Unity

I’ll be honest: I don’t play many games on a regular basis these days. Between college dilemmas and a psychologically/philosophically mental breakdown due to too much free time when there is, it’s hard to squeeze even those few rounds in a game, let alone a few minutes (for non-FPS games, the phrase is more appropriate the other way around). Nevertheless, I stalk the forum grounds of games past and present, if only to recall my fractured memories. Ah, yes, those were the days. The happy days of yore.

Were they days of innocence, or days of purity, or days of simple joy? I don’t think I ever had a true day of joy, at least not since the word “pessimism” entered my lexicon.

But they were happy days anyway. A fleeting happiness, but a sense of freedom, carelessness, euphoria, just for a moment.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone here that I still stray around Maplestory forums and sites. After all, the website former was founded by a (cruel) man who first began a Maplestory website.

I’m still catching up on certain things. I don’t like the new profession system, because one has to work one’s way up the levels, independent of the main levels. That is a little more irritating than the maker skill, where one could make anything, provided that the maker skill encompassed those items’ levels. Now, even if you’re level 180 or 200, you have to start the profession levels from level 1, restricting yourself to base crafts that even Maplers of that level would not wear.

At first, I disliked the familiar system, since it was going to be nothing more than a fighting pet, in essence. Now, while I don’t like the system, I have grown accustomed to some of its benefits. To be frank, they make poor fighters, unless you’re sorely unfunded, in which you might be fighting on par. However, their passive ability is what everyone is vying for. The Jr. Boogie familiar heals ~15% MP every 10 seconds or so, a godsend for any proper mage. The Mixed Stone Golem familiar slightly increases drop and meso rates (I’ve heard ~20%), though the Mutant Ribbon Pig has the same effect, albeit with higher rates. The one biting flaw with the system is that some familiars (such as golems) are really bulky and large, and so can really cover up the screen in inconvenient ways. Also, they are a mirror image of the monsters they are derived from, so try not to use them while fighting that exact monster.

Maplestory has gone through seemingly countless updates to individual characters. Skills are added, skills removed, skills altered and skills corrupted. I have two main problems with that.

One: what’s up with all of the skill updates? With each revamp, it seems as though the classes are becoming less distinct and unique, as nearly each class has an ultimate attack, similar buffs, and so forth. If it were not for Holy Symbol, Heal and Resurrection, I’m sure bishops would have long been left at the trash heap. Arch mages are essentially identical except for elements, and even that can be removed with a skill.

Second: what’s with all of the crap skills? Skills such as High Intelligence, or whatever, that each and every class has or will have, adds a little this-or-that, important stats of course, permanently. Do we really need that? Do we really need to waste SP on skills that could barely be registered as a skill, let alone a passive skill? Why can’t we do quests for skills like that, instead of wasting the 10 or 20 points that we could have used for Ice Strike or Savage Blow? Really, they serve no point other than to eat up SP for some extra firepower. For skills such as Meditation and Buff Mastery, they’re fine, since one is a party skill, and the other an optional one. But come on.

What path is Maplestory taking? Are they relying on their inertia of addiction to reap more profits? Is it really genius? Or is it sinister? Is this world doomed? Do you have a nuclear bunker? Have you tried the bacon? It’s pretty good.