I don't understand why people say Old maple was so much better

This so much. I hate potential and yet love it at the same time. I love the idea of potential, I hate how teh idea of being forced to use NX to get godly items.

I wish cubes were able to be bought with meso instead of NX. Someone find an old quote from Nexon which said, along the lines of, "using NX will never drastically change your gameplay". Uhhh, yeah.

maplestory wasn't driven by going to extremes (reaching high levels, spending absurd amounts on NX, etc) just to race for the best damage. i know that factor is mostly community driven, but with the way things are going now it's obvious that nexon is just building on this aspect.

back then maplestory was an adventure. things weren't streamlined and easy, so you were motivated to level up so you could actually hunt in a certain area, rather than just to earn a higher blessing count or make a UA. gach wasn't really around so people had to hunt things or do quests for profit. nowadays the only thing non-boss monsters are good for is leveling up. there's nothing spurring you on to genuinely want to get to a certain point in the game or explore a certain area; especially with all this remodeling they've done, everything just feels like a stepping stone. there's no adventure.

Old Maple was hard.
People with no patience quit it after a couple months, around level 30.
The game has progressively gotten easier, more newbie-friendly, more instant-satisfaction. Best example is the new personality system. The actual rewards only change every 5 levels of a trait. So there's no real reason to have 100 levels, it could just as easily be 20. But people like hearing that "ding" and reading "your XXX level increased", so Nexon give them that every few minutes, every kill, every quest...

With the change in the game came a change in audience. Those who stuck around with the old game were, perforce, a bit more mature and patient than the new players who enjoy the fast-paced maple.

And I agree with everyone blaming Potential. Before that came, even with white scrolls and chaos and all, even the most heavily funded could only get to maybe double the damage of a normal player. Post Potential the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened considerably, the rich having five times or more the damage of the unfunded. And I'm not even talking about the unscrupulous rich, the kind that won't hack, themselves, but have no qualms about buying hacked and duped gear... (I don't want to get into a hypocritical discussion about whether *any* white scrolls in FM can be considered legit. I'm talking about people buying 300-attack claws and 27-attack shoes, 100% positive they were not created in anything resembling a legitimate manner, and often for real $$).

So yeah, our chief weapon is surprise... surprise and fear... fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency the reasons maple has gone downhill:
- caters to the immature, attracting a less pleasant population
- potential system creating a huge gap between funded and unfunded
- rampant hacking nobody gives a rat's ass about anymore, making it increasingly frustrating to play the game by the rules

Old Maple was hard.
People with no patience quit it after a couple months, around level 30.
The game has progressively gotten easier, more newbie-friendly, more instant-satisfaction. Best example is the new personality system. The actual rewards only change every 5 levels of a trait. So there's no real reason to have 100 levels, it could just as easily be 20. But people like hearing that "ding" and reading "your XXX level increased", so Nexon give them that every few minutes, every kill, every quest...

With the change in the game came a change in audience. Those who stuck around with the old game were, perforce, a bit more mature and patient than the new players who enjoy the fast-paced maple.

And I agree with everyone blaming Potential. Before that came, even with white scrolls and chaos and all, even the most heavily funded could only get to maybe double the damage of a normal player. Post Potential the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened considerably, the rich having five times or more the damage of the unfunded. And I'm not even talking about the unscrupulous rich, the kind that won't hack, themselves, but have no qualms about buying hacked and duped gear... (I don't want to get into a hypocritical discussion about whether *any* white scrolls in FM can be considered legit. I'm talking about people buying 300-attack claws and 27-attack shoes, 100% positive they were not created in anything resembling a legitimate manner, and often for real $$).

So yeah, our chief weapon is surprise... surprise and fear... fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency the reasons maple has gone downhill:
- caters to the immature, attracting a less pleasant population
- potential system creating a huge gap between funded and unfunded
- rampant hacking nobody gives a rat's ass about anymore, making it increasingly frustrating to play the game by the rules

So basically the game should have always been take forever to level? Where's the fun in that? 1st and 2nd jobs sucked, I don't understand this hardcore obession older maplers have with grinding for hours. Old maple was not hard, being patient is not "hard". I don't want instant level 200 buttons like most of you older maplers seem to think we want, I just want to be able to play for a few hours and still accomplish something. I don't mind getting 1% an hour at 180+ because level 200 should not b easy, i do mind getting less than 10% an hour at 60+.

People always whine about how the community today is so much worse than yesteryears. I've since changed my mind, as long as you aren't a jesters or Mp3 the game community can be tolerable. I've gotten into random chats with people at roids or Pirates. People can be pretty nice. Even KSers have their moments. I'll say it once, I'll say it twice, maplestory's community was once good and that was only in beta and real early maple.

Even before BB leveling was piss easy. It's been piss easy to level up ever since the XP reduction when Cygnus Knights came out. The first day they were released someone had already gotten to 120 legitimately might I add. People always would leech too when 4th jobs came out.

