What are we smoking?

While MS has a host of problems already mentioned...I still play regardless because:

1) I need a stress-reliever for when I am at home and want a break from studying. In a very intense academic program, mindless grinding or just hopping in for like an APQ is a nice way to get away from stressers and take my mind off things. I admit sometimes the breaks drag out longer than I intend, but I still do well enough in school (university, not high school).
2) I recently hit fourth job and love the skills that are becoming available to me. =)
3) The friends I have made counter the uglier bits of the MS community. Why waste any energy getting angry at an idiot anyway? =)

Oh, and I do use NX, and I have used 2x cards specifically to save me time when I was training to get to 4th job. I don't even usually grind the full 4 hours because I only had so much time (this was during the summer), so it's not like I was forcing myself to stay longer.

I have complained about Nexon lots, yet I continue to charge NX. But I feel like at times I am even more disappointed because I've charged so much money into my account, and, for example, get banned temporarily for leveling too fast x_x. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I think addiction to this game overrides what criticisms I have. =/

In the end, I think I just play regardless of all the shortcomings because I still have fun playing. ^^

Some people in this forum need to learn how to analyze an argument.

Butterfli's thesis can be summed up thusly: "Why do people continue to play even though it's a common fact that Nexon's quality is terrible, the game is horribly imbalanced, and when Nexon shows no loyalty to its customers?"

The "why do people continue to play" is the crux of this argument. The facts about Nexon and imbalances are just supporting reasons. A few people got hung up in the supporting reasons and answered the thesis wrong.

Nowhere is Butterfli saying, "I hate this game it sucks" or "I want to quit". Butterfli is asking for a reason why people play DESPITE all of the crap that Nexon gets away with. He's asking about the players, not the argument for why Nexon sucks. Telling him "if you don't like this game gtfo" only means that you didn't read the argument well.

I ask myself that every time I log on. I still don't have an answer...except I play to zone out and not have to think of all the real world crap that bothers me.

Like Stereo said "running around beating things up doesn't lose its appeal for me."

But its getting harder to enjoy that, cause all I'm seeing is the Maple crap and that bothers me when I'm on. lol

Despite all the game's design shortcomings, I actually enjoy it. All the design flaws are easily fixable (change value of something that's broken, test, repeat if necessary). What isn't easily fixable is the community - it is, I would argue and have argued for a long time, the actual broken part of Maple.

Other people have brought up the social nature of MMOs, I wanted to get to this. Someone else also brought up the fact that there's no punishment for being an ass or a moron in global. This is an important fact - there's no incentive to be a decent person. That means that you gain more by doing negative things.

Someone KSes your map? They get EXP and they take away some of your drops. You lose EXP/money. Sure, they could potentially go find an open map, but you're there. It's fun to make you angry. It's against the ToS, but who cares? It's not like Nexon ever enforces it. If they do actually get banned, it's for 1-3 days. Oh dear. That sure makes them think about what they've done and why it's not acceptable.

Apparently, Scania is the worst for this, but that doesn't matter. The fact that it's a problem on any world means it's a problem. In Scania, this happens at any level, from 1-190+ (youtube for Excellent guild event, Scania Friday nights, numerous videos with "Tiger" or "KS war" in the title, etc.). It's been this way since the beginning, so it would take a HEAVY amount of GM power to change the community.

But guess what? It hasn't happened in the 3.5 years of global thus far. I guess the game is meant to be enjoyed alone off in desolate maps without any interaction, because otherwise you'll be harassed in some way. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

I don't really play global anymore. I'll give it some activity every couple weeks when I'm bored, but that usually doesn't last long. I mostly develop for private server source and will continue to do so until it forces Nexon's service to improve. I want to play their service. I want to pay them money for bringing it to us. I just can't support a terrible product.

-Being cut out of getting upgrades just because your class can't make money for crap, and that you don't use iTCG/Gachapon/buy mesos/APQ/gold-dig/MTS merchant/general merchant/Use a DK to hack and bot for mesos/Using site exploits or social engineering to steal accounts.

