Black Desert

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11 entries. 6,402 words.

November, 2013

  • Black Desert?. 2013-11-21 7:01 PM.
    • MMORPG

    We all know that blockbuster MMOs EQ Next/Landmark (the minecraft one), WildStar (the cartoon one), and The Elder Scrolls Online (the D&D one) are “coming soon.” But a while back some posts I saw about a Korean-made MMO called Black Desert caught my eye. I hadn’t heard of it before, so I did some investigation. ( That means I went to Wikipedia .) Wikipedia says it’s a “sandbox-oriented” MMO, but I’m not entirely sure what that means. The Black Desert site itself says it will be “focused on Sandbox Features, PvP and PvE.” Again, that’s about as vague as it gets. I’m not even sure it’s going to be available in English-speaking countries. I’ve got to think that since they made an English web page, they’re planning an English version of the game. 160 words.

March, 2015

  • On The Radar For 2015. 2015-03-30 3:00 PM.
    • MMORPG
    • Musings
    • Pre-Release
    • Predictions

    Last time I did this. Note that some games aren’t on the following list because I have either a) forgotten about them, or b) never heard of them. MMORPGs I’m Looking Forward To These are games that I’m still anxiously awaiting the opportunity to play, because I haven’t yet seen or heard anything to wreck my enthusiasm. Black Desert. I keep seeing good things. Skyforge. I keep hearing good things. 799 words.

March, 2016

  • Black Desert Cash Shop. 2016-03-10 4:00 PM.
    • MMORPG
    • Responses

    On the subject of the Black Desert cash shop, I agree that it’s a little steep. Or perhaps I should say that you don’t get enough in-game value for the money you spend. I’ll get to the specifics later. First I want to highlight something I think is good about the BDO cash shop: They don’t shove it in your face in every window that comes up. There’s no popup window when you login that shows you all the sales and exhorts you to “Go buy stuff now!” If I didn’t know there was a cash shop, I might have totally overlooked that Pearl Store button in settings. That alone is worth the $30 admission. 1,136 words.
  • Black Desert Online. 2016-03-11 4:00 PM.
    • MMORPG
    • Reviews

    TLDR; I’m enjoying Black Desert Online, and I think it’s worth $30. If you like crafting, it’s well worth $30. It’s not your grandfather’s MMORPG, though, and it takes some time to get used to it. I mentioned on Twitter that I didn’t understand why people were drawn to The Division, and it occurred to me that I should explain why I’m drawn to Black Desert Online, in case anyone is looking at the BDO hype and scratching their heads. 1,190 words.
  • Finally, The Debate Is Settled. 2016-03-17 2:18 AM.
    • MMORPG
    • Musings

    I’m so glad this debate is finally settled, so we won’t need to go over it again in any future MMORPGs. 21 words.
  • Is Black Desert Online Alt-Friendly?. 2016-03-22 1:17 AM.
    • MMORPG
    • Musings

    I’ve been thinking about alts in BDO. I saw a lot of comments early on about how alt-friendly it is, but I disagree. When I think of an alt-friendly game, I think of a game where each alt has a different gameplay experience. So that if you get tired of playing with one character, you can log in with another to see or do something completely different. The most famous example of that is, of course, WoW, where every race has a different starting zone and their own storyline for 20 levels or so. SWTOR might be an even better example, since those class stories go all the way up to level 50 I think. Rift is very alt-friendly to me because of the wide variety of playstyles you can put together with the soul system. 338 words.
  • The Weight of Black Desert Online. 2016-03-23 12:14 AM.
    • MMORPG
    • Status

    I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s accounts of their adventures in Black Desert Online, mainly because I feel like I haven’t done much “adventuring” in the game yet (by which I mean exploration). I’ve spent most of my time with my head down, running and riding back and forth between NPCs to finish “Life” quests. It’s a bottomless pit if you follow that route. I don’t think the quests ever end. And they are all essentially tutorial quests, teaching you how to make more and more stuff. Don’t know what this is but it doesn’t matter because I need ash tree sap and pig’s blood. 437 words.

April, 2016

  • Low Energy Gaming Week in Review. 2016-04-09 11:24 PM.
    • MMORPG
    • Status
    • Steam

    The past couple of weeks have been really trying at work. I’m in the process of training other developers, writing documentation, and frantically trying to tie up loose ends before moving to another project in May. It involves spending pretty much all day every day doing things that I’m not particularly good at, i.e. interacting with people, leading, making decisions, and generally trying to be a role model for everyone who stares at me with big round eyes wondering what to do after I’m gone. It feels a bit like acting in a play. 611 words.

December, 2016

  • The Prestigious Endgame Viable Awards 2016. 2016-12-22 4:00 PM.
    • MMORPG
    • Single-Player
    • Steam

    It occurred to me that the end of the year is approaching, and it’s time to do one of those year-end posts that bloggers love to do. Unfortunately I kind of hate doing them. It’s a lot of work. You have to actually look things up and think and count and multiply and divide and things like that. That goes against my normal principal of blogging by “just typing words into a text editor.” 690 words.
  • Most Played Games In 2016. 2016-12-29 4:13 PM.
    • MMORPG
    • Status

    It took a little more effort to calculate my most-played games in 2016, because I changed PCs in the middle of the year. But the results are now in, and the number one positions were just what I guessed they would be. (This data was gathered on December 24, 2016. I’ve pretty much only played Morrowind since then, although I played a couple hours of Elder Scrolls Online as well.) 363 words.

August, 2018

  • Where Exactly Is This Battle? – Blaugust 24. 2018-08-24 6:26 PM.
    • MMORPG

    Stormsong Valley This is going to get me into trouble, but I’m already bored with Battle for Azeroth. I didn’t even play yesterday. It’s basically a continuation of Legion, and … well, I already played Legion. The story that got me interested in the first place is nowhere to be seen. There is no “battle for Azeroth” taking place in the Battle for Azeroth expansion, as far as I can tell, at least through level 115. I knew this was going to happen, and I fell for the hype anyway. 657 words.