The Maplestory Inversion

For those still out there who still exist on the plane of two dimensions, tacky NX clothing and numbing amounts of 2x+ experience, here’s a blog for you.

Even as I have sought to run away, limbs flailing, as far as I could from this godforsaken game, there is some allure to it that I cannot escape. Is it the childlike graphics? The great memories that it retains? The fact that that game was the reason for the diabolical spawn we called MMOTales, and now respectfully/vehemently call VuTales? Who knows.

But let’s get to the blog, shall we?

Maplestory has gone WAY off of its tangent of what it was supposed to be, what was envisioned by its first masters. That diversion was probably most pronounced with the introduction of PvP, an aspect of the game that used to be plastered on a billboard page of the site that they would never, ever, EVER implement such a device. Other effects such as the Big Bang and its subsequent successors have also contributed to its cultural downfall. Heck, the motto isn’t even “it’s your story” anymore; they have one now, and it sure as hell isn’t yours.

From what I see, there’s something disturbingly loopy about the gameplay of Maplestory as of late. So-called “events” are so synonymous and identical from one event to another; the quests are either to hold X for Y minutes, or to collect Z something-or-other. If anything, events have served to become the new “quests” of Maplestory, whereas the true quests themselves have become nothing but plot fodder.

On the other side of the coin are the ever-present “revamps.” It, and concepts like it, reshape Maplestory so violently every month or two. Today, your class might have the most damage output rate; tomorrow they may be at the bottom. You’ve settled into El Nath to train for how many so levels; the next day Mu Lung is suddenly a much better value. Changes to jobs, to worlds, to maps and to the very controls themselves are so constant, that these time frames between should be more appropriately called events, considering that you only have so much time to play the class or game style to its fullest potential before another update turns the tables.

And security–what a joke! I mean, many games have poor customer service, and many games have poor security protocols. But only in Maplestory do you have the fault of both, resulting in errant bans, massive economic chaos and corruption of those who can get away with it all. Heck, even Runescape, the game that had an absurdly dominating bot problem, rose from the jaws of defeat in what was appropriately dubbed the “bot nuke day.”

Nexon, in either its ever-rumored greed or lapse of even basic foresight, does too little, too late. Case in point: in the past month alone, there have been rampant issues with servers, for whatever lag reasons. While I cannot say what is the problem to a dime, I can hypothesize that the issues are likely lost in translation; much of the updates are from its Korean counterpart, including the change in the Silent Crusade line. These login issues have not yet been resolved completely, yet despite these very visible and irritating dilemmas Nexon continued to roll out with its typical monthly updates and scheduled unscheduled maintenances.

Alas, what can we do against an ignorant powerhouse that is Nexon America? It must be good to be a Korean player, oblivious to such glaring bugs, playing freely without the chained constraints of capitalistic extremisms that percolate through every room of every channel of every free market. Alas, c’est la vie. This game is only worth playing in the time that it is only worth playing. They evolve too fast for their own good, evolve faster than the Zerg, evolve faster than the Flood. In the world of fast-paced, high-octane speed, a bit of brakes would do some good.