The Korean MMO Black Desert has been struggling with exploits and dupes since beta. Some players have already been banned.
In our reporting on ArcheAge, we have extensively covered how cheating and exploiting are handled in Korea, where Korea MMOs often lack good protections against these issues: Since Korean players must provide their “ID” (a kind of social security number) upon registration, they are banned for life once caught.
This has occurred with the Korea MMO Black Desert.
According to Asia MMO specialist steparu, there were problems in the first week with mobs that gave too much experience or too much gold. And in the second week, a nasty cash shop exploit/buyback dupe raised its ugly head.
Publisher Daum then banned the hardest exploiters and confiscated the “lighter” ones’ illegally acquired items.
Steparu comments that he was looking forward to the guild battle soon, but the prospect of being wiped out by exploiters dampens this anticipation a bit.
Mein MMO states: Yes, after the ArcheAge issue, the western audience is surely skeptical when they hear exploits and Korea MMO in the same sentence (about as skeptical as when one hears “pufferfish” and “I do this for the first time” in the same breath.)
The problem with ArcheAge was not that there were such exploits, but that they were known for years, yet still functioned or were newly introduced in the EU version. Since Black Desert is published by Daum in both Korea and the West, and Daum appears to be strict in this case, this story could be a more positive sign. The motto being, “At least they’re taking action.”
That there are problems at the launch of a complex MMO is as certain as the sunrise.
