Game difficulty, syncing, minimum ilvl and new players

[Hycinthus]

Is that... optional?
Cuz if my friends wanna join but we can't play together for awhile that's no fun for anyone.

In BDO yes, it's optional. If your character is in the "Season" server, that character can jump around between "Season", or "Regular" server.

However, tenured players cannot enter the "Season" servers with their high level characters, but they are free to create a new character there too if they want to accompany their friends.

In the "Season" server, the quests are streamlined, condensed, and rewards gears faster. There's a fair amount of handholding, teaching you the necessities of crafting and improving armor, albeit, using easier ingredients and simpler terms. There are mentors who live in the "Season" server all the time, to help out.

Basically it's like a "breeding pond" for new fish, only last for 2 months, before their graduation and be released into the ocean. Then after graduation, a new season will start for the next batch of guppies.

Now that we can jump around servers in a data center, they may be able to do this, just create a "Guppies" server for each data center that will feature condensed MSQ, etc, and to prevent the Guppies Duty Finder to be lacking players, then just ntroduce a Data center wide new Roulette Queue called "Guppies" Roulette where it rewards higher rewards, BUT, you must join with minimum ilvl gear so you cannot zerg-fest or steamroll stuff. Maybe only open it for mentors.