Why do we play Maplestory?

[MuscleWizard]

Being permabanned has given me a lot of time to think about this.
The game itself, is a gigantic cash cow, there's hardly any way to advance and progress without spending money.

Even a level 200 character with gear that an average player would get through playing the game, hunting, fusing, and crafting, would not be able to fight a decent portion of the bosses in this game without lots of trouble!

And now that we're in our own version of unlimited, the gap's even larger between the paid players and the free ones, simply because of the fact that you need to have a ridonk amount of %PDR and %BOSS in order to even scratch some of these guys.

But for some, even that's not enough! Fighting a lot of these bosses needs a range that's insanely high!

An entire party of regular players, hell, an entire full expedition of regular players would not be able to deal the damage that one optimized NX coated character could do!

I spent over three thousand dollars on this game, have a backlog of closed tickets in which I reported exacting details of various exploits and hackers, and for what?
To get randomly banned one day, and have my ticket ignored for a month?

I... this does not fly! It boggles my mind that companies like nexon are allowed to do things like this!
I'm honestly in the belief that the only reason they're allowed to act this way is because the free to pay model has been so optimized around America's current legal system that the things they do are only barely passing by as it is.

As someone who works in customer service for a company as huge as Home Depot, it makes me think that Nexon doesn't even believe in customer service.

And as a matter of fact, I dare say that we could go so far as to call their entire Terms of Service, Terms of Disservice instead!

I... if I don't get unbanned, I might be relieved, because I'll finally be out of my addiction of spending money on my imaginary pixel warrior.
I had fun over the years, but then I became obsessed with becoming stronger, better... heh, better.
I wasn't even close.

I apologize to everyone if I've been a bit vitriolic over the past few weeks, but I'm pissed as hell at Nexon for this whole debacle.

But, lemme put things in perspective for a minute.

I put my estimate a bit low, I've actually spent around five thousand dollars on this game.
Kinda' makes you think, doesn't it?

I've been needing a better computer for the past three years, but I couldn't control myself enough to save my money up, because of how addicted I was to playing this game.

I... it didn't really hit me that that money was gone forever, until the moment Nexon shut the door on me. And then I realized what a damn fool I was for getting suckered into their scheme. Hell, even them raising the level cap was another gamble on their part for selling more NX because after a certain point you /need/ 2x exp cards to even come close to progressing!

I understand that they're a corporation, but literally everything they do, everything they release, is calculated and worded to get the most money possible out of the playerbase.

And... I find that to be a bit morally wrong! We have a game that's targeted towards players in the middle to high school age bracket, and it's the single most pay to win game on the market! Everything this company does, has one of three goals.


Increased Profits, Increased Playerbase, or the Decreased Decline of their Playerbase.

More players? More Profits!
Less players? Less Profits!

Exploit ruins the game for a while?
Compensation so folks don't leave the sinking ship!

Think of maplestory as the titanic, the iceberg tore a hole in the side a long long time ago, and the only reason the ship is still afloat is because the passengers are plugging up the hole with as much money as they can shove into the cargo hold.

In conclusion, RIP MuscleWizard.





These were all the characters I had on windia alone, and all of them except for little Nuke and Singulo were fourth jobbers, a majority of them were around level 13x, to 14x. Years of work, all gone. I'm just going to go play Terraria, because at least Redigit won't ban me.

[Corn]

Welcome aboard.

