What Every Mapler Should Know

We take for granted some fairly basic things that have been around here and are common knowledge to us but make new people look stupid because they wouldn't know them unless they dug through some 50,000 threads to find them one by one, so here is a list of the top things every newbie should know before they post.

In no particular order -

1. GMs are Not Developers
   A GM is generally an entry-level employee who sits at a desk all day doing shifts of one of two things: patrolling in game to deal with suspicious activity, and responding to tickets by searching an online knowledge base for what the approved resolution for the nearest possible match is, and closing the tickets with that answer. Most of their answers are copy pasted because they have no ability to do much else. A good chunk of their answers are wrong because they don't understand what your issue is and/or don't have a knowledge article to address it in the way they tried looking for it or the way you phrased it. A GM has no control over the actual game code or the hardware. See #4.
   
2. Community Reps Have No Power
   (Examples: Hime, Sabina, Aurtax) They're effectively desk clerks in charge of the company newsletters. In many cases they're not even truly comparable to what you think of as a GM. They writes up Notices to say what they've been told to say. They collect user feedback and pass it on to superiors who may or may not care. They have little authority to enact change. It's not their fault, that's what their job is. As of 2013 we're seeing them become more involved outside the Nexon forums, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're any more capable. They're still limited by what they can get the people in power to do and how well listened to they are by those people.
   
3. Wizet is part of Nexon. It never went away. ^{4, 5}
   
   Quote:

   ---

   Daniel Chin (NXNeutral)
   Q) How did Nexon America begin and what exactly is Wizet’s relationship to Nexon? What is Wizet’s current status?
   A) Nexon America is Nexon Corporation’s North American publishing and game service arm. We started with the localization of MapleStory for North America, and have grown to support multiple game launches in North America. Wizet is the developer of MapleStory and also a subsidiary of Nexon Corporation. The Wizet team continues to develop and add content to MapleStory around the world.

   ---

   Quote:

   ---

   We were Wizet and NX Games until we finally became Nexon America. It’s funny how people talk about how different things were during the early days when Wizet was around, but Nexon America has always been pretty much the same people doing the same things under a new logo. When the site changes to BlockParty.com, we’ll probably hear about how much people miss Nexon America.

   ---

4. All Nexon Development occurs in Seoul, Korea¹
   Every little thing has to be designed in Korea and then sent over to local developers who do nothing more than apply it and see if it works. If it fails, is buggy, or creates a giant disaster of an expoit, Korea has to be notified, given as much information as possible, and then the local teams sits on their asses and waits for Korea to come up with an answer, receives the "answer", test it again, and see if it works. If it doesn't work the whole thing starts over again.
   
5. New Content and Events Are Planned Months In Advance¹
   Because of #4 everything has to be planned out on a massive calendar of what's intended to come up and what has to be done when in order for each next step to occur. It's no coincidence that a shiny new item will come out as gach only until you bleed for it, then be easily available in six months. They didn't decide on a whim that it was so loved everyone should have one; they planned from the beginning to get as much money for it up front before letting it go public. They're a business; that's what they do. They do not release content as surprises or on a whim, and most especially do not release fundamentally new things as compensation.
   
6. Nexon Corporate Headquarters is Tokyo, Japan^2,3
   We don't know why, either, but for some reason they decided to move there for operational purposes. This may be due to them having picked Tokyo's stock market as the best place to release their IPO, or it may have been for tax reasons, or any other number of possibilities.
   
7. Nexon America's Headquarters is in Los Angeles, California
   Don't bother calling them though, they won't speak to you, particularly about your issues. Their front desk can not help you, has no one to transfer you to, and really doesn't care. Nor will they accept complaints through the Better Business Bureau or any "Third Party" as they deem it, short of legal action.
   
8. Client vs Server
   The portion of the game that runs on your PC is the client. Your client connects to the game, which is the server. In a normal client/server relationship your client is a passive recipient of events from your server. You send what you attempt to do, the server parses it and reacts accordingly, then sends the results to your client to update.
   
   Nexon games have a serious flaw in that they allow the client to dictate to the server what is happening, instead of the client telling the server what it would like to have happen and the server making the judgment as to whether it's a rational request. This why Nexon games are so exploitable.
   
9. Server Check vs Update
   
   A server check is when the servers are taken down for routine maintenance. Windows updates, defragging, database cleanup, server moves, name changes. They generally occur once a week. During server check unreleased content that was added in previous updates may be activated or deactivated in the form of special events and cash shop content.
   An update is when the game receives a new version, the WZ files get updated. An update generally includes a server check in it, but a server check does not necessarily mean an update. Content added in an update may not be available in game for weeks, or even months. It can just sit in the game data dormant until it's activated by a later server check.
   Both server checks and updates are also known as "Maintenances".
   
10. Junk Scrolling Isn't Real
    You can not manipulate the odds of a scroll succeeding by "using up" your fails.
    It might sound reasonable, but that's not how a computer program works.
    Every time you scroll it generates a number between 1 and 100. It doesn't look at what your past results are and say "oh, you deserve a success now". Your roll of the die is occurring at the same time as hundreds of thousands of other players so it's entirely possible that out of several hundred thousand players all rolling the odds simultaneously you may fail a 90% chance, repeatedly, because 90% of the other people didn't. For detailed math see Wikipedia's explanation of the Gambler's Fallacy.
    
    
11. "Glitch" vs "Hack"
    A glitch is a naturally occurring error in the game. This can be due to a misconfiguration of the client or the server. A glitch can be positive or negative. An example positive glitch would be bigfoot having been poisonable originally. This was a mistake that meant he could be killed quite easily for large amounts of experience. A negative glitch example would be when phantom forest first came out and was missing a ladder. Anyone who entered the map would crash and be unable to get back in. Exploiting a positive glitch is a form of abuse. It doesn't matter that it's Nexon's fault it's doable. It's your responsibility to know better than to do it.
    
    A hack is when someone uses a third party tool to modify the way the game works. This can be editing a WZ file to change how it behaves, using a packet editor to send commands to the server that the client itself would not normally send, injecting a dll into the client to rewrite how it behaves or any number of similar things. Regardless of why they're done, they're all against the terms of service and they're all wrong.
    
    It could be argued that there's a third version; Modding. Modding is when you use a tool to edit the physical appearance of the game, not the actual gameplay. Some example usages of this would be changing the dictionary to make it clearer which items are which by name, or editing the sprites on certain mobs/objects to make them stand out more from each other, or changing your character's appearance. Or making meteor rain flaming sheep from the sky. The results of honest modding are only visible on your own machine, and while mostly considered "legit", is still a form of hacking and against the TOS.
    