Yeah, my DK made me 2-3x as much mesos in 80-90 as my WK made in 80-120. It's just a matter of being more partyable (DK started running Zakum at 83, WK at 107, DK gets APQ parties almost immediately), hunting (neutral) monsters with better drops, and not spending as much on hp pots (HB+ER > PG, reduces both magic and physical attacks).

On the other hand, I don't really look forward to being 4th job as much on a DK. So I'm glab I trained my Paladin instead and just used the DK to fund myself decent gear (I can say though, 8x DK > 12x WK @ APQ)

yey, another useless thread repeating what we all said for the last 2~3 years.

I still haven't found the answer why I play this game, but when such threads came out, (ComputerProf, the recent events of Nexon being a screw up) my mood changed from dull to depressed because of the game itself.

I kinda speculate the faults of MapleStory since there are so many crap to deal with (recent bannings of legit players) and I assume Nexon hires rejects from hell (or pants to head morons) to program the game despite that -Hime- from forums stating that to not insult her co workers and they are working hard to fix the problem. And from that comment, Nexon Cheerleaders (Nexon forums) said to me that Nexon actions are reasonable to ban legitimate players.

A sample of my life in MS: I am a lone wolf. I simply don't make friends because most of these people are teenagers and immature people who want to powerlevel just to be superior and dominate than me. If was invited to a guild, I declined to join in. I don't have a very powerful computer (Windows 2k, 512 RAM, Pentium 3) in which it results to me lagging. So far, I spend 3 years playing the game and it resulted me obtaining a 7x ranger, 6x cleric, 5x sin, 3x ice/lighting wiz, 3x Bandit, and 3x fire/poison wiz (I have others but they are below 2nd job). I only use a small amount of NX to change my characters looks (ranger and sin) cause they are permanent. Sometimes I purchase pets to have a small closure but they ceased already. Point is, I hate the community because most are pants on head lazy dumb****s who constantly begging me for NX when they could just put a little work into their own instead of asking random people. Luckly, I haven't been banned yet, because I don't go to places where it has been developed and still has faults. As of my status in game, I am off the grid because of such horror stories from SW.net stating that there are more bans on legitimate players.

Overall, the entire thing sucks. Dunno why I play it but I update on whatever I can to help my community. (Hidden-Street and HappyMapling)

This thread shows about how Nexon workers are either dumb or plain on drunk. http://sleepywood.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1494271

Oh btw, MAPLE STORY DOES NOT SUCK.

For some reason the KMS, JMS, CMS, HKMS, TMS, and MSSEA have clients that are SIMILIAR to the GMS client and have supposedly better communities. Unfortunately GMS has crappy customer service and a less polite community, so that is WHY THE GMS VERSION OF MAPLESTORY SUCKS.

Its the community and the customer service STUPID.

despite that -Hime- from forums stating that to not insult her co workers and they are working hard to fix the problem.

Well, you see I would've provided the event where a fellow "nexon representative" had informed a player that elemental weapons were not suppose to work. One or two weeks later, they applied elemental boost to the weapon. We shouldn't call them dumb or that they have no idea what the hell they're doing or say. Since we don't know what's going on at the place.

I'm sure that as a big corporation, they have people handling different departments that may or may not be interconnected: someone handles forums, some do coding and programing, some do sales, etc. The person who said "elementals aren't suppose to work" was someone dealing with answering tickets. They obviously haven't talked to the people who did programing which lead to them MISINFORMING players.

We can blame him for not being 100% sure about the issue before misinforming players but we really don't know how things roll over there.

Point is, I hate the community because most are pants on head lazy dumb****s who constantly begging me for NX when they could just put a little work into their own instead of asking random people.

