Cash Shop Thoughts

Recently over at the official Black Desert forums Belsazar went into details on what we can expect to see in both the Cash and the Miles shops at the launch of Black Desert Online. Let me tell you right up front that I very happy with what I’ve seen thus far. After my experiences with other foreign games being brought to the West and having my hopes dashed when the Pay-2-Win became apparent (Archeage….Cough), I am excited with the direction Daum is taking with this game.

There are the typical things you see in a cash shop, such as inventory expansion, skill resets, costumes, some pets, and furniture for your house. However there are no experience potions in the cash shop, something I would normally label as a “convenience” item but with Black Desert’s soft experience cap (you can exceed the game’s cap of level 50, but progression becomes glacial), there was a pay to win element. Instead you find such potions in the Miles shop.

The Miles Shop has its own set of items ranging from potions and boss scrolls to items that also appear in the cash shop (giving you two ways to acquire them)  including storage, skill resets, and even additional character slots (typically you always need to pay for those with real money). You will earn 100 Miles per day as login rewards (No word as yet if you will receive your Miles all at once or over a certain number of hours played each day–like the Daily Dash in the newly released Blade and Soul). Another important thing to note is you will not receive Miles for buying things with Pearls (the cash shop currency), you literally just get them for logging in and playing the game.

There are still elements that could have a pay to win aspect associated with them such as costumes with stats on them (this has not been confirmed, but the Korean costumes come with minor buffs), and pets that can only be purchased via the pet shop (pets have skills such as the ability to warn you when another player flags in your vicinity, and they will pick up your loot making farming easier), but they don’t bother me nearly as much as the dreaded lockboxes most free to play games have.

I don’t necessarily take issue with lockboxes in a game provided the items you can win are simple cosmetic items or boosts (as in Star Wars: The Old Republic), but if the lockboxes offer gameplay improvements or can destabilize the economy, they can over time destroy an MMO (especially if your odds of winning the item are very low).

Another announcement that has been made is that you will not be able to sell items purchased from the cash shop on the Auction House. This means that you can’t drop large sums of money to get the best items in the game. Daum has said they intend to monitor things so it is possible we could see cash shop items in the AH at some point down the road, but personally I would prefer things to stay as they are.

That’s the thing about MMO’s they can change over time. Sometimes for the better, like when we get new content, and sadly sometimes for the worse. While no one can guarantee that we won’t see questionable items make it into the cash shop in the future, I sincerely hope Black Desert does well enough in the Western market so that Daum can keep the game free of Pay-2-Win elements, particularly in a game that has such a wonderful sandbox experience.

I’ve included the contents of both the Pearl Cash Shop and the Miles Shop for your review. Sadly, we don’t have the costs of the individual items yet, but at least you can see the direction Daum is moving.

Cash Shop
Main	Shop	Sub	Item Function
Convenience	Storage	Inventories 1/4/8	Increases inventory space by 1/4/8 slots
		Weight 50/100/150	Increases player carry weight by 50/100/150 LT
		Region Storage 1/4/8	Increase warehouse space in a specific region by 1/4/8 slots
	Support / Boost	Horse EXP booster	Increases Horse EXP by +20% for 1 hour.
		Partial Skill Reset	Resets the selected combat skill and retrieves its skill point.
		Family Name Change Ticket	Allows you to change your family name.
		Horse name change ticket	Allows you to change your horse’s name.
		Character Slot	Expand the character creation slots by 1 slot.
		Revive Potion	Allows you to resurrect immediately.
		Life Skill stats transfer ticket	Allows you to transfer specific life skill EXP to another character.
		Stable expansion ticket	Increase stable space in a specific city by 1
		Worker's lodging expansion	Increase worker space in a specific city by 1
Vanity	Beauty	Costume + Weapon Skin Package	Full set of armor skills with weapon and off-hand skin
		Weapon Skin	Cosmetic Skin for main-hand weapon.
		Costume Set	Cosmetic Skin for armor slots.
		Costume Single Pieces	Individual cosmetic item.
		Accessories	Glasses and facial jewelry.
		Underwear	Cosmetic underwear with luck bonus.
		Dye box sets (1/3/10) / Bleach	Contains random dye from specific color range.
		Appearance change scroll	Allows you to change the appearance of one character one time.
	Housing	Floor & Wall, Chandelier, Furniture set, Bedside Table, Dresser, Closet, Dining Table, Table, Chair, Sofa, Bookshelf, Bed	Adds aesthetic value to a home, as well as beds restore energy when used.
	Horse	Horse set	Box containing full set of costume armor for a horse.
		Horse Face Mask, Horse Bard, Horse Saddle, Horse Stirrup	Individual cosmetic items for horses.
		Horse skill initialization ticket	Change the skill of a horse.
		Horse Breeding  Reset	Resets the number of times a horse has been breed to allow more breeding.,
		Horse Whistle (1/7/30 days/permanent)	Allows user to call horse from further away for 1/7/30 days.
		Horse appearance change scroll	Allows the user to change the appearance of their horse one time.
	Pets	Pets (cats/dogs/birds/special)	Gathers monster loot items for the player.

Mileage
	Items	Item Function	Attribute
Offered via Cash & Miles	Partial Skill Reset	Resets the selected combat skill and retrieves its skill point.	All Mileage Items: - Character Bound - No trade - No sell on MP - repetitively purchasable - except weight +50, which will only be possible to be re-purchased 4 times
	Storage +1	Increase warehouse space in a specific region by 1/4/8 slots
	Inventory +1	Increases inventory space by 1 slot
	Weight +50	Increases player carry weight by 50 LT
	Horse EXP Booster	Increases Horse EXP by +20% for 1 hour.
	Revive Potion	Allows you to resurrect immediately.
	Character Slot	Expand the character creation slots by 1 slot.
Only via Miles Shop	Blessing of Kamasylvia 1 day	Increase Energy Regen +2 & Increase item drop by 20%
	Energy Potion (S)	Restores 10 energy.
	Tech EXP Booster	Increases Skill EXP by +10% for 1 hour.
	Life Skill EXP Booster	Increases Life Skill EXP +10% for 1 hour.
	Combat EXP Booster	Combat EXP +50% for 1 hour.
	Mana Scroll	Increases Max MP by +100 for 1 hour.
	Health Scroll	Increases Max HP by +100 for 1 hour.
Game Items	Boss Scrolls (Witch/Tree/Bheg)	Summons a greater boss.
	Boss Scrolls (Imp/Goblin/RedNose)	Summons a lesser boss.

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