12. If it's too good to be true, you should not trust it.
    Nexon has said this repeatedly. If you do something they consider abuse it doesn't matter who got away with it, it doesn't matter who else did it. If they think you should be punished for it and are certain you did it, you'll pay the price and depending on how moody they are at the time the severity can vary wildly. Pay attention, use your head, and be prepared to defend anything you do. "I didn't know it was wrong" is seldom a valid excuse.
    
13. "It's just a game".
    While true, the point of a game is to have fun. People who go out of their way to ruin the fun of a game for other people as their own way of having fun are known as griefers. They're a miserable excuse of a player who should really find a different hobby.
    

References

1. http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/189..._with_GMs.html
2. http://venturebeat.com/company/nexon/
3. http://ir.nexon.co.jp/en/
4. http://maple-news.com/2009/07/31/int...nexon-america/
5. http://maple-news.com/2010/05/11/int...olopment-team/

well written.

approving

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

"It's just a game".
While true, the point of a game is to have fun. People who go out of their way to ruin the fun of a game for other people as their own way of having fun are known as griefers. They're a miserable excuse of a player who should really find a different hobby.

---

God, this made my day.
Something over half of the players aren't comprehending until this day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

• Client vs Server
  The portion of the game that runs on your PC is the client. Your client connects to the game, which is the server. In a normal client/server relationship your client is a passive recipient of events from your client. You send what you attempt to do, the server parses it and reacts accordingly, then sends the results to your client to update.

---

Is this a typo, or am I just misreading things again?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rhayn

Is this a typo, or am I just misreading things again?

---

Nah, three rounds of people reviewing it before it went public all managed to miss that one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by warustar

God, this made my day.
Something over half of the players aren't comprehending until this day.

---

Ugh, ikr?

Is there a way for you to make this a mandatory auto-read thing for everyone who registers to SP Eos? Like... forever? Cause that would be awesome.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seanny

Is there a way for you to make this a mandatory auto-read thing for everyone who registers to SP Eos? Like... forever? Cause that would be awesome.

---

That would be what brought here, yes.

Awesome Job.
Now if only people read this haha.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seanny

Ugh, ikr?

Is there a way for you to make this a mandatory auto-read thing for everyone who registers to SP Eos? Like... forever? Cause that would be awesome.

---

That's a brilliant idea -- people NEED that as a wake-up call.
And yeah, my take on Maple has always been fun and adventure-oriented. Contrastingly, I'm always shamed for it because of what Eos calls griefers.
It's sad because those people always complain about the game's flaws and how they can't stand playing..why can't they just quit and save us the irritation? Of course, that will probably never end as much as I wish it would.

Might go visit the corporate headquarters, or at least see if I can find it. Seems like something fun to do.

Really good read and good background info on Nexon. Should really shut up some complaining in some situations, but I doubt it.

Well written, and very much needed. Thank you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrazyForDex

Really good read and good background info on Nexon. Should really shut up some complaining in some situations, but I doubt it.

---

Yeah, that's literally impossible. If those possessed players of MapleStory are too oblivious to accept those truths, why would they accept it now? They're in complete denial about the way they run their life (which I'm sure should be evident to you all already..), and like Eos said, they need a new hobby.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rhayn

Is this a typo, or am I just misreading things again?

---

Typo.
<Proofreadingmode>
1. "reading tickets by searching an online knowledge base" - should either be "responding to tickets by searching ..." or "reading tickets and searching ..."
2. newsletters, not "news letters"
whose, not "who's" (who's = who is)
4. I thought JMS did their own development. Or is their team situated in Korea too?
5. "everyone should have one", not "had"
9. "dormant", not "dorment".
Also, Nexon themselves no longer use the term "server check" except in the infamous "firewall or server check" error message. It's always "server maintenance". Of course, players will probably continue calling it "server check" for as long as the game exists.
</Proofreadingmode>

Good work.

A link to this should be posted in everyones guild notice or guild bbs.

At least I think so.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by warustar

That's a brilliant idea -- people NEED that as a wake-up call.
And yeah, my take on Maple has always been fun and adventure-oriented. Contrastingly, I'm always shamed for it because of what Eos calls griefers.
It's sad because those people always complain about the game's flaws and how they can't stand playing..why can't they just quit and save us the irritation? Of course, that will probably never end as much as I wish it would.

---

That's not what is meant by "griefers" at all.
Griefers aren't whiners and complainers.
Griefers are those who KS and DC hack for fun, who scam, drop game, harass, and in general enjoy causing other people grief, with or without tangible benefit to themselves.

Whiners and serial complainers are a whole 'nother type of irritant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaptaZapta

That's not what is meant by "griefers" at all.
Griefers aren't whiners and complainers.
Griefers are those who KS and DC hack for fun, who scam, drop game, harass, and in general enjoy causing other people grief, with or without tangible benefit to themselves.

Whiners and serial complainers are a whole 'nother type of irritant.

---

Eeek. Sorry about that, I actually meant to say it differently. I should have proofread what I wrote. >:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by warustar

That's a brilliant idea -- people NEED that as a wake-up call.
And yeah, my take on Maple has always been fun and adventure-oriented. Contrastingly, that outlook is always disrupted because of what Eos calls griefers.

Additionally, it's sad that people always complain about the game's flaws and how they can't stand playing..why can't they just quit and save us the irritation? Of course, that will probably never end as much as I wish it would.

---

There. I meant for them to actually be different. o:

Very well written and very good info to have! -bookmarked-

Eventhough I've been playing since 2005 I ignored some of the things you wrote. That was interesting. =o
Learned I new thing today. XP

*claps*

All players need to see this. Very well done.

Excellent thread. Thank you very much for posting this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RedRaven16

A link to this should be posted in everyones guild notice or guild bbs.

At least I think so.

---

That certainly would prevent needless quarreling.

Some people will defend gambler's fallacy to their graves.

That makes me mad.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark

Some people will defend gambler's fallacy to their graves.

That makes me mad.

---

Sad too, because you can easily prove it false just by using a penny and a quarter and seeing if one will magically influence the odds of the other based on number of flips.

Common sense in my eyes, but common sense isn't all that common anymore, so this is nice nonetheless. It's nice that someone in your position finally officially explained how much of a game being client sided correlates with the ease of hacking to the general public. It won't change Nexon's client setup I'm sure, but at least it will make people slightly more educated and less prone to talking completely out of their asses.

Very well written and very informative.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

"It's just a game".
While true, the point of a game is to have fun. People who go out of their way to ruin the fun of a game for other people as their own way of having fun are known as griefers. They're a miserable excuse of a player who should really find a different hobby.

---

Doesn't matter how long you have played, the quote above is always relevant.