[xparasite9]

because we can
and it's free
well, technically free

[Dredragon]

The only thing I even enjoyed about maple was just the new classes they made and how shiny everything was. I'm a huge fan of pixel games and rpg side scrollers. But when you realize that to even do anything now you need nx, it's no fun thinking about trying to get stronger, or the higher up bosses. I just played through the content I could, tried all the quests and used my meso on perm nx clothes from the FM. The way everything is priced, it really is demoralizing when you actually want to get stronger. I've only ever had a max of like 200mil and couldn't do much with it, and that's because you can't even really get anything good from within the game if you don't spend nx. Even a free market place shop would help.
; - ;

I really think the only reason I stayed is because I like to have a good rpg to play after DFO closed. I remember I went into irc one day and then said I was looking for a good rpg, and obviously an answer i got was maple. But then i remember why I didn't think of maple when I was looking, because of how hard it really is to end game it. In dfo you could get most of the cash shop stuff from other players in the game with a pretty reasonable price, and everyone had a somewhat equal chance of being strong, at least I thought so. You just need to find special drops from monsters in dungeons that arne't too rare, bring some money and go to kiri the harvester of souls to upgrade your stuff. Yea, the higher the weapon the harder it is, but that was available to everyone easily.

If dfo wasn't closed, I wouldn't even look at maple, but I enjoy a good rpg, and Latale is weirdish and not very popular, unlike maple.

[Encyclopedic]

Wise decision.

[Luxeraph]

Not to be a jerk but didn't we all learn that they were making cash bosses with pink bean and later it was confirmed with empress?
If you do get your account back don't ever use cash again unless its for fun(e.g. appearance stuff).

Also playing it right now for the same reason dredragon posted(kinda sucks there aren't any more of this type of game).

[SunYanZi]

It's a sign that you're growing up.

[Dusk]

I, too, was addicted to MapleStory circa 2005-2010. Countless hours were spent in one spot, pressing the same two buttons so I could watch a yellow bar inch to the right. Hundreds of dollars spent in the pursuit of items to make that bar move slightly faster, and so I could look at a prettier character while doing it. High school and college GPAs damaged almost beyond repair. I didn't even have fun for the last two years.

To answer your question, I don't have a pineappleing clue. So I could have a higher level than my online friends?

[Untradeable]

RIP Craig. :(

[Onion Knight]

I've done my fair share of pointless navel-gazing on this topic and my conclusion so far is this:

For all it's flaws, currently it's the only mindless passive entertainment that holds my prolonged interest during whatever downtime I have. Maybe that'll change, maybe it won't, but for me it's doing it's job as a video game just fine for now.

[KhainiWest]

Now go post this on the maplestory forum, or even basilmarket. Your epiphany is so old and over stated that players actually have default defensive arguments for it.

[Chew]

Because you haven't found any other game that replaces your addiction to MapleStory?

[xparasite9]

Now go post this on the maplestory forum, or even basilmarket. Your epiphany is so old and over stated that players actually have default defensive arguments for it.

"God forbid should a international multimillion corporation want to make money"
"you don't HAVE to play, you know"
"It's not pay to win because there is no win"
"I get along fine playing this game without spending money" (of course these people never have any characters above Lv135)

Oh, and "you're only saying this because of your bad luck!"

[Zerard]

I feel for you... I really do.

The only reason I play MapleStory anymore is to play with my friends, or just when I have nothing else to kill my time on. Back when I started playing, I was lured in by it's unique aesthetics and gameplay; it was very entertaining and addicting, as anyone here will probably tell you- being presented with the same question. But... seeing Nexon's business practices over the years, the lack of effort to properly take after the health of their game, and most of all... the innocent players that are banned falsely that just continue to grow in number... It's more than unsettling. I feel that Nexon's thirst for money just increases, and increases... They offer tiny things to keep the players hooked, such as 2x exp and drop, and free rewards from events, but... Ultimately as you said, it's all for the purpose of keeping you entranced in their game, thus increasing the opportunities for which you, the customer, to spend money. And the way the game itself is set up... eventually, you'll either feel compelled to spend money to even hope to stand a chance against the major bosses, or just quit upon realizing that if you don't spend, then it'd all be pointless.

There are three people who I play Maple with. We have all spent money on this game (albeit not as much compared to some others). And I imagine if any of us were put into the situation you're in right now... that all of us would quit.