I see the problem is that you're characters are all low leveled. Not to be insulting but the world of the high leveled people are secluded from low levels. The high leveled people are more familiar with each other since the community is smaller and are typically more mature. There are intelligent low leveled players, but they're lost in the sea of those that aren't.

If level 150 and up people all secluded themselves from interactions with people, they would've quit 100 levels ago. Because at 150, you're not even 10% to level 200 but you've already seen 90% of what maplestory has to offer already.

That said when we open up Maplestory.exe and KNOWING that the game, the gameplay, the glitches, the abuses, the inequality, the lack of quality, the company, the service, all suck, then what are we really doing?

I continue to play and pay money for NX because I enjoy the game and IMHO, the the positive aspects of Maple out-weigh the negatives.

If the negatives out-weigh the positives for you, stop playing.

Me playing this game without having spent my own money on it (other than the computer and electricity and internet, which will be there anyways) makes me very happy. Also, in the case that MS crashes, I'll still be satisfied.

What? I'm not supporting Nexon? Well, that's for the other people to do. It will only become a problem when they finally crack down on the non-paying customers, or if MS phails completely. Even then, I'll just move on. It's not like my life is on the line on MS anyways.

Just a note of how I'm using the term "modern maplestory" even though it's not our topic at the moment: I'm referring to maplestory as of September 2008. Because Global Maple Story is only three years old. But the game has gone through drastic changes. Hell, even gMS now differs greatly than gMS six months ago due to new content, and new standards.


I tried to present facts to the point where every sentence was backed up by some sort of proof (in this case, url's). I didn't have every sentence backed up, but I did present enough sources.

I wouldn't necessarily call this thread a "study" because all I did was string together a bunch of event's that were correlated with each other. We cannot say correlation imply causation, but we certain can draw conclusion from those correlation events. Which was exactly what I did. Drawing a conclusion from those said events.


I thought we've discussed pass the part about how this thread is about complaining when complaining is not what I'm trying to do? Anyway, I suppose what went wrong here is how we both defined "quitting" in our own terms. You're association this forum with maplestory. And by your logic, one who actively visits this forum is at least somewhat active in maplestory and if you're not active in the maplestory, why visit it's forum?

Quitting like you said, is to cease or discontinue a certain activity. I have ceased playing maplestory but I have not ceased browsing its fan forum; the difference is there. Like Judgment and I have mentioned, why must one be continually playing mapleglobal in order to post on a maplestory fan site? I certainly don't see anything wrong or faulty about you hating baseball but still show interest in the sport. Perhaps one time in a game, the ball struck you so hard you're traumatic about ever playing again but you still like baseball. I'll admit I do like playing maplestory. I wouldn't have made three fourth job characters if I didn't. I just don't want to put up with the ridiculous exp curve, the community, and the service (any longer).


I obviously haven't spoken to every person that ever went to college but apparently it seems that coincidentally the people I've talked too all would've chosen high school over college. This isn't the case for everyone, namely yourself. So the number of people I've talked to isn't very representative of the 'norm' which is why I chose to phrase "many college students" rather than "most college students".

----------------

Since you agree that maplestory is a culture, then I'm sure with it comes subcultures, and micro-culture (The Western culture is a culture, American is a subculture because it follows the Western culture, and the teenage group is a micro-culture because it is a small branch that stemmed from the two). Like Judgment and I have mentioned, why must one be continually playing mapleglobal in order to post on a maplestory fan site? I suppose it's because I'm still looking at many aspects of the game while not actually playing the game. Similar to what Judgement said, there are people who are active when it comes to maplestory-related events but they do not have to necessarily play. Sleepywood had more people who visited the forum because it dates way back to global's beta days and the players of those times have quit for a long time. However, they have not stopped viewing or posting on the forum. Some of them are still presenting "discoveries". I can name Stereo. Stereo had mentioned she does not very active in maplestory but is still proving to be very active in posting and does number crunching outside of mapletory. Does a person who writes articles about maplestory have to actually be playing maplstory? Probably not.

