The following event/reward mechanics are so dull and brain-rotting, they invoke the picture of three children (J, CTO & CMO) poking a whale that has washed up on shore with a stick, instead of pushing it back in the water. Over the years, as more and more systems have been added, it has started feeling as PA is doing spam telemarketing calls on us. Combine that will all of the stuff you need to pay attention to enable to efficiently use your time and it's easy to see how this approach is a one-way ticket to burnout.

These repetitive events create a concentration of players doing certain mechanics - while others miss out because they don't have the guru for the lifeskill or the gear for dfs. To make it worse, some of them (ie. Drop rate) make the game feel like it normally should be, as opposed to the low rates/spots/spawns available by default.

1. Coupon Codes

They only make sense when they come from affiliate drops (streamers, companies etc), but when it's PA giving them out, it's just a hassle that you have to pay attention to so that you don't miss out on something important. Integrate into the game? 

Solution

First and foremost, integrate into login rewards that go into the black spirit safe - this would solve expiration (unless tied to a date). Create new submenu in login rewards for it as *Surprise Rewards* and you can even use it to create a nifty link to w.e you're selling.

Secondly, make us work for it. I'd rather kill 10000 mobs for a J Hammer than copy-paste another coupon.

2. Drop rate

Makes the game and drop rate (of rare loot) feel normal - as opposed to how underwhelming it is without clicking a bunch of buttons to gain the m0ximum drop rate (you can afford). It's the same both in grinding, as well as the various lifeskilling event buffs they make. 

Solution

Revisit the entire games drop rate/progression %.

Integrate event drop rate (pity) into family buffs. 

Create 15hr agris meter for "Event drop rate" it so that people that missed out on the event can benefit later. Bonus, you will save players from the pressure of grinding 5hrs per day during drop rate events.

3. Lottery (Box) Rewards

Great way to make 0.00001% of the community very happy and everyone else angry at their happiness. Whether it's boxes or events such as the current pearl one - the disappointment at the end is equal across the board - the majority get nothing.

Saying this as someone who's been extremely lucky in my rng (before you nerf it to the ground after this post).

Solution

I know the whole game is based around rng, but ask anyone and they'll tell you that "pity pieces" are one of the best and fairest additions to the game.

I just don't understand why PA can(not) give out a full costume or other items on some events, but decides to have a weird pyramid scheme on the others. They sometimes even have the gaul to publish the % drop rate in their boxes, showing how the overwhelming majority will get memes-crons-caphs-sharps..

Most veteran players have 15+ characters and a good dozen create a new one to fomo on every new broken class release. Giving out a reward to everyone instead of 0.01% of the player base will not hurt your bottom line. In fact, if you create SEO around "Free premium items worth 44$ this event!", You'll get more players and more sales as a rewards for your goodness towards the rest of the 99.99% of players. Let's not talk about the fact that this is also gameable on their end, for example: giving out 777 pearls for the 7th anniversary moving people to add $$ to buy something they never would (instead of making 980 players happy (1-3% of active players), you'd make 30k~ players happy).

4. World + Scroll Boss Tokens / Double Spawns / Increased Rare Droprate

Makes the bosses in this game feel normal. When events end, we're sad.

Solution 

The crowd rejoices when these are on. Whether it's the tokens, the double spawns or increased drop rate - it's clear that w.o these the content is underwhelming. Just make it the default. At least the tokens. Double spawns for vell and farmoth are not greedy too. Drop rate should be revisited across the entire game, but world bosses should have easier pity systems.

5. Buffs

Realizing you forgot one of these during a grind/lifeskilling session is cringe. But there is so much stuff to already PAY ATTENTION to, that it's understandable that you forgot to click them with an NPC half across the map of where you were intending to grind. Anyway, we've already integrated Family Buffs (Woomaegu +Ap event, Happy Black Spirit, Nodes, Pearl, event, agris etc) so why aren't these integrated into those again?

Also, by limiting the buffs per 1 activity (grinding, growth, lifeskilling, fishing, lifeskill growth), per one character, you are limiting what content players will play in your game, content you created.

Solution

Move any event buff to: family buffs, black spirit, inventory. Nobody wants to have to chase a gm or talk to an npc - no offense to both. We'd rather do the thing the buff is for.

If moved to family buffs, then they would (awesomely) apply to all characters.

6. Login Rewards

These may stay, but to be honest, I'd rather they be tied to gameplay instead of just jumping in the game. I get that it's made to pad PA's daily login numbers from afk FOMO players so I'd rather they just added an additional system with Weekly/Monthly Achievements that you need to perform for a choice of rewards.

Solution

Create quests to do activities to double your login rewards for players that actually play the game.

7. ‘Reading The Update Notes’ Events

The cheer '7th anniversary is a good example of this. Instead of it being something tied to the game - you have to rely on popups in the game, or leading people to read the update notes so that you can complete the event > instead of having people doing/enjoying the content you've created IN THE GAME. Instead of doing something like the balloons from a specific location in past years ...it's just "don't miss the period when you can type smt in chat". 

Solution

Eliminate any need to read a patch note (or chat) to receive a "secret" reward. At least all the dull copy-paste ones that either take us out of the game or are just plain botting.

There are so many UIs and popups for the pearlshop related mechanics of the game, you can integrate events better (than the adventurers board) when it comes to stuff like this. 

Just not more popups that we cannot toggle off…instead, can I just click it and receive the reward from it and make it disappear forever?

8. Social Media Events

I know somebody from the social media team told you that it would be a good idea to get engagement & free content like this, but most bdo players are grown players with jobs that don’t have time to this - being essentially left out. I guess the main question is, what is the % of BDO Players that actually engage with this, as opposed from being left out from the rewards.

