Hello, Adventurers!

Black Desert has come a long way thanks to the love and support of our Adventurers.

As we look back, we can see how meaningful this has been journey.

On 4/21/2018 (Sat) we hosted Voice of Adventurers in the Philippines to hear what our Adventurers want to say to us.

We got to look back on the last 100 days of Black Desert, have a Q & A session with our Adventurers, and play mini-games for fantastic prizes!

Thank you Adventurers that came out to this event and showed passion hotter than the weather outside on the event day.

Here are some pictures of that passionate day!

Let’s check it out!

◆ VOA - Hotter than a day in Southeast Asia!

▶ It’s good to see our Adventures' bright smiles!

▶ Each and every question asked by our Adventurers was important to us!

◆ Q & A

Q & A was a crucial for us during the Voice of Adventurers event!

The whole reason why Black Desert flew over to the Philippines was to have an open discussion with our Adventurers. We took a look at the questions and suggestions sent to us on the application forms for this event.

We picked a few questions to answer during the Q & A session.

Here are the question and answers that were given that day for the Adventurers that wanted know!

Q) What motivated you to develop Black Desert and where did you draw inspiration to make such a game?

We wanted to create a AAA quality MMORPG when we started working on Black Desert. We wanted show something that was entirely new and outside of conventional experience such as the level of detail in the game’s character quality, background design, etc. The Black Desert system itself was designed so that users felt like they were living in it, interacting and empathizing with their characters as you play the game.

As we worked and developed games together for over 10 years, we were confident that we could develop such a game and we supported each other to that goal.

We drew inspiration from all the games that we personally played (action games, famous simulation games, successful RPGs and a wide variety of games as well as all the games that we created together such as RYL, R2, and C9) and Black Desert was a culmination of these experiences. However, we still feel that we could improve the game and will continue to do so.



Q) Do you plan to add large-scale boss raids or instance dungeons to the game? If so, are there any plans for an attack party system for these potential game contents?

We always develop the game with all possibilities in mind, but currently there are no discussions to add such content. We’re currently focusing on how we can bring out what makes each hunting spot unique and enjoyable to the user.





Q) How many classes do you plan to release in the end?

When we first opened, we never imagined that there would be creating so many characters. We ended up with so many because Adventurers reacted positively to being able to play new class types.

Although we do think that part of the fun is getting to play new classes, we don’t think we can continue to create a never-ending list of new classes. Each class must have their unique style and features that makes the user want to play that character. If we are confident that we have an idea that satisfies this requirement, there may be more character classes in the future.

We do feel that it is unlikely that a huge number of new classes will be released in the future. However, we will continue to work on improving the enjoyment of existing content to raise player satisfaction and playability.



Q) Do you really have a higher chance of winning the bid if you bid on an item in the marketplace first? Or is it purely based on RNG?

The bidding system is applied to everyone equally. So the order of bidding doesn’t affect your chances of winning the bid.





Q) What do you think about a PvE server? Are you considering PvE servers for those that don’t want to play PvP?

Black Desert has a wide variety of game contents and users are free to play however they choose which adds to the game overall.

Like those that only hunt, fish, farm, train horses, etc, there are also those Adventurers who enjoy PvP content. We understand that many of you may feel inconvenienced by these PvP Adventurers as well.

In Black Desert, by default, there are penalties incurred naturally if users choose to PvP. This is because having low Karma will affect your character negatively.



These severe PvP penalties act as a primary shield from indiscriminate PK. Additionally there are other mechanisms in place to counter the effects of PvP such as guild member escorts, free server to server transferring, hunting grounds with various special features, so you don’t have to deal with PvP all the time. As such there are no specific discussions for additional measures that will be taken against PvP at this time.



Q) We would like to see a better focused storyline. Currently, NPCs and other game characters are introduced without much background. We want to see more of the Black Desert storyline reflected in NPC backstories, quests, and the overall game experience.

The storyline will gradually be improved upon. We’re currently working on re-doing the tutorial and the story at the early stages of the game where your first few choices can affect some of the narrative in compartmentalized ways. This will be done with the goal to improve user engagement in the game’s story overall. We will work on creating intuitive and versatile ways to increase the Adventurers’ enjoyment of the story.





Q) Transferring items between characters in the same family is difficult. Oversea transportation is also inconvenient.

