Playing Black Desert Online is fun and adventurous. The endless list of activities keeps the interest in the game from dying down. The ability to buy is a notable feature in Black Desert Online. There are many items you can buy from the shop in Black Desert Online. Some of these items include cosmetics, gears, artisan memory, and whole others.
Nevertheless, because you can buy many things from online stores, many keen observers of the game have wondered if it gives players an undue edge. Is Black Desert Online really a pay-to-win game? We will consider that argument in this article.
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Pay-to-Win; What Does It Mean?
Pay-to-win games are frowned upon in the modern world. It simply means buying to have an undue advantage over other players of the game. In a pay-to-win game, players who refuse to pay have little or no chance of winning against a player that has thrown real cash at it.
It’s very opposite; free to play, as it regards gaming, is a game fair enough that each of the players has a chance of really winning it irrespective of the money spent. The more skillful the players are, the more likely to win a free-play game. However, the player that spends the most cash is the likely player to win the pay-to-win game. So is Black Desert Online a pay-to-win or a free-to-play game?
Reasons Why Black Desert Online Is a Free to Play Game
- Buying does not guarantee a win: This is one of the vital pieces of evidence people make in support of Black Desert Online as a free-to-play game. Every player has to grind. You need skill and also need to understand the rules of the game to progress. You may buy gear and other expensive items, but if you do not understand the rules of the game, you stand no chance of winning with your bought items. It also takes skills to buy in BDO. You need to learn ‘fail to stack’ to be able to buy properly.
- Most of the items at the shop can be acquired without spending real money: This is strong evidence put forward in support of Black Desert Online as a free-to-play game. You can acquire any of those items at the shop by fulfilling missions, completing quests, obtaining daily rewards, digging, loyalty points, and other activities. You are not pressured to buy anything in BDO. Granted, buying can aid you in progressing faster if you know what to buy, how to buy, how to use what you bought, but that does not mean that a player that chooses not to buy does not stand any chance against you.
- Buying and selling in Black Desert Online follow the economic law of demand and supply: Buying and selling in Black Desert Online follow economics, whereby some items are scarce in supply and high in price. Most of the items with a real chance of putting layers ahead in BDO are scarce in supply. Some players have searched for important items like pets, artisan memory, Value Park and still not buy them for months. If it is a buy to win the game, as some have argued, these items will be easily bought where and when needed.
- The presence of soft cap: Any item you buy at the BDO online shop may give you an incremental advantage attacking or defensive-wise. However, once you reach the soft cap or the diminishing point, such an advantage ceases to exist. It is only a pure skill that will help you escape the soft cap and progress to the next level. This shows that you can buy artisan memory to progress faster, but no amount of spending will help you escape from it once you reach a soft cap. You need the skill to advance. Buying artisan memory can help you reach soft cap faster. However, once you reach a soft cap throwing all the money, you can serve no good.
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Conclusion
Due to the presence of a market in Black Desert Online whereby you can buy items with your real money, many argue that Black Desert Online is a pay-to-win game. Items like artisan memory and pets can give players noticeable advantages and add weight to that point of view. The presence of a soft cap in BDO and the fact that players can get those items at the shop otherwise have added weight to the fact that Black Desert Online is not a pay-to-win game but instead a free-play game.
