A streamer of Black Desert becomes the official “Kakao Games” partner and parts of the community are going wild. But what is behind it?
Long-time streamer becomes a partner. BladeBoques is a Black Desert streamer. 39,000 players follow him on Twitch to watch him play. In his streams, he shows his viewers how to generate as much in-game currency silver as possible in the complex economy of Black Desert. With his effective gaming methods, he was the first player to reach level 60 on the North American server. Since this week, he has been a member of the partner program of the “Black Desert” publisher Kakao Games, which actively promotes his streams and provides him with a direct line to the developers.
But BladeBoques is heavily discussed in the community. Fans accuse him of knowingly exploiting bugs in the game to gain unfair advantages. In a PvP-focused game like Black Desert, every little advantage is important.
Just a bug or already an exploit?
One worker too many. Since 2017, the players of Black Desert have been particularly focused on him. A video appeared showing the streamer BladeBoques allegedly exploiting a bug. In the video, he employed two workers at the same node in the game, where only one worker was allowed. Players accused him of having placed workers at specific nodes on each of the three servers before the server merger at the end of 2016. These were then “stacked” by the merger, allowing him to employ additional workers.
Kakao Games responded to the accusation and banned the streamer. BladeBoques defended himself by claiming that it was a visual bug, after which Kakao Games unbanned him.
Three days later, the publisher released a statement. They had banned 3 players and suspended 40. BladeBoques was banned again for 72 hours.
What is integrity worth?
Streamer opens forum thread. In response to the ban and also out of fear of losing his integrity, he opened a thread on July 17, 2017, in the official Black Desert forum, which now has 118 pages. There he directly addressed Kakao Games and the players and requested the publication of his server data.
In his opinion, this would have benefits for both sides:
- Critics could verify the data, and if he had used exploits, they would find the evidence. He would then be permanently banned.
- Or the data would prove that he is innocent. His integrity would be restored.
Players accuse him even more
Unfair advantage? But it did not stop with one accusation from the players. Before the server merger, BladeBoques allegedly purchased worker accommodations on every server. Due to the merger, these accommodations were stacked in the inventory, allowing him to exceed the maximum number of accommodations allowed by the game. As a result, he was able to hire more workers faster than other players.
He himself confirms this action in a video on his YouTube channel. In his defense, he claims that someone gave him the tip shortly before the server merger and that there was no time left to inform Kakao Games about the exploit.
BladeBoques is under attack
No factual criticism. In response to his appointment as the official partner of Kakao Games, players defaced the streamer’s profile article on the Kakao Games website. They call him an exploiter and claim that his favorite activity is “2 workers at one node”.
According to the partner guidelines of Kakao Games, fair play should be important to a partner. However, the players do not see this fair play in BladeBoques. They do not understand why Kakao Games is collaborating with the streamer. Through the partner benefits, an obvious exploiter, in their eyes, is being rewarded for his actions.
One player only says about the topic: “So is this our new low? We are now partnered with an exploiter. This company is a joke.” The thread on the subject now also has 15 pages in the official forum.
Competition is enormously important in Black Desert
Every silver counts. Anyone who wants to compete at the top in Black Desert must master the game’s economy. Even the smallest advantages through better equipment can make the difference between victory and defeat in a PvP match. That’s why many players optimize their worker empire to extract even more efficiency. BladeBoques is particularly known for mastering this.
According to the terms of service of Black Desert, the use of exploits is generally prohibited. Users may reproduce exploits, but only to better communicate them to the support team of Kakao Games.
So one can consider BladeBoques as an exploiter or as a player who pushes game mechanics to the edge of what is allowed to be among the best.