Thanks for this. So much uninformed Nexon bashing (Not to say that I have a problem with informed Nexon bashing though.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaptaZapta

Typo.
<Proofreadingmode>
1. "reading tickets by searching an online knowledge base" - should either be "responding to tickets by searching ..." or "reading tickets and searching ..."
2. newsletters, not "news letters"
whose, not "who's" (who's = who is)
4. I thought JMS did their own development. Or is their team situated in Korea too?
5. "everyone should have one", not "had"
9. "dormant", not "dorment".
Also, Nexon themselves no longer use the term "server check" except in the infamous "firewall or server check" error message. It's always "server maintenance". Of course, players will probably continue calling it "server check" for as long as the game exists.
</Proofreadingmode>

Good work.

---

Crap, I thought I caught all of them. Believe me, there were a lot more typos before this :f3:. Guess I should've read it twice.

There's your source locked :f3:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corn

Crap, I thought I caught all of them. Believe me, there were a lot more typos before this :f3:. Guess I should've read it twice.

---

It happens, just remember to take a cool down time before you attempt to proof something. This allows you time to actually read it instead or memory kicking in and causing you to miss your errors. The more important the writing is, the longer you should wait.

This needs to be read by all that play MS, unfortunately not many would take the time to read it and be informed. Thank you for all the effort you put into this.

Huh, i did learn little bits from that even after all my years of playing. I bet this would be very useful for newer players, nice work.

I guess thinking this was common knowledge was a mistake, haha.

Glad to see it auto-prompts users to read it, though there's no guarantee they'll get anything from it.

Just a little thing about "Gambler's Fallacy":

Though the odds of success are not increasing by, let's say, 3 failed 60% scrolls in a row. The chance of having 4 fails in a row is just small. But indeed, this doesn't affect the chance of success rate of your next scroll if 3 scrolls failed in a row. ;)

Also, the chance of something that -might- happen, is not a guarantee that something -will- happen.

Could you please add the lhc hack as an example of a hack to help people distinguish between a glitch and a hack? I am so sick of people talking about "glitched" maps at lhc instead of the correct term; "hacked"map as it makes it sound as though what they're doing isn't as bad as it is.

Overall this is awesome. Every time somebody on the forum doesn't seem to understand something in this, can we post this link? :-)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Heidi

Could you please add the lhc hack as an example of a hack to help people distinguish between a glitch and a hack? I am so sick of people talking about "glitched" maps at lhc instead of the correct term; "hacked"map as it makes it sound as though what they're doing isn't as bad as it is.

---

People need to realize that taking advantage of a problem makes them part of the problem. I had to leave a perfectly good LHC party with a 2x card still active yesterday because they bought someone to "glitch" the map, and I absolutely refuse to take part in that garbage regardless of whether or not I'm losing time and money.

Thank you sir. Mostly stuff I already knew but a few things I didn't. I especially like how you've elaborated the "it's just a game" part.

Anyway, maple has gotten to the point of where it's almost the norm to cheat in one way or another. This can't be blamed completely on the hackers because of Nexon's lack of effort and negligence to deal with hackers/exploits/exploiters in a timely and responsible manner. The amount of tolerance seems to fluctuate as swiftly as the amount of profit Nexon gains, i.e. more money for Nexon seems to somehow cause more tolerance for hackers imo. Something is definitely wrong with that.

There are still a lot of people who refuse to cheat (I myself have been SOOO tempted to buy obviously-duped GM scrolls/ws but to this point I still never even bought one, my patience is wearing paper thin though). But now, these same legit people, who have held up the game are now looked down upon by others because "you don't spend your money wisely". The community being full of selfish people (it always has been, but not as high as now imo), I think, is an indirect result of Nexon being selfish themselves (and by selfish I mean keeping the EE hacked items in the game, even making such items MTS-able, because it obviously boosts their profits; among other reasons.).

Nevertheless, it is the cheaters and abusers who have soured everything the most.

Edit: please sticky this thread!

Edit2: posted a link to this on basil. I hope you do not mind - I can lock the thread if you do.

Thanks for that fantastic write-up, it is informative and well written and address many frequently held misconceptions.

I'm just curious about this statement:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

Nor will they accept complaints through the Better Business Bureau or any "Third Party" as they deem it, short of legal action.

---

I don't know anything about the Better Business Bureau but I assume that it's similar to our offices of Fair Trading, in that they are a government agency intended to inform consumers and to handle complaints from consumers about businesses. Over here, businesses are generally obliged to respond to complaints from consumers sent via the Fair Trading offices, otherwise it may escalate to the matter being heard at the local tribunals.

Does the BBB perform a similar function? I don't understand how Nexon can refuse to accept a complaint if they have been served a notice said complaint by the BBB. Has their refusal to accept complaints been documented before?

Well written, I enjoyed reading it.
Hopefully it will pierce through the minds of those lacking common sense.

Reminds me of duelingnetwork.
Nice job.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Razmos

Huh, i did learn little bits from that even after all my years of playing. I bet this would be very useful for newer players, nice work.

---

This. Neat to learn Nexon games suck so much with regards to exploits because their server/client relationship is illogical. Lolz.

Someone should post the OP on Maple's FB fan page.

Great post, however the section on gambler's fallacy contains an example gambler's fallacy itself:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

...you may fail a 90% chance, repeatedly, because 90% of the other people didn't.

---

Each scrolling is an independent event, unrelated to other scrollings - repeatedly failing a 90% scroll is not caused by others passing 90% scrolls, it's just chance.

A++ post would read again, must be shown to the playerbase

good read EOS

I thought all those things should have been common knowledge by now (except the tokyo thing)...Either good read

Cool, now I can save my time from most arguments by just linking to this post.

At first I thought I had done something wrong.

I am very glad I read this. Will share.

Glad this was finally written.

Nice to see this.

Great thread Mr.. I just wish you would highlight the last part of the post, the "It's just a game reference". I've seen it posted every where so many freaking times and it always sickens me.

And don't pretend this is common knowledge. Some of it might be obvious or known by experienced players, but it definitely isn't as wide as common knowledge when more than half of the MS comunity doesn't know most of it,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

[*]"It's just a game".
While true, the point of a game is to have fun. People who go out of their way to ruin the fun of a game for other people as their own way of having fun are known as griefers. They're a miserable excuse of a player who should really find a different hobby.

---

Someone should post this on Basil. >_>

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrTouchnGo

Someone should post this on Basil. >_>

---

We already did a couple hours ago.
Believe IIMaplers was the OP.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raul

We already did a couple hours ago.
Believe IIMaplers was the OP.

---

Mind giving me a link? I don't feel like trying to find it with Basil's current lag.

Edit: Nevermind, just went to your basil page and found it.

Well written indeed.

Can I share in ThMS forum?

Loved every word of this.

I'll be honest: this really shut myself up in things I thought I knew or didn't have the slightest idea.

But now I know, and hopefully will make better judgment on what I may say or how I view things in the future. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Unauthorized Intruder

Can I share in ThMS forum?

---

As long as you link back for credit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Unauthorized Intruder

Can I share in ThMS forum?

