'Black Desert Online' news: Pay to win controversy sparks again with introduction of new item
"Black Desert Online" is giving its players another reason to desert the game, as the developers have introduced a new item in the in-game market that gives quite a considerable advantage for real-world money.
The massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) is adding the Blessing of Kamasylve item that can be purchased in the Pearl Shop of the western version of "Black Desert Online." This item boosts loot gain by 20 percent, meaning players who bought it have better chances of acquiring more valuable and elusive loot by spending more money.
This kicked off quite a storm of accusations from the western player base of "Black Desert Online," where they have dubbed the game "pay to win" in which players who have a lot more money to spend gain the advantage over players who don't, regardless of how long they have played. This was on top of the previous accusations of players in the past years in which certain in-game costumes that can be bought in the Pearl Shop or in-game cash shop gave an advantage to players.
This led to the developers finding a way to curb the outrage of the community, and they are now considering moving the Blessing of Kamasylve from the Pearl Shop to the Loyalty section, which has an alternative currency that can only be earned by logging in to the game. This makes it so that players will not have to spend real money in order to get the advantageous item.
What makes the inclusion of such an item in "Black Desert Online" troublesome is that players have paid for the game in order to access it, which makes non-cosmetic microtransactions disrespectful. The publisher of the game in the west, Kakao Games, has also promised that there will be no such microtransactions since they've made changes to the game compared to the free-to-play Korean version.
This is also not the first time the community has been outraged over an in-game item, as the game now has more than half-a-dozen supposedly "pay to win" items in the Pearl Shop. Time will tell how much more will be added in-game, so players are advised to stay tuned.
