Summarizing my opinion of Black Desert is not something easily transcribed for me personally. I have been playing this game since it's western inception back in 2016 and now across multiple serviced regions. Along the way there have been MANY hurdles to overcome, from the classic Australian connection experience, to horrible ex-publisher nightmares from Kakao Games who were so blindly incompetent they may as well have been some idiot trying to climb over a glass wall to see what's behind the entire time. But there are so many reasons as to why this game deserves an enormous amount of praise and respect for what the developers and community have achieved over the many years of service.

A big hurdle I have had to jump over along with a majority amount of the community is the game often being paired with a joke or series of mindless complaints about how terrible something is. A lot of people don't seem to realise just how lucky we are to have this game in it's previous and current form. This issue has bled outside the community bubble and has affected the outside opinion of what is an absolutely fantastic experience that I think deserves a better understanding rather than a spread of misinformation. Just like any other MMORPG it has flaws and is far from a perfect. But a fair few people in the MMO community just jump on the band wagon and let others think for them instead. This game is anything but predictable in it's execution and personally I love that because it challenges every idea that people have for an MMO world. The developers actively try to step away from the same formulaic strategies we all grow tired of and that in turn removes the inevitable brick wall finish line that most MMORPG's suffer from. A far more common occurrence these days which only serves to make things feel like a pointless chore.

It's not for everyone and I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it is, but it's so much more than people inside and out of the community make it out to be. Looking back on how the game looked and played back in 2016 is just night and day. It may as well be an entirely new game at this point. Originally marketed as a open world PVP MMO experience, Black Desert's scope has expanded so far past it's original concept nowadays that it really can't be labelled just one thing anymore. The amount of mind blowing updates and solutions to issues that the developers have implemented over the years still baffles me. Intelligent solutions you could only dream possible in most other MMO's.

Account Progression
- Nothing is ever made useless in this game including new chase items and end game gear
- Everything you build on your character gear wise is continuously relevant and upgrade-able
- Expansions and updates never send your account progression backwards
- Taking long or short breaks from the game have no consequences at all
- No endless to-do-list of daily quests forcing you to make alt characters to get ahead
Monetisation
- Most items available for purchase are purely pay for convenience
- Everything you can buy for convenience is never made redundant and is always relevant
- Cosmetics that you may buy and dislike later are recyclable for gear enhancing
- Items only accessible through monetisation are handed out for free on a regular basis
Gameplay Loops
- Old and new systems are consistently worked on to alleviate friction between players
- 90% of this game is extremely single-player friendly and rewarding
- Group content is a focus currently with dungeons and monster zones to enjoy with your friends being constantly expanded upon every new patch and expansion

Graphically this game is on par, if not better than most MMORPG's currently available in today's market and it's always been funny to me as to why this seems to annoy some people. I'm not sure why this is the case, but hoping for this game to be dethroned of it's insane graphical fidelity just makes no sense to me. No it wont be for everyone, not all the gameplay loops and mechanics will interest (stubborn close minded) people. But this game looks criminally gorgeous for just how much it has on offer to it's players. I think people should consider spending less time hoping for an MMO to be outdone by the next horribly made, shallow WoW clone and maybe spend more time giving things a shot for longer than 5 minutes.

Combat in this game is unlike any other MMORPG available, and I find myself disappointed every time I set foot in a new MMORPG experience because of it. Nothing lives up to it's standard unless you were to sit down and start playing an actual fighting game just for it's combat experience. The ridiculous amount of classes the game offers doesn't punish you for learning a new class either, as trying something new tends to come more naturally once you understand the combo nature of the game. Familiar keys and combinations are shared across all available classes and give you that sense of familiarity even between different sets of play styles. Growing from there is just a never ending sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as you never stop learning new things about your class and how to improve. There is nothing quite like literally being able to juggle your opponent with perfect button execution in an open world MMORPG environment.

The new player experience however is still extremely overwhelming and confusing to most people who pick up the game right now. Alerts in this game are extremely invasive and have given people the impression akin to a mobile game UI spam experience which is so far from the truth. This is something the community has been asking from the developers to fix for quite some time now as it's one of the only remaining things affecting the new player experience negatively to a point where people give up far to easily.

You can alleviate these issues yourself by doing the following through in-game settings:
[1] Press Escape
[2] Open Settings Menu
[3] Enter General Settings
[4] Enter Alerts Tab
[5] Turn Off Everything
This issue is frustrating for players so I hope this helps someone see past surface level.

Something that also relates to new player experience is useless item clutter. This game has been around for quite a number of years now and it shows it's age in very frustrating and confusing ways. Specifically around the starting areas with the main story quest. This ESPECIALLY affects new players who are just trying to get their head straight with what exactly what's going on and literally have no idea what to do with the 42,069 items clogging their inventory. Most of which are completely useless and only offer confusion to new players as to whether or not they should hold onto everything they get or pickup.

However even after all those issues, the developers have been putting in a massive amount of work to help new and old players enjoy the experience. Despite what people may say about this game being "impossible to progress without spending", I can assure you it's all complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and misinformation. This game is so far from ♥♥♥♥, the game developers have been consistently patching and updating this game every Wednesday for the past few years that almost all money arguments can be written off as redundant and outdated at this point.

You will literally get lost in this game for years just jumping from one new discovery to the next. Thoughtful monster zone mechanics, story driven dungeons with high levels of complexity, expanding PVP content for new and old players, rare and useful items to collect and chase, free world expansion patches available to all players, life skill content to escape the mundane and an extremely rewarding experience for both solo and group players alike.

Rated RNG/10 - This is the best MMO available on the market hands down because biased as ♥♥♥♥.