---

As long as you link back for credit.

Sorry but, Where's the source for this? If every job is done by korea, nothing/much would be added to KMS. They wouldn't get anything done with a process like that. Also if the headquarters is in japan, Why was MS created in korea first, Nexon was brought up in korea first, every Copyright at the bottom of any nexon game says Nexon korea?


Just seems all over the place if this is true.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mario

Sorry but, Where's the source for this? If every job is done by korea, nothing/much would be added to KMS. They wouldn't get anything done with a process like that. Also if the headquarters is in japan, Why was MS created in korea first, Nexon was brought up in korea first, every Copyright at the bottom of any nexon game says Nexon korea?

---

they said it on the gm blog long time ago, i can't find the link right now, but they already stated, everything is done in korea.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mario

Sorry but, Where's the source for this? If every job is done by korea, nothing/much would be added to KMS. They wouldn't get anything done with a process like that. Also if the headquarters is in japan, Why was MS created in korea first, Nexon was brought up in korea first, every Copyright at the bottom of any nexon game says Nexon korea?


Just seems all over the place if this is true.

---

I think it's safe to assume that they employ the number of staff in Korea that they require to maintain more than just KMS

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mario

Sorry but, Where's the source for this? If every job is done by korea, nothing/much would be added to KMS. They wouldn't get anything done with a process like that. Also if the headquarters is in japan, Why was MS created in korea first, Nexon was brought up in korea first, every Copyright at the bottom of any nexon game says Nexon korea?

---

Congrats, you are the exact sort of person this is for. I find it amusing people can skeptical of things that disagree with how they think things work but never think to question their own sources for how they decided things are.

http://venturebeat.com/company/nexon/

Quote:

---

The company, which was started in Korea and moved its headquarters to Tokyo,

---

or, and I know this is a real stretch, read their own investor relations homepage;

http://ir.nexon.co.jp/en/

Quote:

---

Founded in South Korea in 1994 and currently headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, NEXON pioneered the free-to-play business model as it was one of the first companies to understand and capitalize on the opportunity to provide deeply immersive online games for a global audience.

---

As for who does the work, put the pieces together;

http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=32288
http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=39014
http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=41629

I'll go proofread mode as well because I love this thread that much. :shine:

Some of it is suggestions for better word choice / structure but there are some typos I found too.

Post versions [old+corrections] and [new w/ corrections applied].

Key:
(-) = Delete char, word, or term preceding it
(, ; : .) = Insert Punctuation. Replace punctuation preceding it
(word/sentence) = Insert word or sentence. Replace word/sentence preceding it if it's similar or not separate by a space.



GMs are Not Developers
A GM is generally an entry-level employee who sits at a desk all day doing shifts of one of two things: patrolling in game to deal with suspicious activity,(-) and responding to tickets by searching an online knowledge base for what the approved resolution for the nearest possible match is,(-) and(then) closing the tickets with that answer. Most of their answers are copy pasted because they have no ability to do much else. A good chunk of their answers are wrong because they don't understand what your issue is and/or don't have a knowledge article to address it in the way they tried looking for it or the way you phrased it. A GM has no control over the actual game code or the hardware. See #4.

GMs are Not Developers
A GM is generally an entry-level employee who sits at a desk all day doing shifts of one of two things: patrolling in game to deal with suspicious activity and responding to tickets by searching an online knowledge base for what the approved resolution for the nearest possible match is then closing the tickets with that answer. Most of their answers are copy pasted because they have no ability to do much else. A good chunk of their answers are wrong because they don't understand what your issue is and/or don't have a knowledge article to address it in the way they tried looking for it or the way you phrased it. A GM has no control over the actual game code or the hardware. See #4.




Hime Has No Power
She's effectively a desk clerk in charge of the company newsletters. She writes up Notices to say what she's been told to say. She collects user feedback and passes it on to superiors who mostly don't care. She herself has no more power than your average word processor. It's not her fault she can't get things done; she's just in a really crappy job whose main purpose is to be the name to attach to the hatred when things don't go your way.




All Nexon Development occurs in Seoul, Korea
Every little thing has to be designed in Korea and then sent over to local developers who do nothing more than apply it and see if it works. If it(something) fails, is buggy, or creates a giant disaster of(resulting in) an expoit(exploit), Korea has to be notified,(-) (and) given as much information as possible,(.) and(-) then the local teams(team) sits on their asses(,) and(-) waits for Korea to come up with an answer, receives the "answer", test(tests) it again(-), and see(sees) if it works. If it doesn't work (,then) the whole thing starts over again.

All Nexon Development occurs in Seoul, Korea
Every little thing has to be designed in Korea and then sent over to local developers who do nothing more than apply it and see if it works. If something fails, is buggy, or creates a giant disaster resulting in an exploit, Korea has to be notified and given as much information as possible. Then the local team sits on their asses, waits for Korea to come up with an answer, receives the "answer", tests it, and sees if it works. If it doesn't work, then the whole thing starts over again.




New Content and Events Are Planned Months In Advance
Because of #4(,) everything has to be planned out on a massive calendar of(on) what's intended to come up(-)(,) and(-) what has to be done(,) (and) in (what) order for each next step to occur. It's no coincidence that a shiny new item will come out as gach only(gach-only) until you bleed for it, (and)then be easily available in six months. They didn't decide on a whim that it was so loved everyone should have one; they planned from the beginning to get as much money for it up front before letting it go public. They're a business; that's what they do. They do not release content as surprises or on a whim, and most especially do not release fundamentally new things as compensation.

New Content and Events Are Planned Months In Advance
Because of #4, everything has to be planned out on a massive calendar on what has to be done, what's intended to come, and in what order for each next step to occur. It's no coincidence that a shiny new item will come out as gach-only until you bleed for it, and then be easily available in six months. They didn't decide on a whim that it was so loved everyone should have one; they planned from the beginning to get as much money for it up front before letting it go public. They're a business; that's what they do. They do not release content as surprises or on a whim, and most especially do not release fundamentally new things as compensation.




Nexon America's Headquarters is in Los Angeles, California
Don't bother calling them though,(:) they won't speak to you, particularly about your issues. Their front desk can not(cannot) help you, has no one to transfer you to, and really doesn't care. Nor will they accept complaints through the Better Business Bureau or any "Third Party" as they deem it, short of legal action. (massive edit)

Nexon America's Headquarters is in Los Angeles, California
Don't bother calling them though: they won't speak to you, particularly about your issues, nor will they accept complaints through the Better Business Bureau or any "Third Party" as they deem it, short of legal action. Their front desk cannot help you, has no one to transfer you to, and really doesn't care.




