BDO is a game you can easily sink years into, since I've started playing it's been a struggle. The game is the definition of a "grind," everything you do in the game contributes significantly, all the extra little things you do add up, and sooner or later you can see all your hard work pay off. There are two main ways, in my opinion, that someone can play the game, Lifeskilling w/ PvE, or Combat w/ PvE. There is also Pay to Win elements in the game, or as most would call it, Pay to Convenience, which will be discussed below.

Lifeskilling
BDO has a fantastic lifeskilling system, it may not be the most interesting or innovative, but there is massive amounts of content to explore in each one.
The game runs on 11 different lifeskills, Gathering, Fishing, Hunting, Cooking, Alchemy, Processing, Training, Trading, Farming, Sailing, and Bartering (Sea Trading). Each sound pretty self-explanatory but contain many different intricate parts within, and most of these lifeskills tie into each other, requiring investment of time and silver (in-game currency) to trly experience.

Combat
Lots of players play BDO for its extremely detailed PvP, containing 20 classes that all offer different experiences of play. Due to the game being a open-world game, where open-world PvP can be applied, players above a certain level (50) can engage and fight other players for grind spots or out of anger. The game also has a GvG (guild vs. guild) system in which guild superiors (officer, advisor, and master) can declare war on other guilds opening a world-wide auto engaged PvP with no repercussions between the guilds in war. Another included PvP system would be their Node/Siege war systems, in which guild can build forts and fight other guilds to claim a piece of land in a territory, and if they manage do defeat all other guilds they gain said land for a week and a lot of silver, which can be distributed by the advisor/master. Siege is completely different, as the game world is split into many different territories, in which you siege a castle to try to defeat the defending guild and all other attackers, the rewards are the same except larger, giving even more silver. There is also another reward in the form of having your guild icon hung around the territory your guild owns, ontop of having a little crown near your name, so show off the prestige of guild members who own a territory.

PvE
PvE content is quite self-explanatory, go to a certain spot, kill mobs for drops and loot, sell drops/loot for silver. PvE ties into Combat due to open world flagging for grind spots, one on one duels for spots, or GvGs for spots.

Progression
BDO Progression is extremely RNG based, due to the fact that progressing requires enhancing gear with chances of failure, which either lead to downgrading of said gear, or straight destruction of it. However, due to most recent changes (about a year or two ago), its much easier to obtain gear by buying it on the in-game market, and is probably the easier path of progressing if you are not blessed by RNG gods.

Cosmetics
Cosmetics are more obtainable nowadays in terms of a f2p outlook. Most people can obtain their desired cash shop cosmetics via the marketplace by putting a order for one and waiting for it to get filled. Back during the early years of BDO cosmetics were basically unobtainable via market unless you lived watching the market screen for hours each day for a tiny chance at a purchase, nowadays you can just put a order up and wait. Cosmetic costumes also sell quite often due to the fact that they can be melted down for protective enhancement materials which protect gear from downgrading or destruction on failure of enhancement, which causes whales to spend absurd amounts of money on costumes, either to sell for silver, or to melt for enhancements.

P2W or P2C
The game has leaned away from needing to pay for convenience, in which changes made the need for paying for things such as character weight limit, inventory slots, or costumes has become less versus the past due to the fact that silver no longer weighs anything, trash loot dropped by mobs don't weigh as much, and other techniques like stacking trash loot onto a horse. Inventory slots are given out via quests and new systems such as the "Seasonal" servers, in which players can easily gain decent gear that compares to what was considered "Soft-Cap" a few years ago, cannonballing new players into mid to high-tier content extremely quickly.

Overall, BDO is a massive game with tons of things to do, it can be seen as a grinding simulator, a gambling simulator, a ERP game, or a chill game to play while watching youtube. The possibilities are endless in this game, and just to be able to experience everything in the game would take years, even I haven't explored all of it with over eight thousand hours. The game can be hard to get into, it can be crushing to the soul, and can consume your time like a homeless man eating for the first time in a week, but if you prevail though the struggle, the satisfaction of meeting your goals, is worth it. If you genuinely try the game and dedicate time to learning it, you'll find yourself enjoying a complex game that puts you on a emotional rollercoaster.

1/10 and 10/10 at the same time.

Imagine running on legos for a mile, then at the end when the pain is all over, everyone you love is disappointed in you for running ONLY a mile on legos, as you sit there in toe curling pain, bleeding from your feet.