The MMORPG Black Desert celebrates with the community at the Heidel Ball 2024

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The developers of Pearl Abyss invited people to the Heidel Ball of Black Desert Online on June 22, 2024. The town that inspired the in-game city of Heidel was chosen for the community event in Beynac, France. MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen reports on her experiences and reveals which secrets BDO boss Lybee Park revealed.

Aside from the fan meetings at gamescom, there were only a few events in Europe where the Black Desert Online community came together. It was only with the Calpheon’s Ball in America that the developers turned their attention to the West, followed shortly thereafter by the “Voice of the Adventurers” event in Utrecht.

This year, to mark BDO’s tenth anniversary, the European community event was held for the first time in Beynac, France. Fans from all over the world gathered there to celebrate their favorite MMORPG. Participants were chosen through a competition and were able to enjoy all the activities that Pearl Abyss had prepared for them for free.

Who is speaking here? Jasmin Beverungen was in charge of the MMORPG section on MeinMMO at the turn of the year. She has already played numerous games in the genre, which is why she is looking forward to new MMORPGs such as Throne and Liberty. Her favorite MMORPG is Final Fantasy 14, but she also enjoys Black Desert Online. Her favorite class is the Woosa, a fan-wielding warrior.

I am one of the lucky ones who was invited directly by Pearl Abyss. I also had the chance to talk to Lybee Park. She is the CEO of Pearl Abyss in Europe and was able to reveal some exciting details.

The new class, the Dosa, was introduced at the event. You can find the trailer here:

Black Desert: New class “Dosa” in trailer

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Heidel in real life with real quests

For the first half of the day, players were able to explore Heidel – er, I mean Beynac, of course. The location made it easy to recognize that a Black Desert Online community event was taking place. Banners related to the game were flying at the castle. In the alleys in front of the castle, there were cardboard cutouts symbolizing NPCs from the game. But there were not only cardboard cutouts, there were also real cosplayers who were available for photos.

One of the local restaurants even had a special Black Desert Online menu – duck burgers (or the vegetarian option) with fries and a dessert. Just the thing after a strenuous march.

Professional cosplayers such as drawmeacosplay, Tarian and Kazy were invited to the event.

There were mini-games all along the route that the community could complete. At the start of the event, each player received an “Adventure Log” and could collect stamps at various stands:

  • In the fishing mini-game, you had to fish fish out of a paddling pool using a magnetic fishing rod. After each fish, you had to repeat a short sequence of arrows on a dance mat. I was so good at this that I even earned two stamps.
  • Another mini-game involved the rock-paper-scissors principle. It was based on the Duel For Spot from BDO. Here I was able to beat my opponent by a landslide 5:0.
  • Unfortunately, the memory game was a complete disaster for me. The cards were stuck together so badly that they got mixed up and I earned my stamp just like that.

    • There were other activities such as a wheel of fortune, archery and a tombola. The route to the castle was full of opportunities to while away the morning. As a reward, there were stamps, which could then be exchanged for real merchandise such as a neck pillow or a plush bracelet.

    The orchestra played in a church.
    The little town looks like Heidel.
    An overview of Heidel.
    The fishing mini-game with dance performance.

    The mini-games showed how important Pearl Abyss’s community is, as they were full of attention to detail.

    One of my highlights was when a Spanish tourist asked me what kind of event was taking place in the town. When I explained it to her, there was no sign of aversion or “Oh dear, something to do with video games” – just curiosity.

    Knightly entertainment in the castle

    After the activities, we continued with a presentation of all the new features in Black Desert Online. I’ll summarize the most important announcements for you here:

  • The Dosa will be the 28th class. He fights with a sword and a tobacco pipe.
  • With “The Land of Morning Light: Seoul” there will be a new region that contains new quests
  • After completing the story of the new area, the palace administration is unlocked. This feature allows you to obtain rare materials.
  • There are new Arbiter original class weapons and summer outfits.

    • After the presentation, the fans were able to relax with a cocktail on the roof of the castle. I only had a quick look around the roof because it was pouring with rain. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite on my side, so I warmed myself up inside with a tea or two.

    This was followed by an orchestral concert in the castle church and a knightly dinner. All in all, the fans were offered such a varied program that, for me, it is one of the best community events.

    Between activities, I had the opportunity to speak with Pearl Abyss CEO Lybee Park.

    The castle was prepared for the community event.

    CEO is extremely grateful to the fans

    When speaking with Lybee Park, I could tell how much the Black Desert Online fans mean to her and how happy she was to meet them in person. Park did not expect the love from the West that BDO has received.

    That’s why she’s even more happy to give something back to the fans. This includes the following things:

  • Community events such as the Heidelball
  • GMs and CMs who are always online and support the players
  • She is particularly proud of the weekly maintenance work

    • The fans’ feedback would make her emotional and I could see how much Park appreciates the fans.

    Pearl Abyss started out as a small company that didn’t see the other, already established MMORPGs as competition. This was not only good for their mental health, but also for their own standards. Because it allowed BDO to develop into something unique.

    It was easy to see what the event was about.

    Message to all young MMORPG beginners

    Park also revealed what advice she would give to players who haven’t played Black Desert Online yet. After all, the game is ten years old, but that shouldn’t stop newcomers:

    10 years can feel old, but it also shows that the game has been supported by so many adventurers for such a long time. When something is popular for so long, that’s reason enough to give it a try. We’ve been optimizing the game for ten years.

    In addition, every player would have the freedom to do what he wanted:

    It can be overwhelming at first because there are so many elements to do. You don’t have to follow the main quest, you don’t have to be good at PVP, sometimes I just chop trees for five hours to relax. Nobody is forced to do anything, you can also just chat with other players. Players shouldn’t feel any pressure.

    Lybee Park, CEO of Pearl Abyss

    A particularly great feature of Black Desert Online is the character editor. To date, there is no editor in MMORPGs that can keep up with this level of detail. Park herself needs three days to optimize her character to the point where she is satisfied with it. That is why future games from Pearl Abyss will have a character editor that will surpass this one even further.

    Another point that can overwhelm new players is the 28 classes in the game, including the Dosa. Players should be able to choose what they want, says Park. The classes should be different from each other, but not destroy the balance.

    Her favorite class is the Guardia, by the way, because she is a strong and independent woman, and you can tell that from her appearance. Since she was responsible for the design, the Guardia feels like her own daughter.

    Not only Lybee Park, but also the MeinMMO team thinks that the MMORPG is rightly a popular game. For the MeinMMO editorial team, Black Desert is one of the five best MMORPGs that players can play in 2024: The 5 best MMORPGs on PS4, PS5 and Xbox that you can play in 2024

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