Gambling is the Real Issue in BDO
Black Desert Online is a MMORPG created and published by Pearl Abyss. This game was primarily released for Korea and Japan in 2015. People In the west grew heavy interest and BDO was released in North and South America as well as Europe and most Middle Eastern countries. The game has always had a thriving player base on pc and now released on console in March of 2019 growing the game even stronger. BDO shines when it comes to combat, as it has a unique free look, combo-oriented combat system which is far from the traditional tab targeting system that most popular MMORPG games have. They knew they were taking a chance on not incorporating a traditional combat system, but it turned out to be the most fun mechanic present in the game as most people play BDO for its chaotic fast paced combat. A huge caveat is that the combat revolves around how good your gear is in most cases. With that being said there is a huge enhancement system in BDO in which will make or break your will to play. RNG plays a huge role in the economy and player progression, however there are heavy pay to win mechanics that incorporate gambling into BDO and that gambling is present not just in item enhancement but also real money investments in this high-stake, economy driven world.
In Black Desert Online gambling and RNG is a game itself. Having a variety of chance in a game that’s main driven goal is to progress is a pinnacle point of choice in any part of game design. In BDO gear is everything and chance can determine if you are one of the most geared or least geared players in the game. Of course, enough time invested, and you will get where you want to be but RNG plays such a large role in this game it is surprising when you break it down and looking into the community, I’m not sure if it is actually a good thing as more and more people are realizing the game revolves around RNG to make the company money. What makes it even more traumatic in the community is how heavy pay to win really is. You can buy items with real money to literally help you enhance your gear and make more silver. People continue to debate whether there are pay to win elements in the game and cash shop, but my consensus after playing the past 5 years as well as investing hundreds of dollars is that there absolutely is. A very important side note I would like to include is that there is a player driven market where you can just strictly buy your gear, which is a guaranteed upgrade, and in which can sometimes save you money if you are unlucky (statistically you will save money in the long run if you buy everything) however people often gamble with their gear because you can save tons of time and silver if you hit it, plus you get a huge adrenaline rush of fun because you did not expect to succeed.
Black Desert Online is remarkably successful at what it does and granted it is a business at the end of the day. “South Korean games firm Pearl Abyss has revealed that its MMO Black Desert Online has generated a whopping $1.7 billion in lifetime revenue” (Calvin). They haven’t made all this money from making fun, creative cosmetics in the past 5 years, they make it off planned in game mechanics of gambling that people continue to invest in. On top of that, the western market is responsible for a huge chunk of their revenue; “40% of the game’s revenue has come from North America and Europe, while 26% was generated in Pearl Abyss’ native South Korea. Other Asian countries, such as Japan and Taiwan, were behind the remaining 34%” (Calvin). I feel as if most players that invest heavily into the game do not fully understand how much the game is actually revolved around getting you to gamble in order to succeed in the game. It is built around numbers and those numbers get significantly harder to win and more expensive very quickly while progressing through the game. These people dropping hundreds of dollars per week on this game just to get a dopamine hit when they hit an enhancement is a bit mind boggling to me especially knowing that some people invest tens of thousands of dollars and play the game for less than a year.
Although many people are conflicted with the amount of RNG present in the game, at the end of the day it is obvious that it keeps players playing. As a reference, BDO`s enhancement system in a nutshell is as follows, 0, +1, +2, +3…etc to +15 and then PRI, DUO, TRI, TET, PEN. A TRI ring of the Crescent Guardian will have a 40% chance on a 45-enhancement stack level. Enhancement stacks you get from failing other enhancements as well as rewards for playing the game. There are items called cron stones that you can use to keep your item from downgrading or breaking. Cron stones are highly sought after and are the driving force of using real money to enhance as it significantly saves you time and money in game.
Up until Summer of 2019, enhancement percentages were not even present in the game and BDO released in December of 2014. In the past you had to estimate using the enhancement stacks to gauge your percentage but you really did not know what your odds were of success vs failure, but with tons of research and tests done by the community, people developed charts in order to figure out what enhancement chances to use on what enhancement levels and types of gear so you at least were not totally shooting in the dark anymore. Showing enhancement percentages was probably one the best additions to the game to date as the RNG mechanic of upgrading gear is so complex already.
Most people are average players that control their finances, mental health, and time but for some people, their lives revolve around video games and sometimes just one. The problem with that is there can become a boiling point and there can be actual life-threatening consequences for some people when they invest so heavily into something. “A lot of players have actually quit the game because of how gear progression works — trust me, having an enhancing session feels like you’re gambling away your house, your career and your whole life” (Babalon). This feeling gets even more extreme the more time you put in and there are tons of players out there who have tens of thousands of dollars invested as well as over 4 years of time.
As of late things have been getting even more dicey with people complaining about RNG in the game of BDO. Pearl Abyss, the developers of the game, have recently introduced RNG boxes into the Pearl Shop which is where you can purchase items with real money. When I was reading the patch notes I was actually surprised they included the percentages on all the items that you could possibly get but as I dug deeper and talked to some people in the community, it is required in certain countries like Belgium to provide percentile data for such digital items that you obtain at a random chance that you paid for with real money. Two years ago, the Belgian Gaming Commission began to ban loot boxes and gambling in video games. Although some countries do not support gambling Pearl Abyss found ways of working around the system to continue to incorporate RNG boxes and items into those servers, which just continues to show how much they rely on the mechanics of chance for revenue. “We have already taken numerous measures to protect both minors and adults against the influence of, among other things, gambling advertising,” Koen Geens said, who is the minister of justice. “That is why we must also ensure that children and adults are not confronted with games of chance when they are looking for fun in a video game (Yin-Poole).”
To conclude, BDO wouldn’t be the same game without the amount of RNG that is incorporated into it. It makes it a unique, competitive style of game and in which increases that extra want to play each and every time you both succeed or fail. Overall the success of the game is heavily related to the design choice when it comes to RNG in the game of BDO and anyone that gets hooked into the game would most likely have a consensus of RNG surrounding their reason to play.
Works Cited
“Black Desert Online Review.” Altar of Gaming, 28 May 2020, altarofgaming.com/blackdesert-online-review/.
2020, Alex CalvinThursday 10th September. “Black Desert Online Has Made $1.7bn in Revenue to Date.” GamesIndustry.biz,https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020- 09–10-black-desert-online-has-made-usd1–7bn-in-revenue-to-date.
Yin-Poole, Wesley. “Now Belgium Declares Loot Boxes Gambling and Therefore Illegal.” Eurogamer.net, Eurogamer.net, 27 Apr. 2018, https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-04-25-now-belgium-declares-loot-boxesgambling-and-therefore-illegal.
