Red Fox Insights analyst Jake Parmley has a piece on Gamasutra today about Black Desert’s business model that confirms what you might already suspect: People invested enough in the game to buy Daum Cash also recommend the game to their friends, at least according to the results of 230 self-reported surveys of a relatively young and almost entirely male gamer population.
“Just under 20% of our surveyed gamers have purchased Daum Cash. However, this group has proven a powerful promotional tool. Of players that purchase optional vanity and convenience (booster) items in game on top of their entry package, 50% are very likely to recommend BDO to a friend, compared to 38.61% of the sample population. The Red Fox Insights research reveals players purchasing Daum Cash on top of starter packs are very likely to champion Black Desert. These ‘champions’ – or players who promote and actively support the game – have remarkable effects on community growth and involvement.”
Parmley questions criticism over the price of items in the cash shop, wondering whether buyables are appropriately priced to target whales — he’s calling them “committed players comfortable with making purchases” — or should be lowered to incentivize more people to buy in and therefore increase the pool of “champions” and activists for the game. It is not clear whether shoppers become influencers (and why) or influencers become shoppers, but either way, Daum gets paid.
In other Black Desert news, popular Black Desert YouTuber Pvt Wiggles released today a lengthy video in which he calls out rampant botting and hacking in the game, particularly cooldown hacking, which he’s captured on video. “I would like to know what is being done to in order to prevent this from continuing to happen because we’ve known about this for a fair few weeks now,” he explains during the video. He says he’s sent multiple messages and reports to Daum about the problem but has heard nothing back.
We’ve reached out to Daum ourselves and have been told by a representative that the company is aware of and working on the issue and and that reports of players are reviewed and the perpetrators are banned once the exploit is confirmed. Daum has further requested that players report hackers and exploiters right here.
