A new, stunningly beautiful world. It was what I saw when I entered the Black Desert Online universe in the summer of 2017. Everything was catching my eye. Smooth movement - well, as smooth as the laptop I was playing on could afford to offer - amazing attention to all the details of the environment, from the tiny specs of dust to the movement of the grass. I couldn't stop wowing out loud. It wasn't my first mmo and I'm quite partial to good graphics quality, but it was... stunning!

The annoying little black demon gued my steps from Olvia all the way to Velia, but no longer, as once there, I felt like there's already a whole world to explore between these two cities. So I wandered, here and there, learning various lifeskilling activities. Oh! The lifeskilling of BDO was the 2nd hook that got under my skin. 2 Weeks later, I was still, growing onions and scouring the Balenos Forest for rare (I thought) ore to craft all the things I could see. So much to do, so little time!

I gathered the courage to proceed ahead and in the weeks that followed I realized how immense the world of BDO was. I progressed slowly, really slow even, as there was to fast route to anywhere, but steadly. Developing my characters, discovering new lands, the lore and the mechanics. A bit upset by the lack of dungeons, by how punishing the world and field boss rewards were for the new arrivals, always overweight - be it with silver or with all the trash I kept collecting - but the game was more and more charming.

I faced the awakening tasks on my dark knight with ease, being educated to some extend by the otherwise cold community on the chat. But then I've also felt the harsh reality of the open world pvp and the grind spot scarcity design. So I returned to what I loved the most in the game - lifeskilling. A bit later, the news of The Great Ocean expansion reached my eyes and I just had to be on the first wave of explorers - silly me! My time in-game was split between building the Epheria Sailboat and horse training activities when busy with real world tasks. I was however missing my companion with whom I've explored a dozen other virtual worlds.

A couple of weeks before the Great Ocean Expansion went live, I was burnt out by my own rather silly drive to have the best sailboat possible fast. So I left the game.

Came back a couple of years later, on a new computer, with a better mentality. BDO Remastered did wonders to the game. It also seemed to have become more gentle with its inhabitants, with many of its original punishing mechanics having been toned down or removed completely. A bit later, the first Season launched and, as time went by, the game grew on me even more than it originally managed to. I loved it. So much that I started courting my partner yet again. So much beauty and potential for good times, yet no one to trully enjoy it with... for two more years.

So, here I was in the summer of 2021, with plenty of good memories of the game: My first Epheria Sailboat back in 2017, the gear I managed to get back then that allowed for a smooth sailing past the stone golems of the awakening quest, my first level 61 during the first season, my first pen Tuvala, my first pen Dandelion soon after, first dream horse, my first billion silver from playing the game in the most inefficient way possible... But the most treasured memory I have of Black Desert Online is when my partner joined and decided to stay for ride.

So thank you kindly for constantly improving on this pretty world you've created, PA! Keep at it, please, so we can keep enjoying it!

And this ride will soon hit its 1 Year Anniversary since i decided to finally give it a go. So thank you PA also from my side for this beautiful world you made and adding yet one more additction in my life routine. Cheers! (◕ﻌ◕ )