Morality of Using NX

I'm one of those people that don't even lift a finger to pay for the NX (or MTS), although if I see a free offer I go for it.

What I find that irks me in the system is how Nexon sorta forces incentives onto you to buy their CS stuff. As of lately, even some events require NX to participate in. And I've heard that Trickster has it way worse. But in terms of material goodness, Nexon's just a company like any other. Dishonest sometimes, but legal. It's almost like some governments I've seen.

I live on a sort of philosophy, "Don't tell me how to live life, just live life your way and I'll live mine my way." The only morals I'm concerned with when it comes to me and MapleStory is that as long as I don't spend any money on the game itself, I'm fine. Because if I do spend money, then it's a sunk cost, and what's worse is if you lose your character/account to some h4x0r or account hijacker, then you don't have the benefits either. Not to mention it's VIRTUAL game property. This is what I believe, and nothing's going to change my opinion on any of this (except the community), unless Nexon decides to pull a corporate scam or something.

I dont understand how anyone can think it is immoral for a company to sustain itself by making money. These companies in return provide jobs, pay taxes, and continue to provide a service. You said you have a job so I assume you arent employed at a free-to-work company?

Some jobs are from non-profit organizations.

Some jobs are from non-profit organizations.

Non-profits still make money: there's a need to pay for expenses and labor. There's just no net profit for the company itself.

Non-profits still make money: there's a need to pay for expenses and labor. There's just no net profit for the company itself.

Well of course. Even those guys (or volunteers) don't expect to operate for free: TANSTAAFL. Non-profit orgs are not suppose to seek any profit (technically defined as positive net income in economics, or where revenue is greater than expense; they can still have revenue) or else they lose grants from the government and stuff. Usually they just kindly ask for donations to cover the rest of the cost, and dump any profit somewhere, whether it's expanding their organization or donating it elsewhere.

Nexon is obviously out for much more though.

You missed the point. By buying the cards, you've given them money. You could throw the cards into the fire for all they care at that point as they've made their money.

Well, thing is

The second the cards are activated Nexon has already made the money. Shuffling it around a little isn't giving them money, as they already have it.

If the game cards' demand is high, then 7eleven and Target will be buying more of them, as they're obviously something people want. Therefore, Nexon will make more cards, and be able to sell them. If 7eleven and Target doesn't sell the cards, they will not be buying more cards, and Nexon won't earn money by making new cards as noone will buy them.

It definitly annoys me to see people spend heaps of money om NX every month, and then act as though they require it. I remember a friend saying that she couldn't train because she needed to charge more NX. Apparently it was because she couldn't possibly train without 2x Drop, because it was a requirement to cover the costs of training, and her attitude towards gacha was the same. Seriously... it's not ESSENTIAL. If people want to use heaps of NX, fine. But I don't want to hear about how you couldn't live without it.

I use mts for my NX, have never bought NX. I mostly use safety charms, and sometimes a 2x EXP card during a 2x EXP event, as well as my pet/ looting gear. I don't worry about clothes, other than invisible hat because Z-Helm is so ugly

the only way i see buyin NX as immoral is if the money you used to buy the NX came from selling your kids.

What I find that irks me in the system is how Nexon sorta forces incentives onto you to buy their CS stuff. As of lately, even some events require NX to participate in.

While it's true there are some events that require NX -- the mansion, the mini dungeons, Gacha-boxes -- these don't necessarily hinder your access to the game or necessarily degrade the quality of your game experience. They enrich it, yes, and they cost real $, but you have no obligation to participate and oftentimes they do not give out items that are absolutely essential to your Mapling career. Really, from what I've seen, most of these just offer useless things (i.e., weapons/equipment that may or may not make your character better, though I am not all that impressed by a few extra attack points, AND these items can be later bought with in-game money). There are also non-NX events (GM games!) and quests (Lunchbox Quest -- it was EXCELLENT for heroes, and free) that I think benefit you more than the occasional NX events...

Just my two cents, though. I just raise my eyebrows when we have one or two NX events and people cry out...yet look at all the pretty good stuff we've had that's free. =)

I live on a sort of philosophy, "Don't tell me how to live life, just live life your way and I'll live mine my way." The only morals I'm concerned with when it comes to me and MapleStory is that as long as I don't spend any money on the game itself, I'm fine. Because if I do spend money, then it's a sunk cost, and what's worse is if you lose your character/account to some h4x0r or account hijacker, then you don't have the benefits either. Not to mention it's VIRTUAL game property. This is what I believe, and nothing's going to change my opinion on any of this (except the community), unless Nexon decides to pull a corporate scam or something.