Client vs Server
The portion of the game that runs on your PC is the client. Your client connects to the game, which is the server. In a normal client/server relationship your client is a passive recipient of events from your(the) server. You send what you attempt to do, (then) the server parses it and(-)(,) reacts accordingly, then sends the results to your client to update.
Nexon games have a serious flaw in that(where) they allow the client to dictate to the server what is happening,(-) instead of the client telling the server what it would like to have happen and the server making the judgment as to whether it's a rational request. This (is) why Nexon games are so exploitable.

Client vs Server
The portion of the game that runs on your PC is the client. Your client connects to the game, which is the server. In a normal client/server relationship your client is a passive recipient of events from the server. You send what you attempt to do then the server parses it, reacts accordingly, then sends the results to your client to update.
Nexon games have a serious flaw where they allow the client to dictate to the server what is happening instead of the client telling the server what it would like to have happen and the server making the judgment as to whether it's a rational request. This is why Nexon games are so exploitable.




Server Check vs Update
A server check is when the servers are taken down for routine maintenance.(-)(for things like) Windows updates, defragging, database cleanup, server moves, (and) name changes. They generally occur once a week. During (a) server check(,) unreleased content that was added in previous updates may be activated or deactivated in the form of special events and(/or) cash shop content.
An update is when the game receives a new version,(-)(and) the WZ files get updated. An update generally includes a server check in it,(-) but a server check does not necessarily mean an update. Content added in an update may not be available in game for weeks,(-) or even months.(:) It(it) can just sit in the game data dormant until it's activated by a later server check.
Both server checks and updates are also known as "Maintenances"(Maintenance).

Server Check vs Update
A server check is when the servers are taken down for routine maintenance for things like Windows updates, defragging, database cleanup, server moves, and name changes. They generally occur once a week. During a server check, unreleased content that was added in previous updates may be activated or deactivated in the form of special events and/or cash shop content.
An update is when the game receives a new version and the WZ files get updated. An update generally includes a server check in it but a server check does not necessarily mean an update. Content added in an update may not be available in game for weeks or even months: it can just sit in the game data dormant until it's activated by a later server check.
Both server checks and updates are also known as "Maintenance".




Junk Scrolling Isn't Real
You can not manipulate the odds of a scroll succeeding by "using up" your fails.
It might sound reasonable, but that's not how a computer program works.
Every time you scroll it generates a number between 1 and 100. It doesn't look at what your past results are and say "oh, you deserve a success now". Your roll of the die is occurring at the same time as hundreds of thousands of other players so it's entirely possible that(,) out of several hundred thousand players all rolling the odds simultaneously(,) you may fail a 90% chance, repeatedly, because 90% of the other people didn't. For detailed math see Wikipedia's explanation of the Gambler's Fallacy.

Junk Scrolling Isn't Real
You can not manipulate the odds of a scroll succeeding by "using up" your fails.
It might sound reasonable, but that's not how a computer program works.
Every time you scroll it generates a number between 1 and 100. It doesn't look at what your past results are and say "oh, you deserve a success now". Your roll of the die is occurring at the same time as hundreds of thousands of other players so it's entirely possible that, out of several hundred thousand players all rolling the odds simultaneously, you may fail a 90% chance, repeatedly, because 90% of the other people didn't. For detailed math see Wikipedia's explanation of the Gambler's Fallacy.




"Glitch" vs "Hack"
A glitch is a naturally occurring error in the game. This can be due to a misconfiguration of the client or the server. A glitch can be positive or negative. An example (of a) positive glitch would be bigfoot(Bigfoot) having been poisonable originally.(:) This(this) was a mistake that meant he could be killed quite easily for large amounts of experience. A negative glitch example (An example of a negative glitch) would be when phantom forest(Phantom Forest) first came out(released) and was missing a ladder.(-)(:) Anyone(anyone) who entered the map would crash and be unable to get back in. Exploiting a positive glitch is a form of abuse. It doesn't matter that it's Nexon's fault it's doable(exploitable).(;) It's(it's) your responsibility to know better than to do it.

A hack is when someone uses a third party tool to modify the way the game works. This can be (done by) editing a WZ file to change how it behaves, using a packet editor to send commands to the server that the client itself would not normally send, injecting a dll into the client to rewrite how it behaves or any number of similar things. Regardless of why they're done, they're all against the terms of service and they're all wrong.

It could be argued that there's a third version;(:) Modding(modding). Modding is when you use a tool to edit the physical appearance of the game, not the actual gameplay. Some example usages of this (Examples of modding) would be changing the dictionary to make it clearer which items are which by name, or(-) editing the sprites on certain mobs/objects to make them stand out more from each other, or changing your character's appearance. Or (even) making meteor rain flaming sheep from the sky. The results of honest modding are only visible on your own machine, and while mostly considered "legit", is still a form of hacking and against the TOS. (Although the results of honest modding are only visible on your own machine and is mostly considered "legit", it is still a form of hacking and against the TOS.)

"Glitch" vs "Hack"
A glitch is a naturally occurring error in the game. This can be due to a misconfiguration of the client or the server. A glitch can be positive or negative. An example of a positive glitch would be Bigfoot having been poisonable originally: this was a mistake that meant he could be killed quite easily for large amounts of experience. An example of a negative glitch would be when Phantom Forest first released and was missing a ladder: anyone who entered the map would crash and be unable to get back in. Exploiting a positive glitch is a form of abuse. It doesn't matter that it's Nexon's fault it's exploitable; it's your responsibility to know better than to do it.

A hack is when someone uses a third party tool to modify the way the game works. This can be done by editing a WZ file to change how it behaves, using a packet editor to send commands to the server that the client itself would not normally send, injecting a dll into the client to rewrite how it behaves or any number of similar things. Regardless of why they're done, they're all against the terms of service and they're all wrong.

It could be argued that there's a third version: modding. Modding is when you use a tool to edit the physical appearance of the game, not the actual gameplay. Examples of modding would be changing the dictionary to make it clearer which items are which by name, editing the sprites on certain mobs/objects to make them stand out more from each other, or changing your character's appearance. Or even making meteor rain flaming sheep from the sky. Although the results of honest modding are only visible on your own machine and is mostly considered "legit", it is still a form of hacking and against the TOS.




If it's too good to be true, you should not trust it.
Nexon has said this repeatedly.(:) If(if) you do something they consider abuse(,) it doesn't matter who got away with it,(-)(and) it doesn't matter who else did it. If they think you should be punished for it and are certain you did it, you'll pay the price and(,) depending on how moody they are at the time(,) the severity can vary wildly. Pay attention, use your head, and be prepared to defend anything you do. "I didn't know it was wrong" is seldom a valid excuse.

If it's too good to be true, you should not trust it.
Nexon has said this repeatedly: if you do something they consider abuse, it doesn't matter who got away with it and it doesn't matter who else did it. If they think you should be punished for it and are certain you did it, you'll pay the price and, depending on how moody they are at the time, the severity can vary wildly. Pay attention, use your head, and be prepared to defend anything you do. "I didn't know it was wrong" is seldom a valid excuse.




