW2 with me<3

Wildrose,
Of course, when you get it we can play too if you'd like. ^^

i've heard and seen some pretty convincing evidence that they'll be making an equivalent class for each sex. so there should be a male version of the current ranger coming out some time in the future.


definitely worth it imo! having a horse to start out with is ssssuper nice as is the horse whistle and all the other perks tbh. you can get by easily enough without them but i think everything you get is very much worth it.

Hraeth,
That's good to know, thank you. ^^<3 And yah, I think I'll go with the Explorer pack.

FishBiscuit,
Yah, I like rangers too, they're usually my second choice. Though truthfully I normally play sneakysneaky and healers more. So my first is likely going to be a Ninja to start. But I don't know, I need to learn more about the classes first before making a final decision on the first.


Fish, Wildrose,
And yes, let's make a discord group. :3 I'll buy and download the game right before I head to bed tonight.

Edit,
Should I go ahead and make the Discord group or is someone already doing that? : o

It doesn't seem to be working for me unless I'm doing it wrong? : o
And I don't think Fish and I are friended on Skype.

FishBiscuit,
Haha, thanks. Though it'd probably be best just to have me on Discord. Skype doesn't always work for me. I only even keep it for a few people that only have Skype and no other way for me to get in contact with them. Though you are still welcome to add me. I use the lolCoyote one anymore.