Maple is one of my hobbies, I don't mind putting money into that I won't see later--it offers me entertainment, that's good enough for me. Really, I rather compare it to spending $20 at the movie theater. Some people take it too far and put hundreds, thousands of dollars into it, and that may be pushing it (I wouldn't spend thousands of dollars on entertainment, unless it was an excellent vacation to somewhere distant)... =)

OP:

Most video games are about wasting time. Maple is about wasting time and money. Every aspect of Maple, including gaining exp, losing xp in death, item gain, item improvement, sale of items, easing gameplay through pets, aaaaaall of it is tied to NX. If you played 3 years on 2x you'd be lvl 200 by now.

For people that want to waste money on NX that all is fine... for people having serious reservations about it, it might be a good idea simply to play another game. Maple, especially at this point, is all about NX users. Their "free" pitch is simply to get a person addicted so he starts spending on NX.

Well, it would be great to not have CS. However, would you expect Maple to be running today if they don't include CS?

They could have made a monthly fee. Even a $30 monthly fee would be better than the "free" game Maple is to many people.

Just my two cents, though. I just raise my eyebrows when we have one or two NX events and people cry out...yet look at all the pretty good stuff we've had that's free. =)

Same. I'm not one of those RAGE people xD Though I've got to be honest in that I think the chest event is a bit grand.

They could have made a monthly fee. Even a $30 monthly fee would be better than the "free" game Maple is to many people.

Maybe so, but the psychological impact would be tremendous, turning off a lot of people from playing MS even if the monthly fee was less than what they spend on the CS. And this is all assuming the expenses stayed the same, meaning if you spent $30 on CS in any given month, with the implemented P2P you'd spend $30 to play but get $30 benefits of CS.

What I find that irks me in the system is how Nexon sorta forces incentives onto you to buy their CS stuff. As of lately, even some events require NX to participate in.

Hmmmm I missed this before actually.

You gotta remember though, that you can always use mts for these events. Yeah, it costs mesos, but you already have the ingame disadvantage of not being able to use gacha to make mesos if you don't buy NX. If the event required a lot of mesos, you would still be below the ones that use NX in it, because they would have obtained more mesos using NX

Nexon provides a free game, and I enjoy the game. So I have no problem with supporting them by using the MTS. Personally, the only reason I don't buy nx with real cash is because I don't think it's worth it.

Last Sunday I went with my friend to Wal-Mart so he could get an NX card and I was quite happy that I walked out without buying one myself. It can highten the fun of the game but at the amount I play now, I just don't see the point in buying like a mad-man.
I still get to play Maple while others support Nexon.

I don't really see anything wrong with it. If you like the game, there is nothing wrong with supporting it. It becomes a problem when people start spending out of control. I buy NX cards (in moderation) because I really have nothing to merch on the MTS for a decent profit. Hopefully when I get to a higher level I can abandon using NX cards and switch over to MTS.

pineapple morality, this is maple, son.

First, I have no problem with Nexon earning money, that was never an issue.

Second, I'm mostly a person that would rather pay $50 for a game upfront then never have to pay again rather than have to pay incrimentally even if I get bored of the game 2 months after I get it and would have spent way less in that amount of time on the incrementally based game because with the $50 years down the road if i ever wanted to give it a go again I could without having to restart paying. Also I tend to break it down mentally to I payed x amount/hr of gameplay and if I happened to not play the game as much (took a week break) on a monthly charge game I feel that I have "wasted" that week's worth of money. (IE I pay 30 bucks a month for something thats $1/day so if I stoped playing for a week I just threw away $7 although not a big amount its still throwing money away cause I didn't take full advantage of it)

Third, morality may have been a strong word, I probably should have used "Justifications for using NX".

Fourth, I do see using MTS as indirectly profiting nexon as someone had to put that money initially into circulation and if they choose to buy your item and then spend more money to replace the NX they used its even more of an influence.

Beyond that I feel that once the money leaves your control you shouldn't be held responsible for what the final outcome is. By me using MTS I may or may not extend the profits of Nexon but as I have no control over people or the NX that I don't possess myself I can't say for sure my impacts on the system.

Hopefully others may take a second look and pause a moment to think before they act and thus become more aware of the far reaching implications of their simple decision whether or not they use MTS/NX. Its not a simple black and white, "I don't buy NX myself so I'm not supporting Nexon", its more "I don't buy NX myself so I possibly support Nexon indirectly".

I just hope that even though Southperry is a great community and all that people remember that Nexon did target us/Fiel as having a negative impact on them and their potential profits and knocked the community down a few pegs.

I don't really see a moral issue with spending NX. Yes I hiked up my NX usage since the first time I started playing, but it's fine with me. You know what's a bigger ripoff than NX? Paying for lunch when I can get it for minimal money at home making it myself.

I mean really. I used to average ~40-50 bucks a week on lunch, mostly fast food related. I'd rather make a healthy lunch at home thank you very much after realizing what I've been eating as well as how much I was putting in a week.