"It's just a game".
While true, the point of a game is to have fun. People who go out of their way to ruin the fun of a game for other people as their own way of having fun are known as griefers. They're a miserable excuse of a player who should really find a different hobby.

Nicely written, it clears up a lot of the myths or rumors.

You know I was going to keep my mouth shut but when I logged in it forced me to come here so, enjoy.

This isn't a bad idea, but it suffers from tl;dr. If the point of the thread is to educate the ignorant it has to be in a format they will digest. Combine similar points:

Quote:

---

GMs are Not Developers
A GM is generally an entry-level employee who sits at a desk all day doing shifts of one of two things: patrolling in game to deal with suspicious activity, and responding to tickets by searching an online knowledge base for what the approved resolution for the nearest possible match is, and closing the tickets with that answer. Most of their answers are copy pasted because they have no ability to do much else. A good chunk of their answers are wrong because they don't understand what your issue is and/or don't have a knowledge article to address it in the way they tried looking for it or the way you phrased it. A GM has no control over the actual game code or the hardware. See #4.
Hime Has No Power
She's effectively a desk clerk in charge of the company newsletters. She writes up Notices to say what she's been told to say. She collects user feedback and passes it on to superiors who mostly don't care. She herself has no more power than your average word processor. It's not her fault she can't get things done; she's just in a really crappy job whose main purpose is to be the name to attach to the hatred when things don't go your way.

---

Along with #4, just stating Nexam is useless.

I'd recommend dropping the points that, even if true, present irrelevant information. For example

Quote:

---

Nexon Corporate Headquarters is Tokyo, Japan
We don't know why, either, but for some reason they decided to move there for operational purposes. This may be due to them having picked Tokyo's stock market as the best place to release their IPO, or it may have been for tax reasons, or any other number of possibilities.

---

Who cares? Does them being in Tokyo affect anything? Aside from that asinine thread about suing Nexon, this fact bears no relevance on any discussion I can think of. And even in that thread it's not like this factoid would've made a difference.

You can also save space by refraining from moralizing:

Quote:

---

"Glitch" vs "Hack"
A glitch is a naturally occurring error in the game. This can be due to a misconfiguration of the client or the server. A glitch can be positive or negative. An example positive glitch would be bigfoot having been poisonable originally. This was a mistake that meant he could be killed quite easily for large amounts of experience. A negative glitch example would be when phantom forest first came out and was missing a ladder. Anyone who entered the map would crash and be unable to get back in. Exploiting a positive glitch is a form of abuse. It doesn't matter that it's Nexon's fault it's doable. It's your responsibility to know better than to do it.

A hack is when someone uses a third party tool to modify the way the game works. This can be editing a WZ file to change how it behaves, using a packet editor to send commands to the server that the client itself would not normally send, injecting a dll into the client to rewrite how it behaves or any number of similar things. Regardless of why they're done, they're all against the terms of service and they're all wrong.

It could be argued that there's a third version; Modding. Modding is when you use a tool to edit the physical appearance of the game, not the actual gameplay. Some example usages of this would be changing the dictionary to make it clearer which items are which by name, or editing the sprites on certain mobs/objects to make them stand out more from each other, or changing your character's appearance. Or making meteor rain flaming sheep from the sky. The results of honest modding are only visible on your own machine, and while mostly considered "legit", is still a form of hacking and against the TOS.

---

Aside from saying what a glitch vs a hack is, there's not much that needs to be here. Making statements about the community seems rather shortsighted when norms change with whatever exploits Nexon happened to leave in this week. I recommend refraining from referencing the TOS at all in this thread. Unless you'd like to make points 426 and 427 detailing the (also unenforced) minutia of other TOS terms.

Quote:

---

If it's too good to be true, you should not trust it.
Nexon has said this repeatedly. If you do something they consider abuse it doesn't matter who got away with it, it doesn't matter who else did it. If they think you should be punished for it and are certain you did it, you'll pay the price and depending on how moody they are at the time the severity can vary wildly. Pay attention, use your head, and be prepared to defend anything you do. "I didn't know it was wrong" is seldom a valid excuse.
"It's just a game".
While true, the point of a game is to have fun. People who go out of their way to ruin the fun of a game for other people as their own way of having fun are known as griefers. They're a miserable excuse of a player who should really find a different hobby.

---

Drop entirely. Replace with "Use Common Sense" or something similarly brief if you insist.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exidous

You know I was going to keep my mouth shut but when I logged in it forced me to come here so, enjoy.

This isn't a bad idea, but it suffers from tl;dr. If the point of the thread is to educate the ignorant it has to be in a format they will digest. Combine similar points:


Along with #4, just stating Nexam is useless.

---

They're different aspects of the same point.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exidous

I'd recommend dropping the points that, even if true, present irrelevant information. For example

Who cares? Does them being in Tokyo affect anything? Aside from that asinine thread about suing Nexon, this fact bears no relevance on any discussion I can think of. And even in that thread it's not like this factoid would've made a difference.

---

For the sake of informing people about NEXON the company.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exidous

You can also save space by refraining from moralizing:

Aside from saying what a glitch vs a hack is, there's not much that needs to be here. Making statements about the community seems rather shortsighted when norms change with whatever exploits Nexon happened to leave in this week. I recommend refraining from referencing the TOS at all in this thread. Unless you'd like to make points 426 and 427 detailing the (also unenforced) minutia of other TOS terms.

---

It's an explanation of why each one is wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exidous

Drop entirely. Replace with "Use Common Sense" or something similarly brief if you insist.

---

HA
HA
COMMON SENSE
THAT'S A GOOD ONE
No, but seriously. Do you have a real comment?

hi.

Hopefully some ill informed Maplers may stumble upon this and actually become educated. This is great EOS.

I learned little tidbits from this :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

Congrats, you are the exact sort of person this is for. I find it amusing people can skeptical of things that disagree with how they think things work but never think to question their own sources for how they decided things are.

http://venturebeat.com/company/nexon/


or, and I know this is a real stretch, read their own investor relations homepage;

http://ir.nexon.co.jp/en/



As for who does the work, put the pieces together;

http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=32288
http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=39014
http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=41629

---

Why not put all those links in the original post?Also, Still seems like a stupid way to run a company imo.

The Tokyo headquarters is just dumb, dumb, dumb. It was probably for financial reasons, but still. Simply stupid.

Nexon is neither international nor domestic, simply a failed hybrid of both. This is why GMS/SEA/EMS are falling in comparison to KMS. There is simply no way to get precise execution when the customer and the service provider are separated by thousands of miles, oceans, language barriers, and cultural differences.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Leaves

The Tokyo headquarters is just dumb, dumb, dumb. It was probably for financial reasons, but still. Simply stupid.