So basically the game should have always been take forever to level? Where's the fun in that? 1st and 2nd jobs sucked, I don't understand this hardcore obession older maplers have with grinding for hours. Old maple was not hard, being patient is not "hard". I don't want instant level 200 buttons like most of you older maplers seem to think we want, I just want to be able to play for a few hours and still accomplish something. I don't mind getting 1% an hour at 180+ because level 200 should not b easy, i do mind getting less than 10% an hour at 60+.

There's a difference between hard to level, easy to level, and spoonfeeding players. I don't mind hard to level. I don't mind easy to level. However, players are getting spoonfed when it comes to leveling. With casual play, reaching 1-70 is easily doable in a day or two. 70-120 in a week. And so forth. But despite how easy it is to level, there's is so little difference levels make due to the potential system. A level 200 player can be weaker than 120 just because the 120 has more % gear.

People always whine about how the community today is so much worse than yesteryears. I've since changed my mind, as long as you aren't a jesters or Mp3 the game community can be tolerable. I've gotten into random chats with people at roids or Pirates. People can be pretty nice. Even KSers have their moments. I'll say it once, I'll say it twice, maplestory's community was once good and that was only in beta and real early maple.

The community became less and less tolerable to me over time. Hackers gloat and show off their hacked items all over item smegas. They boast about how rich they are, how pro they are, how small everybody else's penor is. However, the community now, in my opinion, cannot beat the golden age of Viking/Grim/Squid parties. People respected each other, not because of their damage nor level, but because of they were genuinely friends. Nowadays, if you don't have X item with Y% potential in Z stat, you're an outcast.

Even before BB leveling was piss easy. It's been piss easy to level up ever since the XP reduction when Cygnus Knights came out. The first day they were released someone had already gotten to 120 legitimately might I add. People always would leech too when 4th jobs came out.

Wait a sec, lemme get this straight. The first third of your argument initiates with that leveling shouldn't be "hard" and you've provided examples of why it was considered "hard" but now you're saying leveling pre-BB was piss easy? Make up your mind.

There's a difference between hard to level, easy to level, and spoonfeeding players. I don't mind hard to level. I don't mind easy to level. However, players are getting spoonfed when it comes to leveling. With casual play, reaching 1-70 is easily doable in a day or two. 70-120 in a week. And so forth. But despite how easy it is to level, there's is so little difference levels make due to the potential system. A level 200 player can be weaker than 120 just because the 120 has more % gear.

Aside from the potential part, I think that spoonfeed levels are perfectly fine until fourth job, since that's where you get all the skillset to your disposal, and it's where you have more fun, technically. If the challenge starts there, there shouldn't be a problem with that.

If this was applicable to MapleSEA,

There's quite a difference between the past and present state of the server.
Players in the past bothered to chat, party, etc.
There were also lesser hackers

The present generation of players differs
They prefer to train only and alone.
Hackers now are running rampant everywhere.

Aside from the potential part, I think that spoonfeed levels are perfectly fine until fourth job, since that's where you get all the skillset to your disposal, and it's where you have more fun, technically. If the challenge starts there, there shouldn't be a problem with that.

Once a player gains access to LHC, 120+ becomes a joke. My HS mule gains nothing short of a level per hour in the early 12x's. And looking at trends, it most likely remains that way until late 14x to 15x.

the thing that makes old maple better was the release of 3rd job/ intro to ludi grim/viking/squid/goby pt. at the time it has such a good community in a sense that we were not damage wh0res since the concept of secondary low stat-statless is still not worth it since zakum was still OMGENDGAMEBOSS. as a result, people were playing mainly for fun and for the community. partying was extremely fun in a sense that u get to meet so many new people in a non-pimento way because nobody really cares about your damage because each person in a party has a platform to themselves to take care of and nobody really cared that much of the exp difference because of dmg. 1 of the only separation we had was levels, which, if you were 90+ you were looked upon equally. every class was pretty equal back then, even tho some were stronger than other. they all have an interesting place/pt to level that people will accept them. spending hours grinding back then was actually quite fun and interesting even tho it was slow(during that time u need to grind around 10 hours per level). but all the positives of the party system was really really enjoyable. vkpt, sqpt, gbpt was pure fun because u get ur own platform (not to mention vikings drop ilbis, which was OMG back then too), and 70+ equips dropping from them was worth something, and grim partying always get you on fire because kage,which was dropped from grim, was such a rare and expensive item back then, and getting a kage per 10 hour of grinding was totally worth the hours. every job fit everywhere, and the best part is, since they dont care much about the exp difference, the community talked a lot during training and yes that was fun . so the old maple is really the peak of maple that was worth spending hours on
and hacking back then,compared to now, is really a watever hacking. all ppl hacked was the vac, which was for the level, and then it was for nothing since the community really excludes you if they know you hacked so there was pretty much no fun for the hackers except to annoy others
in addition to that, in a sense, we're all equal in terms of equips and damage. passing 7 60% on a weapon was considered OMG, and passing 1 or a few 10% on a weapon was OMG Y U SO LUCKY!, and, of course, cash shop didn't play a role in separate us like it is now

I agreed pretty much what you wrote.