We want to give our Adventurers the feeling they are living inside Black Desert. Of course, it can cause some inconveniences and some of them will be fixed along the way. At first there were no plans to create a system to move items between characters, but now we can use the storage. There also was a patch recently that allows Adventurers to easily see storage in other towns. We will continue to work on improving these system so please send us your opinions.

Q) Patch updates are too frequent and fast.

Some of you feel that it’s too fast, and some think it’s too slow. Thus we try to consider the most convenient timing for all users. We try to make use of all our past experiences running different servers around the world and analyzing internal data as well. Our goal is to have the same game contents released simultaneously with the Korean server within the next year. This way we can show you our latest developments through new patches. Please continue to give us feedback about the frequency and speed of the game updates so that we can consider them as we move towards this goal.





Q) Please add new maps. There’s a lot of high-level players and it’s hard to find hunting grounds without a lot of PK. It’s hard for low-level users to level up.

It’s true that we cannot accommodate all Black Desert Adventurers with only Mediah Part 2. To resolve this, we sped up the release of Valencia to 4/26 (Thu) and are currently working on releasing Valencia Part 2 as soon as possible.Also, there only used to be 3 servers at launch but now there are 9 servers, and the number will keep growing as we move forward. We expect this to lower player crowding in growth chokepoints.





Q) Using cannons in Node/Conquest War should be made easier

Cannons are conventional and useful siege weapons. They have long range and high firepower that can be used to inflict damage on enemy forts and annexes, but aren’t that easy to use. To be more specific, it’s not that they are hard to use, but are hard to hit the target with.



Internally, we have discussed how to resolve this issue but over time the discussion has become irrelevant.



This is because over time many guilds developed cannon specialists that are experts at operating these cannons. These cannon specialists have been very important in Node/Conquest Wars, and we feel that we should think and assess the situation before we suddenly make the cannons easier to use which would diminish the roles that these specialists play within their guilds.

Q) There should be a mode to turn off other users (to not see other users within the game)

Black Desert has a wide range of optimization features available.You have the option of adjusting these features according to your own PC specs to allow smoother gameplay. One of these features allows you to press Shift + F5 which will hide the other Adventurers from view. Please check out the features and use the ones that you find convenient.

Q) We want a more strict enforcement of bot and macros restricted from the game.

We are currently monitoring and enforcing bans against individuals that use illegal programs and macros. Not only that, we are planning on shutting down developers and distributors of such programs through the bot-free clean play event, that will be coming in the future. We are also investigating ways to use reports sent in by users as a means to ban them. Please help us create a better gaming environment.

Q) Can there be male/female versions for each class?

As you can imagine, creating new character classes can take a lot of time and resources. You will surely know if you’ve played the game that currently the game does not support male/female version of the same class. However, there are class pairs that are similar but with different concepts that could be considered male/female counterparts such as Warrior/Valkyrie, Musa/Maehwa, Ninja/Kunoichi, Witch/Wizard. We will continue to develop more classes that you want to play and depending on the class, we may consider similar pairings if appropriate.



Q) Will there be a colosseum style 1:1 battle mode? If so, will other users be able to watch?

Team Battle is currently open right now, so you can use it to play 1:1 battles. Also, the Arena of Arsha will open in the near future that will also add many new PvP formats to the game for all to watch.



Q) Non-participating users can’t land hits anywhere during Conquest Wars. Can you change this?

We are contemplating changes to many parts of Conquest War. Node/Conquest Wars must be held under fair conditions to stop any sort of abuse. In this sense, the rules may be a bit tight and we ask for your understanding. However, if you have any suggestions to improve Conquest War, please feel free to let us know through 1:1 Customer Support tickets and we will consider them.



Q) Users who have a lot of storage have a hard time finding their stored items. Can you add a system to search items inside storage quickly?

Thanks for your great idea. On top of being able to view items in storage located in another towns, we will consider adding in a search function as well.

Q) We want an alliance system to make alliances before war.

Black Desert doesn’t support alliances between guilds at this time. We plan to keep the current system to create fair competition. However, guilds will be able to form alliances as long as the alliance doesn’t exceed 100 members at the start of a new season of Conquest War.

Q) Is Pearl Abyss interested in entering the Esports industry using PvP systems like Arena of Arsha that has been released in other countries?