This is further exacerbated by the (again) RNG nature of rewards where you either get a cherry, or breadcrumbs. Instead of giving out cake pieces (costumes) to everyone and a cake (pearls) to the RNGest of RNGers.

Solution

If such events must be had, the reward should be linear and gold, instead of 3 day buffs for 100% and 1 billion pearls for 0.00001%.

9. Aberrant Dark Rifts

Why would you not put into the game bosses that you’ve already created and make them limited time only? Distortion drop is a welcome addon to that box, as should be ALL of the other yellow accessories. 

Solution 

Should be default. Heck, even another token should be added to them (alla world Boss one) so that they are even more appealing.

10. Treasure Item Events (Increased Rate + Double Location)

Makes the game seem normal.

Solution

Should be default. 

Each twin place for each rare item should be matched in silver/hr with it's counterpart to prevent crowding in the more profitable spots.

Pities should be created for items they don't exist for.

11. Event Item Expire Date

Just why are digital items vulnerable to mold exactly?

Solution

Remove it. Or at least move all expiry-tied items to black spirit safe when taken from event reward. Date tied expiries are just cringe - they punish patience.I fully understand the implications of what it would do to both the irl and in-game economy if you allow players to board certain items indefinitely - especially a game with so many moving systems. 

However, who cares? If players want to gather 10 J hammers to do a 10-skip-10-fails bonanza, why are you preventing them? If players want to save their j/oldmoon/Pikachu scrolls for new releases or because of a crazy change you made (crystals, orcs, cents…), why exactly aren't they allowed to do so?

You are creating a layer of punishment and artificial famine to mitigate possible future abuse. With it, you're just frustrating players and missing out on potentially epic content (10 hammers = 10 successes!).

12. Event Item Obsolescence

Just why do some, but not other, npcs disappear after events making some items trash?

Solution

A)make universal "All Events" trade npc, Or,
B)make all [Event] items worth 0.5m. If someone hoarded, they should be rewarded.

13. 30-60-90-120 min Playtime Rewards

Such a cheap way to get players to boost your numbers. I’d rather they are tied to in-game mechanics, or somehow reward players not afking during that time.

Solution

Create quests to double your 30-60-90 rewards - reward players playing. Or replace with interesting quests with more rewards choice.

14. Arena of Solare

This shouldnt even be here… Why is it treated as an expiring event? Why is there a gap? Isn’t the season long enough to crunch the data for next season? Why are the rewards so shit?

Solution

Hey, it's not even here, see? It's invisible. You made AoS permanent and improved the season rewards symmetry, as well as the interclass & gear balance. Oh what is that? You even added rewards to AoS that make it worth 300m/hr with un-afkable quests?

15. Solare Battlefield

What, AoS is doing SO well that you're going to integrate it's gear/stat system into a Battlefield of Solare (Rbf x AoS)? LETS Finicking GOoO Dude!

Tldr:

Current events are repetitive and uncreative.

Most of them point out issues in the game design of BDO with regard to reward choice, availability, method of distribution, and wealth distribution.

Some of them have such great mechanics that they would reward players' investment into activities much better than the current default.

Most of them should be the default.

tl.dr: they add low effort "events" instead of content since it's cheaper.

Nothing is new on this, they are doing this since years, and while it's harmfull for the game, it's low effort so cheap solution, and if you check the player graphs it atleast helps keeping the players.

Drop events are horrendous and unfair. Most time I skip them.

So why they bad?

Not everyone wants to kill mobs in the tens of thousands. Even if the event item can be obtained from gathering or fishing, these amounts are ridiculously low compared to the amount from drops (sometimes there are exceptions like the current one seal of wanderlust).

Event item drop is too low!!! Current seal of wanderlust has a good drop, but unpolished crystal added today very bad. Comparison: at 30 seal of wanderlust I only dropped 10 unpolished crystal. So it's pointless. I'll get 40 for a shakatu box, but I'll let the rest go. This is supposed to be an event, not a second job at bdo!!! With such events, "grinding" counts, so you have to give up, for example, Elvia and go, for example, to desert naga to maximize the number of mobs killed per second. So we lose more than the event gives us. 

And last but not least: we have too many events, especially at the same time!!!

Currently we have:

- exp event

- life skill exp event

- drop rate event

- season event

- season fishing event

- seal of wanderlust event

- finto farm event (passive so it doesn't matter)

- horse event

- 10 hours bonus event

- unpolished crystal drop event.

What should I do to not lose the benefits of these events?

I wholeheartedly agree - just don't know if it's a lack of resources or laziness. If it's the latter, then PA is paying a team of devs to "come up" with events that are actually just copy-pasta of previous ones, and then they have one original idea every 3 months. If it's such, then PA should seriously look at revisiting the people of this team and maybe think about poaching some from Smilegate, Blizzard, Arenanet that have been building successful narrative events for years.

If it's a lack of resources, everything has gone into Crimson and they've put BDO on invisible hibernation - the least they can do is put these copy-pastas on a default schedule so that we can plan our time accordingly. I agree that it keeps their login numbers up (even addressed this in the multiple "events" that concern it) - but there are mechanisms to both get that, make afkers happy, but make players playing even happier.

This ofc doesn't include the QoL and Rng changes talked about above which is a whole other ballpark of cancer [they could've given 350 pearls to 20k people instead of 7k to 1k, but w.e...). 

what? they just gave out 2 maids 2 outfits and 2 pets 4free lol.

i have 37 maids still love to get more.

Did you...umm...read?

Another round of events with the same ol formula. Ty PA!

Bravo bravo! encore ENCORE!

See you in 2067 when underwater gathering gets looked at again.