[OmegazeroGA]

In my own personal experiences with playing this game before fully quitting is that I realized I can never really "feel accomplished" if that makes any sense to anyone.

[danielcatu]

of course these people never have any characters above Lv135
"

this really piss me off
I been 120 on my wind archer for like three years and I must say the lvl doesnt matter you can always find ways to enjoy the game itself... doing events, traits... etc... oh just chilling around with friends

all my equips and items are from events.... i cant say I'm overpòwered but I can do something actually

without spending any money on my char(aside 5k nx) I can say I'm really enjoying the way I play with it

I know a little part of this forum knows me as a wind archer lover and I know... sounds weird my main was a wa before we got our lvl cap raise but I really know and like the effort I've put on this single char

sorry for my bad english .... I just wanted to say the level doesnt matter if you're enjoying the game :(

[xparasite9]

this really piss me off
I been 120 on my wind archer for like three years and I must say the lvl doesnt matter you can always find ways to enjoy the game itself... doing events, traits... etc... oh just chilling around with friends

all my equips and items are from events.... i cant say I'm overpòwered but I can do something actually

without spending any money on my char(aside 5k nx) I can say I'm really enjoying the way I play with it

I know a little part of this forum knows me as a wind archer lover and I know... sounds weird my main was a wa before we got our lvl cap raise but I really know and like the effort I've put on this single char

sorry for my bad english .... I just wanted to say the level doesnt matter if you're enjoying the game :(

I understand the frustration my statement causes, but I would like to at least try to put it into some perspective here.

I'm having some trouble. um...
Okay how about you have a soccer ball, but you can only kick it around in alleyways. Sure you can have some fun doing that, but you're never playing any real games. And yo---you know I'm really terrible at putting this into perspective. Would anyone else like to take a crack at it?

[Tigeon]

I understand the frustration my statement causes, but I would like to at least try to put it into some perspective here.

I'm having some trouble. um...
Okay how about you have a soccer ball, but you can only kick it around in alleyways. Sure you can have some fun doing that, but you're never playing any real games. And yo---you know I'm really terrible at putting this into perspective. Would anyone else like to take a crack at it?

Would Plato's cave theory be what you're getting at here?

[xparasite9]

Would Plato's cave theory be what you're getting at here?

I suppose that would be one way of looking at it.
It's just when you stop at a fairly short level range and refrain from progressing, you can still technically have fun screwing around, but you're not really playing *the* game, but using it as a platform to make your own games.
If you choose to actually progress further you eventually find that doing so becomes increasingly impossible without NX.

[Alloy]

I've only spent money once in this game, just for display. To anvil spectrum goggles.

And never again, from the looks of it, because this game is better off played with a different mindset than other games. I actually enjoy doing pqs with people, fighting "low tier" bosses, and doing events... Even if I don't improve much as a character. However, I see this satisfaction as good as the one a flash game could give, and that's completely not worth my money.

What's sadder is that there's a lot of new ways to make decorative cash items useful, but they prefer to keep the old "pay to win" style, without realizing that the bigger the gap between payers and freebies gets, the bigger the crack in the community goes. And that crack (freebies quitting) only makes the whole thing shatter (payers quitting due to friends, freebies mainly, quitting) faster. If the gap wasn't so huge as to be able to hit x100 times a non-paying character, people would hang out more, and feel useful to the team even if they choose to not spend thousands of dollars, wich in return would make those paying customers stay. It's a short-term profit mindset, that pays up in the long term.

How much money would you spend in this game, if instead playing a gamble for stats, you could summon a character in your account as a familiar to help you attack, and his equipment would show up? And what about a familiar anvil, to make familiars exchange appearance? Or what about paying for damage number skins? A tool to recolour your skills one by one? And what about additional unneeded buffs like the already existing inventory expansions, buddy slots past 100, the stores, etc...

I think they forgot what made Maplestory so popular. And it wasn't about big numbers showing up.