Nexon is neither international nor domestic, simply a failed hybrid of both. This is why GMS/KMS/EMS are falling in comparison to KMS. There is simply no way to get precise execution when the customer and the service provider are separated by thousands of miles, oceans, language barriers, and cultural differences.

---

+1 for making sense.

Ohh this was a fantastic read. Thanks!

Very well written except the part about scrolling (sort of). The RNG that determines pass or fail is done when the scroll is made, not as you scroll.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blaine

Very well written except the part about scrolling (sort of). The RNG that determines pass or fail is done when the scroll is made, not as you scroll.

---

That would be one of the singularly most stupid things ever.
For one thing, they stack, and they can't have different RNG's in a stack. Since they clearly do not all have the same success/fail in the same stack, I call BS.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blaine

Very well written except the part about scrolling (sort of). The RNG that determines pass or fail is done when the scroll is made, not as you scroll.

---

What makes you think that?
Scrolls stack in your inventory. That means they don't have an individual continuous existence the way equips do. Therefore, they couldn't keep a "is going to work" field even if they had one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

That would be one of the singularly most stupid things ever.
For one thing, they stack, and they can't have different RNG's in a stack. Since they clearly do not all have the same success/fail in the same stack, I call BS.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaptaZapta

What makes you think that?
Scrolls stack in your inventory. That means they don't have an individual continuous existence the way equips do. Therefore, they couldn't keep a "is going to work" field even if they had one.

---

Single scrolls have been tested before with a lot of painstaking examination. I don't know how stacks work, perhaps there is a "is going to work" field that has the whole stack set to one that goes through the RNG again when the top scroll is removed.

I could probably prove it to you, but it would take a lot of work and I've lost my own touch with that sort of thing since I stopped coding for private servers and such two years ago.

Edit: Also, if it was in fact done while you were scrolling and a way to exploit that was found, and believe me, it would, white scrolls wouldn't be so abundantly duped.

I wish this popped up for everybody while MS is loading. Seriously. It's been said before, but excellent job.

I'm also sure you've heard your share of opinions, but I really do think a thoughtful post like yours could easily benefit from some spacing between sections. :f2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blaine

Single scrolls have been tested before with a lot of painstaking examination. I don't know how stacks work, perhaps there is a "is going to work" field that has the whole stack set to one that goes through the RNG again when the top scroll is removed.

I could probably prove it to you, but it would take a lot of work and I've lost my own touch with that sort of thing since I stopped coding for private servers and such two years ago.

Edit: Also, if it was in fact done while you were scrolling and a way to exploit that was found, and believe me, it would, white scrolls wouldn't be so abundantly duped.

---

How exactly have they been "tested"? Did you forget that the database schema has been publicly released more than once? All consumables have the same fields in the database, and none of them is a magical success rate field for the very simple fact there's absolutely no reason to predetermine such a thing. It'd be one more value to permanently keep track of, when that value will literally only be used once in the items lifetime.

Your "source" on this is pineappleing with you. How a private server may have done it has no bearing on how Nexon did it.
You are definitely right that it would take a lot of work to prove it to us, because it's absolute bull and you'd more or less have to bend reality to demonstrate it.

Another very simple way to prove this is bull; If it were true a scroll would have the exact same results when restored via rollback. Many many of us have woebegotten stories of that wonderfully scrolled item we had made, lost due to roll back, tried to recreate and nuked.

Random chance is left to random chance, not some predetermined value in the scroll itself. That is the exact sort of garbage we're trying to dispel with this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raul

+1 for making sense.

---

Lmao my bad, it should read "GMS/SEA/EMS are failing in comparison to KMS".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blaine

Single scrolls have been tested before with a lot of painstaking examination.

---

Remember the meso exploit rollback?
Before it I scrolled a weapon, 5/7 60's passed.
After the rollback I had to scroll it again. 4/7 of the same stack of 60's passed.

Quote:

---

I don't know how stacks work, perhaps there is a "is going to work" field that has the whole stack set to one that goes through the RNG again when the top scroll is removed.

---

Do you realize how absurd that is, from a coding point of view? Why generate a "going to work" for each scroll, if you're only going to lose it when you stack them? And then generate the success state of the next scroll when you use/drop/sell the top one from the stack?
So much easier to roll the success when the scroll is used.

Quote:

---

Edit: Also, if it was in fact done while you were scrolling and a way to exploit that was found, and believe me, it would, white scrolls wouldn't be so abundantly duped.

---

If a way to exploit anything is found, it would be, of course. In fact, I would think that a pre-determined "will succeed" would be much easier to exploit than one that is generated on the spot by the server.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaptaZapta

I would think that a pre-determined "will succeed" would be much easier to exploit than one that is generated on the spot by the server.

---

A predetermined will-succeed most definitely would be infinitely more exploitable, you could simply hook a DLL into the client to tell you which scrolls were going to succeed or not, more or less the same way hackers could pre-determine potential. There's virtually no way to exploit a server side random chance of success. That's the entire point of doing it server side. Your scroll sends the trigger and consumes itself, the server determines the outcome and reports it back. It's a classic case of #8 in the list, in how client-server should relate.

...Hopefully this will solve a lot of questions.... >_>

well written.

Nicely done and good to know!

RE: #6

"mstshk", a popular Korean Dungeon Fighter player on youtube, had this to say:

"Why Nexon cant think doing these? Stop making pineappleing gamble items. Please use more expensive voice actor and hire video editor(Really sucks about Vindictus trailers...) now. Haa.. they will never change. Because they displaced their company to Japan. For avoiding Korea's pineappleing stupid regulation. Sick."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fiel

For avoiding Korea's pineappleing stupid regulation. Sick."

---

That's one of several reasons they may have done it, but I doubt we'll ever truly know.

That's actually pretty clever of them!

Well said :f2:

well written

Thanks for taking the time for this, I hope everyone take the time to READ IT! Its well worth it ^5!

i have read it!

For #4: Same site, different article.

http://maple-news.com/2010/05/11/int...olopment-team/

Quote:

---

We were Wizet and NX Games until we finally became Nexon America. It’s funny how people talk about how different things were during the early days when Wizet was around, but Nexon America has always been pretty much the same people doing the same things under a new logo. When the site changes to BlockParty.com, we’ll probably hear about how much people miss Nexon America.

---

I've always had a problem with calling the whole Bigfoot issue a glitch. In my view, a glitch is an effect caused by different sections of code interacting in a way the author did not predict or intend. In other words, a bug.

While it can be fairly argued that the omission of the boss tag from Bigfoot's data was an unintentional mistake, an error by omission does not a glitch make. Furthermore, there was really no way for a player to tell that the behavior was not intended, so punishment for using what was essentially a feature of the game is in my opinion unfair.

In any case, I don't think it's really the best example of a glitch. A better example would be say, the OPQ smuggling glitch.

