With 2023 nearly over. What are things you'd like to see in Black Desert Online in 2024 and beyond? I think in order for Black Desert to be successful and prosperous it's going to have to make big changes going forward. It's getting a little dated and stale. That being said it's still possibly the best mmorpg on the market (mainly for it's combat as well as sandbox gameplay). There are things they can do to make it even better. To make it truly and without a doubt the best.

Personally I'd like: 

Server Stability (Fix the crashing, lagging, and desync issues)

Better Communication

More Male Classes

More Playable Races (Maybe Vampires, Dwarves, and Beast races) Also more Elven, Giant, and Shai classes. We have enough humans now.

Customizable 'Mermaid Form' complete with tail and fins for Corsair along with unlimited breath/stamina in the water. Permenant transformation whilst in the water. Corsair 'Mermaid Form' and 'Sea Lungs' Passive

Appearance options for Heilang (along with the option to rename him). Overhaul Heilang/Heuklang

Separate Back Slot items along with more back slot options Overhaul and Separate Back Slot Items

Revamped PvP: Overhaul it completely. Make it worthwhile. Add incentive. Stop killing it!

More Dream/Mythical Skins More Skins or Appearance Options for Dream/Mythical

Overhaul horses, donkeys, elephants, and camels so they're actually useful. As well as overhauling their appearances and textures. Update/Overhaul Mounts

As well as reworking wagons Awgust's Post about Wagons and Tents

Fixing Afk Horse Training Picklenose's Thread: About Afk Horse Training/Leveling

Possible Underwater Content: Underwater mounts and combat Overhaul Ocean Content

Possible Air Content: Airships and Gliders. As well as combat. Airships and Gliders

What are some things you'd like to see?

Fish farms

New lifeskills

Like: growing plants and tending to them in your house (houseplants). Would take a long time but some people will achieve very beautiful interiors with their plants.

More underwater gathering items

Underwater hunting and combat

Maybe a reason to gear... With gvgs gone it feels kinda pointless.

Oh that'd be really cool! Fishfarms and being able to actually grow things in your house rather than out in the middle of nowhere. Nice ideas!

 Agreed. They need to do something to revive PvP, or have something major to fill the gap. Different PvE content that doesn't equal to grinding would be nice.

open ai in black desert

I'd like the developers to realize that the tiniest details matter, that they're essential to a living world, and that the opinions of people who appreciate a game that feels alive matter just as much as those who casually play this game, or play to grind, and feel that tiny details only get in the way and are thus worthless.

I'd like them to know that simplyfiying this game won't save it.  Giving the game meaning will.  Creating meaningful PvE and PvP will.  Giving players reasons to cooperate in the open world (not instance dungeons) will breath life into the game.

Forcing players to "play nice" will help nothing.  Isolating players will help nothing.  Creating a framework that let players enjoy working together and give them a purpose for PvP will really catapult this game into the future.

Peace and a happy new year to everyone.

Crashes dor sure. When you crash 10 times a day it makes it not worth playing. 

All functional costumes should be family wide, hell even gear should be family wide.

Merge kama,old.moon, value pack. 

Quit being so daggum greedy.

Fix what's broken quit rolling out.more broke things.

Yeah, those changes would sure be nice! Agree with everything on your list.

 Exactly! They want to further isolate players. That doesn't help matters. As players don't learn to tolerate each other when they can just hide. Rather than solve the issue it creates a new one. They don't exactly encourage cooperation when the game was designed to have players at each others throats. Fighting for grindspots or pking afk lifeskillers. Then they squeeze pvpers all the more with all of these restrictions as if they're surprised at the cutthroat behavior they helped facilitate. This game isn't designed to 'help your fellow gamer.' It was designed with PvP in mind (all types, no distinction). So now that they keep removing the very foundation this game was built upon, it's beginning to topple brick by brick until there's nothing left. In order to save this game they're going to have to come up with new ideas. Not giving out scraps and expect us to enjoy it as if it were a five star meal. If they really want to move the game in a different direction, they'll have to do better than what they're currently doing. 

Add NEW content that doesn't revolve around mindless grinding

If they do story content they need to up their 'game' so it's engaging to where people don't want to abuse their 'R' button. Maybe take inspiration from the Dragon Age series or the Witcher (games) series. But still allowing players to have their freedom, for those that don't want to bother with any story and just want to play the game. Which brings me to my next point:

Revamp the lifeskills so they're actually engaging. More immersive and meaningful. Redo the way they work. Expand on them so they actually feel like a legit trade.

Introduce a system to where we can at least help our guildies (allow trade between guild members). That would be one step toward 'player cooperation.'

Rather than strip the game of its foundation, build upon it. Improve it. Don't remove it.

Also as it's a large openworld sandbox mmorpg they should focus on that aspect. Work on world building. Immersion. They should do those things before releasing a new class. Work on what's already there and find ways to improve it. They also need to lean more into the fantasy aspect of the game. You can have fantasy races but have it still look realistic and gritty. Just look at Skyrim, Dragon age trilogy, the Witcher and so on. Take away the 'cutesy' fantasy creatures. (Talking rabbits, turtles, otters, papu, and foxes). Really you just can't take that stuff seriously. I'd love if it had a darker vibe, gritty midieval. Maybe akin to Dark Souls (in terms of aesthetics). Same with the outfits. I wish the armor and costumes would reflect that. It's a harsh world surrounded in warfare and strife but it doesn't show that very well. You have a few areas but not enough to really sell it.

Open AI NPC content would be very nice. 

GvGs are not the only form of PvP in the game. Does RBF, AoS, Node War/Siege, and mutual GvGs not exist in BDO?

Yes this should be Pearl Abyss' primary goal at this point. However, I believe PA no longer care about BDO's longevity. Because, lets just say if BDO loses its playerbase. Guess what, that would be PA's excuse to shutdown BDO's servers and launch Crimsion Desert. Then recharge everyone for the same stuff again. At this point, I just don't see much benefit for PA to make BDO more interesting from a business point of view.  So it's my opinion that we should prepare for the sad downfall of BDO at this point. 

Remember, while there are objectively speaking much more popular MMOs. None of them offers what BDO does. BDO offer fighting game combat and high fidelity visuals in a MMO package. 

This is how they broke trading.  Good intent, but they didn't execute well.  You don't want a simulation to become so real that it becomes work.  Also need to leave room for doing the other things in game.  Any activity should be viable at lower levels of intensity, with whatever you get out of it being more or less proportional to what you put into it. That way people can freely mix & match what they do without being penalized, or gate kept from casual involvement altogether.