Three days ago, there was a livestream with the developers of Blade & Soul. They talked about the differences between the Asian and the Western market …
Koreans want to be the best, Europeans always want to experience something new
In a livestream, American and European fans of Blade & Soul had the opportunity to get to know some chief developers behind the MMORPG better and ask them questions about the game. As the three developers speak hardly any English, they employed the services of a translator. In any case, this is a strong signal to the players that they are also making an effort for them here at home. We have summarized the most interesting statements for you:
Since there are no classic roles in Blade & Soul in the sense of “tank, healer, and DPS,” the developers had to come up with something different for dungeons and raids: Players take on responsibility for specific tasks within a boss fight. So it may be that someone has to take care of a lever and activate it at the right time, while another player only hunts specific enemies and pulls them away from the group.
The difficulty of the content should fundamentally have nothing to do with the number of player groups. Although the raid for 24 people is currently the hardest thing Blade & Soul (in Korea) has to offer, they want to adapt the game content to the needs of the players. So if smaller groups of 2-6 players want to experience challenging dungeons, they will create those.
The cowboy costume and the difference between Korea and the West
The cowboy costume currently available in the founders packs was specifically developed for an American audience to appeal to players there. Future costumes will no longer only draw inspiration from the Asian region but will also gain influences from Europe and America to provide something exciting for all players.
There are significant differences between Asian and Western players. While Korean players like to grind and simply want to be “the best” at what they do (and are therefore significantly more competitive), Western fans prefer variety and always want something new to do – there must always be change and it should never become monotonous.
You can see the complete interview with all questions here:
The developers are facing tough times ahead and they need to prove that they can bridge the gap between Western and Asian players – something that many MMORPGs have already failed at.