Yes, Black Desert has great PvP contents and systems. Out of those, the Arena of Arsha is being prepared to be used for league/tournament style play. It hasn’t been that long since the release of awaking in Southeast Asia. After the users get some time to adjust to their awakened characters, we will start hosting PvP tournaments in Southeast Asia. We look forward to watching fun online/offline PvP matches. There aren’t any plans as of yet, but there are talks about the possibility of a global Arena of Arsha tournament. It’ll be an awesome day when all the users of the world can connect with each other talking about Black Desert.

Q) What do you think about creating outfits using different countries as a theme?

That is a great suggestion but it’s a difficult task to fit those themes into the setting of Black Desert. If there is ever an opportunity to pursue such outfits, we will definitely look into it. Thank you so much for sharing your opinion.

Q) There is too much lag during the peak hours. Is there any plans to install new servers? We want to know if you are investigating any solutions for this problem.

Lag happens sporadically and sometimes the server might be unstable. We really put a lot of effort before Black Desert official launch so it pains us to see this. We are toiling away day and night to monitor our servers and test it to see what we can do to improve on this current situation. The current servers are being optimized and we will be adding servers to provide smoother gameplay.

Q) Can you make official infographics about combat and life activities? It will make it much easier to introduce and explain the game to friends. There are lots of new users that gives up on Black Desert because they have a hard time understanding the game.

Black Desert has a wide variety of contents to explore. This can be overwhelming for some new Adventurers. Game guides are being provided as Wikis and GM Notes. We will work on making them easier to understand in the future. We are also trying to take care of new users. Please continue to invite your friends to play Black Desert as we continue to make it easier for new users to learn the game.





Q) Balance changes need to be made for different classes. It’s come to a point where users only play the stronger classes while some of the weaker ones barely seen.

Balancing classes is difficult to perfect, but it is being worked on. Hopefully there will be smaller gaps between classes as we are continue to make balance patches. This may cause changes in certain play patterns. Please send us your feedback about what

you think about the changes and we will try to apply them in future patches.

Q) Don’t change the game because of what the users are telling you. The reason why Black Desert is fun is because of the current system. Many of the users will surely be disappointed if the game changes and feels different from what it used to be.

Thank you for your opinion. Black Desert is trying to improve by listening to opinions from Adventurers around the world. That’s because we feel it’s important for our Adventurers to enjoy the game. There are many factors that needs to be considered before implementing new ideas into the game so a lot of thought goes into seeing if the idea works with Black Desert. Additionally, Black Desert is an online game. Fresh and fun ideas are necessary while the game is being serviced. This could cause some changes to how the game was played before. Please send us your feedback if this happens. It will be of great help to us as we develop the game even further.





Q) We want Black Desert to continue on for a long time and also for there to be a lot of promotions for users to enjoy (e.g. Have an event where the GM takes the lead to defeat a special boss).

We are working hard to keep servicing Black Desert globally in all fronts, not just keep servicing it for 1~2 years but for 10 years or more. We were also touched by all the support that our Adventurers showed us during the TGIF GM

events. We plan on making more events like this in the future. Please share it with us if you have any great ideas for events.





Q) Can you tell us the world boss spawn times? Like in other games, could you display the spawn times or a general time frame that the world bosses will appear? (e.g. Kzaraka will appear between 10-11 PM)

We know how inconvenient this is for our Adventurers and we are currently working on a solution. We will try to get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.





Q) We want to see Black Desert come out to more conventions, exhibitions, and offline events.

Voice of Adventurers is the first offline event that we have planned. It was a great experience for us to meet with you directly. We will continue to come out to listen to what our Adventurers have to say. Please continue to show us your interest and support the next time we plan an event like this. We will also try our best to be able to meet players at conventions and game shows.





Q) We are trying to invite friends to play with us, but they can’t play because they are not able to go through the payment process. Not a lot of people in our countries use credit cards and there aren’t a lot of other way to buy packages. Could you consider making a prepaid card that we can buy in convenience stores?

We do understand that making payments can be difficult and we are currently looking into easier methods. First off, we are making a guide for users on how to use E-pin. E-pin is available in a wide variety of stores which should make it accessible to more users. Later, we will look into easier ways of making purchases, like convenience stores.

We has a lot of concerns while planning for this event.

However, we were glad to meet our Adventurers in person to get this opportunity to talk.

Once again, thank you Adventurers for attending this event and to all our passionate Adventurers that continue to send us questions and suggestions!

We will continue to carefully listen to what our Adventurers have to say and communicate with them openly.

Thank you.