Maple-News.com Wrote:EXCERPT

Dear Mr. Kim,

Over the past year you have undoubtedly seen a deep-rooted change in the MapleStory community. While Nexon America’s quarterly profits continue to grow, your active player-base continues to decline. One only needs to look to every medium available online to see the rampant discontent: Twitter, Facebook, the official MapleStory forums, Basil Market, Southperry, Maple-News, and so on. The consensus is – you’re doing it wrong.

Like all games and artistic endeavors, change is inevitable and welcomed. MapleStory has changed drastically since 2005 and there have certainly been many positive changes; new and interesting content, a large variety of classes to play, new bosses, maps, quests, events, and so on. Still, these changes are negligible if the fundamental structure that governs the game is broken. Without a strong foundation, even the tallest buildings will crumble.

Many players may not be aware of this…

Maple-News.com Wrote:
You are cordially invited to help us celebrate the demise of Maple-News.com this December & January!

If you don’t already know, Maple-News will close on Friday, January 10th, 2014. We happen to have some MapleStory swag left over, straight from our interactions and interview with the Maple Team in 2012. So, we figure what better way to celebrate our demise than to give away some stuff! But, you’ll have to work for it.


Twitter Event
Follow us on Twitter and receive (1) one entry to win a pair of MapleStory sunglasses. You must tweet us @MapleNews with the tweet ‘I like squirrels!’ so we know you’re not a robot. If you are already following us never fear! You can still participate, just keep following @MapleNews and tweet us. We will choose two winners who follow us and have tweeted us as required at random.

Be aware that we will be checking for multiple submissions – so don’t try it – unless you want to be hunted down by an army of rabid vampire squirrels and their fancy golden pig, Pedro.

There will be (2) two winners of a pair of MapleStory sunglasses.



Scavenger Hunt
There are 3 squirrels, 3 stirges, and 3 different megaphones hidden in articles throughout Maple-News.com. Find them and submit the links in contest entry form found here. The first 2 maplers to correctly find all the monsters and megaphones will each win a MapleStory beach ball.

There will be (2) two winners of a MapleStory beach ball.

Click here to visit the Scavenger Hunt contest entry page.



MapleStory Squirrel & Stirge Artwork Contest
Create a piece of artwork with the logo ‘MNN’ surrounded by a squirrel and stirge. The image specifications must be 800×600 pixels. All submissions will be featured on Maple-News.com and the winner will be chosen by the Maple-News Staff and win a shiny red, BPA-free, MapleStory thermos.

stirge
Submit your artwork here.

There will be (1) one winner of a MapleStory thermos.

squirrelanimationbg


BONUS: FishSlap Video Contest
Remember that old MapleStory advertisement that ran on Cartoon Network and MTV back in 2008, you know, the one where two guys were slapping each other with fish? Film yourself reenacting the video by slapping a fellow mapler with a fish and we’ll choose the best one! The winner will receive a pet squirrel and a high-five from Savage.

Be sure to title your video ‘Hey Maple-News, I Just Slapped My Friend With a Fish!’ and post it in the comments below.







The deadline for all the events is January 9, 2014 at 12 AM PST (3 AM EST). Winners will be announced the following day on January 10, 2014 via their desired contact methods (E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Good luck, God speed, and may the mesos be with you.

-Savage

Maple-News.com Wrote:Hello MNNians, kind viewers, and maplers,



It is with a heavy heart that I announce that on Friday, January 10th, 2014 Maple-News.com will close permanently. It has been an amazing six years, but it is time for us to put down our pens, turn off our computers, and move on. The reasons behind my decision to close the site are many, but I’ve come to the realization, after consulting with our staff, that we have done and said all we wanted to. MapleStory has changed dramatically since we founded the site on June 30th, 2007 and so has the community. The change in game-play from a socially-driven system to a more single-player, ‘SoloStory,’ design has affected the way the community interacts – for better or for worse. Maple-News has been greatly impacted by this change.

When we started Maple-News we said we would write as long as you would listen. We never wanted this to be a case of us talking to ourselves – or worse – to a wall. I would rather end the site now, while it still has dignity, than let it slowly fade away. I want to say thank you to every single person who ever took some time out of their day to visit our modest website, read an article, and make a comment. I’ve made many friends over the years thanks to this site, and am so grateful for that. Thank you to everyone who worked at MNN and contributed. Without you guys, this site wouldn’t have been what it was. I never thought a thirteen year-old kid trying to make a silly site about a video game like MapleStory, using FreeWebs no less, would have turned into this. I am humbled.

