Nexon Wrote:
Hello again, Maplers!

Now that the Big Bang is safely launched, things around here are pretty calm. OK, they’re as calm as they ever get, which isn’t very calm at all. Even while you’re enjoying the first part of the Big Bang, we’re hard at work preparing the Resistance. Fortunately, a lot of the prep work was completed in the run-up to Big Bang. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a ton of work to do, of course, but it isn’t quite the lunacy that accompanied Big Bang.

When I realized that I might have five minutes to breathe, I decided to check in with Hime on the questions that you submitted through the forums back in October. We got some great questions, and the team had a good time answering them.

How do you decide what content to add to this version of the game from other versions of MapleStory such as the Japanese and South East Asia versions? - SomeOhioan

Each regional MapleStory version is managed and developed by a dedicated team. Each of these teams generates their own ideas for new content, events, and items. These ideas are documented in proposals -- reports that detail the idea. We explain why we believe it should be added, what it brings to the game, and why we believe our audience will enjoy it. We also chart out the amount of development time needed along with the assets that will need to be created for the content. These proposals are being generated constantly as we evaluate in-game data and feedback from you, the fans.

When the Global MapleStory team meets to plan out the next six months of updates, we review all the proposals we’ve produced as well as those created by other MapleStory teams. We then evaluate the ideas and decide which piece of content will make it into Global MapleStory. We consider what levels the content is for and how much content there is available already for players of those levels. We look at how different or similar it is to other content recently added, how popular it was in other services (if it’s already been released), whether we have had requests from our players for the content or not, how easy it is to localize (a Bastille Day event might not do so well outside of France), and finally whether or not we think it will be fun.


Sometimes we have to be firm when Maple monsters beg us to get in new content.

Once we’ve decided what goes in, we need to start planning out how we’ll do it. That’s the tough part. Creating the update plan for Global MapleStory is a little like putting a puzzle together with all the pieces turned upside down so you can’t see the picture. Because we plan so far in advance, the content we are planning to release has often not yet been created, so things like the time needed can be difficult to evaluate.

Then there are the times when the content we plan to add ends up never being created, or is significantly changed, or goes through an abrupt revision because of something outside of our control. Perhaps a key member of the programming team leaves, or a piece of content released elsewhere didn’t do as well as we had hoped. Fortunately, the content plan is usually created with a goal in mind for each update (add new high-level content, for example, or add a new social system), so even if the content itself changes, we can usually slot in other pieces of content that fits those needs. It still doesn’t make keeping the schedule easy.

How do the producers come up with such weird and wacky (but interesting) events? What’s the process of deciding what eventually gets put as an event? -- ayu112

We’re locked in a room for several hours and not allowed to have food until we come up with good ideas! I’m kidding of course, they let us have food.

We really do start by meeting for several hours to brainstorm, though. Inspiration can come from anywhere. We’ve taken ideas from sports, movies, other games, books, current events, our own personal experience, favorite websites, really anything can generate a good idea. During these meetings we come up with far more ideas than we’ll ever use. Some of them are silly or impossible or just out of our reach based on the time we have to create it. We never throw anything away though. Sometimes last year’s impossible idea becomes this year’s hit.

When we select the most feasible concepts, we turn those ideas into proposals that outline the goal, design, and development of the event idea. Sometimes we collaborate with other Nexon game teams to come up with event proposals to get a fresh perspective. We review all the proposals and pick the ones we like the best. These get fleshed-out with details like rewards and quest dialog. We then check the schedule and see if they can be developed in the time we have before getting them added to the game. If they can, they go into development! Sometimes ideas that can be done have to be pushed back or scaled down a bit to fit into the time we have to create it, but nothing gets wasted and there’s always a big backlog of great ideas to draw from.

You're stranded alone on a desert island (think Florina Beach with the conditions of the Nihal Desert). Which three Cash Shop items would you take with you, if you had the choice, and why? -- kushicake

Really, I should only need one item: the VIP Teleport Rock. I would use it to teleport away from the island to someplace better! But assuming that isn’t allowed, I’d choose:

1. A Kino pet. This is mostly to keep me company and make sure I have someone to talk to.

2. Cloudy Meatballs weather. Since this weather effect makes food fall from the sky, I wouldn’t go hungry.

3. Super Megaphone: So I could send out a distress signal to the world!

On behalf of the MapleStory team, thank you everyone who sent in questions!

Next week marks the rise of the Resistance, holiday surprises, and one really big event. Be sure to keep checking the website for updates and have a happy holiday!

Vive la Resistance!

Eurydice
The MapleStory Team

Quote:Sometimes we have to be firm when Maple monsters beg us to get in new content.

Nexon Wrote:Then there are the times when the content we plan to add ends up never being created, or is significantly changed, or goes through an abrupt revision because of something outside of our control. Perhaps a key member of the programming team leaves, or a piece of content released elsewhere didn’t do as well as we had hoped.

Jamie_Kurosawa Wrote:New content is fine but when players want areas for a reason to expand the fun and challenges, sometimes its best to listen to them instead of telling them to shut up about it even in their nice way they love to do, which is ignore the Hell out of us. It's not Nexon is being firm, it's just they don't want to listen to a community that wants to see MapleStory branch out (especially since we are GlobalMS) rather than be squeezed into a tiny corner with limited content like KMS.

World Tour has been so heavily neglected as has Masteria it's not even funny anymore. World Tour was supposed to be like a tourist area showing samples of livelihoods, religions, legends, and pop-culture with areas of different regional releases with unique themes, quests, and events. Instead we got Theme Dungeons. Masteria was supposed to be unique to the U.S. and contain GMS (North America) exclusive content. Masteria hasn't been touched since CWKPQ came out almost two years ago.

Do the math...

Jamie_Kurosawa Wrote:What? Nexon can't hire someone else to the dev team and stick to a script?

Netto Wrote:

Mike Wrote:Wait, when did they take questions? I don't remember such a thread.
Edit: Nevermind.

Hahaha... only 3 questions.

Seeing as she asked Hime, Hime must've pulled those questions out her ass.

Did anyone else notice them trying to explain why they never expanded further on Masteria?

nexon Wrote:Then there are the times when the content we plan to add ends up never being created, or is significantly changed, or goes through an abrupt revision because of something outside of our control. Perhaps a key member of the programming team leaves, or a piece of content released elsewhere didn’t do as well as we had hoped. Fortunately, the content plan is usually created with a goal in mind for each update (add new high-level content, for example, or add a new social system), so even if the content itself changes, we can usually slot in other pieces of content that fits those needs. It still doesn’t make keeping the schedule easy.

nexon Wrote:Sometimes last year’s impossible idea becomes this year’s hit.

Berzerk Wrote:How much more stuff until we really catch up to KMS? It seems like we're right on it's toes so there really isn't much of an order to what's left. We got Ultimate Adventurer, Greece, Lionheart, Re-Organization then Chaos. There's probably some stupid events we haven't gotten in there as well. I know we just got Big Bang, but waiting for the re-organization is going to be a peach, I want my DB skills fixed. :/