By your logic OPQ smuggling glitch would just be the coders having forgotten to put a check on you to make sure you haven't gotten an item from the PQ even though you're outside it. A glitch is a glitch. A mistake is a mistake. How it got made is irrelevant. It was working as programmed but not as intended. That's the true definition of "glitch". As for the thinly veiled rationalization; See #12.

ok i agree

Very good
Everyone need to see this

ahaa well thanks for the info =3

#4 is still kind of irritating me because I don't see anything in there that explicitly states bug fixing or anything related to it. The only thing the reference even mentions "Nexon Korea" is development of "new content for MapleStory". Well shit. Isn't that obvious? Obviously the content itself is made in Nexon Korea but the way it's implied in what you presented states that everything takes place in Korea including bug fixes. Which is ludicrous if anything because Nexon Korea doesn't even have the bugs we have. What makes our version unique or special to obtain these bugs if it runs on virtually almost the same infrastructure?

Quote:

---

Question: Whenever you create or add new content to Maplestory, is there any type of process you use? If so, what are they?
Answer: Great question! Yes, it's actually a long and complicated process that is planned months in advance. We initially brainstorm ideas, then create a short proposal summarizing the content we want to create. We work with the development team in Korea to refine and fit it within the schedule. We start building the systems to support the new content, do internal testing and finally release it. The process takes 6 to 7 months from start to finish.

---

Quote:

---

Question: Do you guys work directly with Nexon Korea to help us get our content faster, or do you work pretty seperately?
Answer: Our team works directly with our developers at Nexon Korea to create content for global MapleStory.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Locked

#4 is still kind of irritating me because I don't see anything in there that explicitly states bug fixing or anything related to it. The only thing the reference even mentions "Nexon Korea" is development of "new content for MapleStory". Well shit. Isn't that obvious? Obviously the content itself is made in Nexon Korea but the way it's implied in what you presented states that everything takes place in Korea including bug fixes. Which is ludicrous if anything because Nexon Korea doesn't even have the bugs we have. What makes our version unique or special to obtain these bugs if it runs on virtually almost the same infrastructure?

---

Every single "We're working on it" announcement they've ever bothered to make for an issue has reiterated that they're waiting on Korea to fix it.

Publisher != Developer

No one said the situation was unique to us. Other locales do the same thing. JMS is the only one I'm aware of that does anything themselves, or appears to, and we've never figured that little quirk out.

If you want to contest it do it right - Provide evidence it's not true. I guarantee you'll find more supporting it than disproving it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eos

Every single "We're working on it" announcement they've ever bothered to make for an issue has reiterated that they're waiting on Korea to fix it.

Publisher != Developer

No one said the situation was unique to us. Other locales do the same thing. JMS is the only one I'm aware of that does anything themselves, or appears to, and we've never figured that little quirk out.

If you want to contest it do it right - Provide evidence it's not true. I guarantee you'll find more supporting it than disproving it.

---

Well I didn't mention anything about publisher vs developer relationship so I have really no idea where that came from. If there's anything I don't understand is why it's forbidding for them to do their own work under that situation. Could they not fix the bugs themselves? Are they not intelligent enough? Do they lack the manpower? I just don't understand why they have this system in place that is just so inefficient. The source provided states that the process itself takes 6-7 months to process. While I don't know how Nexon handles or manages its time how does this apply to the bugfixes announced in this patch? They are most very recent, some from the patch beforehand. Do they plan these out beforehand just to give themselves a pat on the back?

This is the way I understand it:

The source code, and the programmers, for all versions, are in Korea. This does not mean that "KMS programmers fix GMS bugs". There is a "GMS team" in Korea (and employed by NexonKR), who work (almost?) exclusively on code for GMS. However, if they run into difficulties, they have the KMS programmers (who are more familiar with the infrastructure, presumably) there to consult with.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Locked

Well I didn't mention anything about publisher vs developer relationship so I have really no idea where that came from. If there's anything I don't understand is why it's forbidding for them to do their own work under that situation. Could they not fix the bugs themselves? Are they not intelligent enough? Do they lack the manpower? I just don't understand why they have this system in place that is just so inefficient. The source provided states that the process itself takes 6-7 months to process. While I don't know how Nexon handles or manages its time how does this apply to the bugfixes announced in this patch? They are most very recent, some from the patch beforehand. Do they plan these out beforehand just to give themselves a pat on the back?

---

You answered your first question with your second question.
What prevents them from doing it is they're not the developer. You're asking why the guy at the counter at McDonald's isn't going back there and making your food for you so it gets done faster. It's not his job. He's there to hand you the food someone else makes. If they fuck up the order, he's not going to go back and do it for you, he's going to pass that info back to the "cooks" and they're going to fix it and he'll pass the new version to you.

Nexon America does have a rudimentary development team, which is really more of an implementation team. They mention the server engineers and whatnot in the dev blogs as partnering. They're the ones who take what Korea gives them and install it. Just because you can screw a light bulb into a socket though does not make you an electric engineer capable of building a better light bulb, or even capable of understanding why the bulb isn't working the way the person you got it from said it should.

Nexon confuses the issue themselves by using the word "developer" too loosely. It can mean both the actual programming people and can refer to the entire creative design staff that come up with the ideas and those two are pretty different. Take Eurydice here ; http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=41629 "Next week Ill be travelling to Korea to talk with the other MapleStory developers about future plans." That can have two very different meanings. Is E going to discuss technical aspects with other programmers? or is E going to discuss overarching thematic design with the creative team to figure out how to incorporate Nexon America's exclusive content into the presently evolving paradigms and themes? That simple statement and the questions it raises right there casts doubt on exactly what E has meant all this time by claiming to be a "developer". What they describe the developer as doing here http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=39014 ", the developer is delivering all of the new files and a list of changes to the server engineer and the producer" sounds closer to actual programming, but is ambiguous as to whether or not they're referring to a person who's actually physically present or one who is online FTPing stuff across to them. Even the "Once the maintenance is over and the game is stable, the developers and server engineer go home to sleep." doesn't really clear that up.

As to the overarching question of why. Why are they so ambiguous? Why does their paradigm seem so stupid? You'd have to ask them, but you have to consider that MapleStory is a franchise. It's not several independent companies running their own game willy-nilly. Everything that gets merged into the game has to be potentially be merged into all copies in all locales or they run the risk of forking too far to be compatible with each other. Centralizing development ensures that everything that gets added in has better chances of of remaining interoperable than it would if you set 10 developers down in different rooms and let them go on a different copy of the source for three years then tried to put what each of them came up with independently back into a single coherent game. Even in Korea they're broken out into separate teams for separate locales, but because they're physically present with each other they can better interact and try to avoid stepping all over each other. It does not always work as we've seen numerous times, but it has a lot more chance of success where the teams are together than if they were scattered.