But – we’re not going out with tears and a eulogy! We invite all of you to come celebrate our demise with us for the rest of the month! We have some official MapleStory swag left over from our events and interview with the Maple Team back in 2012, and will be giving it all away! So, check our website tomorrow, December 11th, at 7 PM EST/4 PM PST for the official event post. Oh, and we will continue to post MapleStory news until January 10th and have some fun things planned.



Let’s go out with a bang!



Savage

Maple-News.com Wrote:Hello MNNians,

The New Year is almost upon us, and with it, come some new changes to our modest site. These modifications are required and will change the way the site functions and users use Maple-News.com. To find out more, please continue reading.


Staff Changes
MapleStory is changing in North America, and so is the community. The way players interact has changed and communities are becoming more tight-knit and niche oriented. Thus, Maple-News.com will no longer have a full-time writing staff. Instead, we will have Contributors which will feature your favorites like Dill and Harley, along with any newcomers. I will continue to keep you updated as the only full-time staff member here at Maple-News. We also have several manually automated accounts such as News Bot and EuropeJoe which aggregate posts from official MapleStory websites.

We will be offering new and faster ways for maplers to submit posts or sign up as contributors. In the meantime, you can still submit an application or use our current Contributor System.



No More Ads
TheBlueCorsair has been kind enough to sponsor our site and eliminate our hosting costs. With the new adjustments we have made to our site, we have reduced our overhead significantly and the site’s yearly cost is just about $20.00. However, do not expect any giveaways or events in the near future. But hey, no more ugly ads.



Maple-Blog?
Well, not really. If you are an avid reader of Maple-News.com, then you have probably seen the gradual change to a more blog-like layout and atmosphere. The community interacts differently, so we no longer need a large back-end cluttering our site. We want to make it simple for you to access the articles and features you are looking for – quickly.



New Media
We are officially retiring our YouTube page. It will be left as an archive, but we do not have the man-power needed to run the site successfully. It may return sometime in the future if the demand is present, but for now, it’s dead.

Now for the good news. We will be re-launching our podcast channel in January 2014, premiering with The Mushroom Show. More information will be released in the coming weeks announcing co-hosts and guests.

***

Please check back for more updates throughout the winter. Thank you for visiting Maple-News.com and Happy Holidays!

Maple-News.com Wrote:Last Call: Let’s Save MapleStory

Or not.

That’s ultimately not up to us, the customers. All we can do is make our voices heard and hope that a positive change is made. We do not elect the board members for Nexon Corp., nor do we vote on the changes made to this game, MapleStory.

There have been a lot of great discussions going on throughout the MapleStory community, especially on sites like Southperry and Basil Market, the two remaining major MapleStory forum communities, over the past few days and weeks. If you don’t already know, a new community manager has been named. He goes by the name Aurtax and so far we aren’t sure what to make of this change in leadership.

Over the years we have voiced our disapproval of specific changes and systems put into place through our editorial pieces. Anyone who is an avid reader of Maple-News.com has probably read one of the many articles by ICY. Many of you have voiced your opinions in the comments, mostly your dissatisfaction with the pay-to-win system that has gradually taken hold of a so-called free-to-play MMORPG. Many of you have voiced your opinions on other fan sites and forums. I’ve read hundreds of your comments all over MapleStory fan sites and communities. It is clear that a change must be made.

I want to use this particular medium, Maple-News.com, to begin to write a proposal of sorts, a formal petition if you will, to send to Nexon America. This proposal will be highly detailed and compiled of your suggestions, requests, comments, and so on that you believe outline necessary changes that should be made to MapleStory. These suggested changes must be narrowed down and then be voted on by as many people in the community as is humanly possible to ensure its accuracy and authenticity. This condensed list of changes will serve as the basis of our proposal which will then be hand delivered to Nexon America in addition to e-mailed and public forms of the proposal available online. If possible, we will also include as many comments and suggestions from players.

I am publicly asking all the administrators, community leaders, bloggers, and anyone who genuinely cares about MapleStory to be part of creating this proposal: Southperry, BasilMarket, Hidden-Street, and so on. You can reach me, day or night, at maplenewsnetwork@gmail.com. Many will see this idea as overambitious, ridiculous, or even insane, but perhaps if we submit a unified proposal from the MapleStory community Nexon will have to listen. At least we can say we gave it our best shot.

To start, below please fill out the following form in the comments. Check back for information on collaborations with other MapleStory web communities.

Your friend,

Savage

Save MapleStory Suggestion Form

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