I'm getting off tangent though. For me, I am already cheap enough other than preferring to make my own lunch. I download ROMs and M3 80% of my DS games... I probably spent ~400-500 bucks over the course of Maple (over ~3 years). It's not as bad as WoW though. I probably spent 600-700 bucks on subscriptions alone. I only kept playing because of friends and time. Now I'm having less time for WoW because of school and no one I know IRL plays anymore; also, when I Wow I WOW (minimum of ~2 hours every time I play). Since I can't really do that anymore, it's back to MS.

*Ugh, got off course again. My point being is just that I think one might have to reconsider the game they're playing if they're looking at the fact they want to play for free, yet despite the opportunity to be able to enjoy other aspects of the game without spending a single dollar in real life (MTSing for NX) they choose not to because it means supporting the company. So you are in a way boycotting Nexon by not using NX, yet you also play their game?

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."



Just don't mind the people who are more equal than you and you will be fine.

i dont see why people have pride in not having used mts or bought nx, true that it doesnt cost you something irl, and its not like im against people who dont buy nx, but there is no sense in pride for not using mts.
if you dont like to fund nexon, even if it doesnt cost you something, then why do you even play this game? cause you like playing? they why for gods sake are ppl so against giving doing what nexon make this game for?? making them money?

and about leveling, true that with 2x exp you train 2x as fast then somebody without 2x exp but its not like you dont have to do anything for your leveling, lvl 7x may not be such an acchievement as it was a few years ago but its not like you didnt have any time to level in the meanwhile..
and most top players earn around 3% per hour with 2x exp, against 10% an hour without 2x exp for 13x players..
you cant just say "he's only higher lvl'd because of the use of 2x exp".. some of us actually work hard for their chars, and 2x exp doesnt change that.

IMO

Hopefully others may take a second look and pause a moment to think before they act and thus become more aware of the far reaching implications of their simple decision whether or not they use MTS/NX. Its not a simple black and white, "I don't buy NX myself so I'm not supporting Nexon", its more "I don't buy NX myself so I possibly support Nexon indirectly".

I just hope that even though Southperry is a great community and all that people remember that Nexon did target us/Fiel as having a negative impact on them and their potential profits and knocked the community down a few pegs.

Ah, so you're talking about boycotting Nexon because of their treatment of Southperry and Fiel.

Well, I got news for you: by playing MapleStory you are supporting Nexon. Even if you don't buy NX or use MTS.

Consider: you happen to find a valuable scroll that you can't use. What do you do with it? Well, obviously not MTS. What, then? Sell at FM entrance? Trade with random stranger? Gift to buddy? Regardless of what you do with it, you can't be sure the person who received the scroll from you won't MTS it, or MTS the item they scroll with it. So Nexon will get money from the scroll you found!
OK, so you say you'll destroy the scroll. NPC it for 1 meso. Now Nexon don't get anything, nyaaa nyaaa! But wait. By destroying this scroll, you are contributing to it rarity. Raising the price of its brethren in MTS. Oh nooo!

Do you have a buddy list? A guild? Presumably, these are people whose enjoyment of MapleStory is increased by your presence. Maybe if you quit, they'd lose interest in the game? And stop buying NX?

If you want to boycott Nexon, or cause them financial damage because of how they treated SP, you need to stop playing MapleStory. Or play it and hack, ks, and otherwise annoy people, so as to make many other players quit.

Ah, so you're talking about boycotting Nexon because of their treatment of Southperry and Fiel.

Well, I got news for you: by playing MapleStory you are supporting Nexon. Even if you don't buy NX or use MTS.

Consider: you happen to find a valuable scroll that you can't use. What do you do with it? Well, obviously not MTS. What, then? Sell at FM entrance? Trade with random stranger? Gift to buddy? Regardless of what you do with it, you can't be sure the person who received the scroll from you won't MTS it, or MTS the item they scroll with it. So Nexon will get money from the scroll you found!
OK, so you say you'll destroy the scroll. NPC it for 1 meso. Now Nexon don't get anything, nyaaa nyaaa! But wait. By destroying this scroll, you are contributing to it rarity. Raising the price of its brethren in MTS. Oh nooo!

Do you have a buddy list? A guild? Presumably, these are people whose enjoyment of MapleStory is increased by your presence. Maybe if you quit, they'd lose interest in the game? And stop buying NX?

If you want to boycott Nexon, or cause them financial damage because of how they treated SP, you need to stop playing MapleStory. Or play it and hack, ks, and otherwise annoy people, so as to make many other players quit.

I can definatly see your point by even logging in I contribute to Nexon and to try to be on a moral high ground and enjoy the game is seemingly impossible.

I originally sought this topic to try and find a justification to indirectly fund Nexon (use MTS). I want the NX yet don't want Nexon to profit from my wants. I realize that my impact is low and boycotting is and always will be an exercise in futility. I might as well go start spending all my money at Wal-Mart...

BTW my buddy list is dead (only 2 chars on it that have gotten online in the last ~1yr.), my guild is dead I am the only person in the guild that logs in anymore (guild is full of mules/noobs/people that have left broa) and no one would care if I left maple.