To understand a culture, you must live with the culture. This is what the fieldwork of cultural anthropologist does. They live in the culture, learn its customs and dances, and eat its food. I've lived with maplestory for three years. I don't think I would've been able to present all this if I didn't.

If you're seen my thread history, I present thoughts that not many people give thought to

Papulatus--One of a Kind (about the uniqueness of Papulatus)
Sad Indeed... (about luk, lukless, and elemental weapon's contribution to the two).
Something I never quite understood... (about hybrid heroes)

Similar to how you "would waste so much of your energy on such a long post" when you disagree with what I'm presenting on so many levels. It's something I "enjoy" doing.

Now now, let's not get emotional, this is all in good fun. But all in all, fair enough, this portion of the discussion has been VERY entertaining, and a nice bit of procrastination away from my work. One must stretch the faculties and all that... hahaha, if only I were that pretentious. *rolls eyes*

I just thought I'd put in a bit of constructive criticism, as your outlook on maple seemed a bit one sided, but the point IS, why not encorporate your discussions into some sort of academic project (if you're in university, that is)? Wonderful stuff for a dissertation or thesis... Or just good practice?

I also had a hard time wrapping my head around how you - and many other ex-players like you - still continue to visit a forum that discusses a game you don't play anymore. From a personal standpoint, when I quit playing maple for 6 months last year, I removed it from my life entirely and sought other hobbies. I only started visiting the forums again when I started playing maple again. I guess in some odd manner, the hobby of visiting a forum doesn't die with the interest of the game that it was derived from in cases of ex-players like yourself.

It sucks that the company and community have left you jaded.

And on a final note Butterfli, I like your thief guides on sleepywood.

Some people in this forum need to learn how to analyze an argument.

Butterfli's thesis can be summed up thusly: "Why do people continue to play even though it's a common fact that Nexon's quality is terrible, the game is horribly imbalanced, and when Nexon shows no loyalty to its customers?"

The "why do people continue to play" is the crux of this argument. The facts about Nexon and imbalances are just supporting reasons. A few people got hung up in the supporting reasons and answered the thesis wrong.

Nowhere is Butterfli saying, "I hate this game it sucks" or "I want to quit". Butterfli is asking for a reason why people play DESPITE all of the crap that Nexon gets away with. He's asking about the players, not the argument for why Nexon sucks. Telling him "if you don't like this game gtfo" only means that you didn't read the argument well.

I personally was thrown off by the negative interpretation of Maple that Butterfli presented. I, for one, have not had much of any bad experiences with this game - except my fiasco with exp hair coupons (nearly $70 in nx later... yeah, I'm a slut, I know). Yes, there's a lot of arseholes in maple, yes buying nx puts a player at an advantage over those who don't buy nx, and apparently nexon's customer service sucks, but it's still a fun game for ME despite all of those discrepancies. I also picked a hermit as my character, so "balance" has never been a question for me (hahaha). My question is, was the purpose of Butterfli's thesis to find out why indeed people still play maple, or a nefarious plot to convince some players to abandon a game they still like? *maniacle laughter*

Anyway, I'll say it again: this has been fun.

Why not encorporate your discussions into some sort of academic project (if you're in university, that is)? Wonderful stuff for a dissertation or thesis... Or just good practice?

Are you still here procrastinating on your work? I suppose I am too. Extortionists will do that

My guides at sw lol. They aren't extinct yet?

Are you still here procrastinating on your work? I suppose I am too. Extortionists will do that

My guides at sw lol. They aren't extinct yet?

I'm surprised Sleepywood isn't extinct.

Like pretty much everyone else has said, it's not necessarily the content, it's the community. If you don't find friends in-game, you're screwed. And since most of the players are rude and immature, it's a bit hard to make friends.

Other than that, I agree that the game's terribly imbalanced. However, most of the "lesser" classes (like F/P's and Bowmen) are, IMO, more fun than the highly-populated classes like Sins and Priests. And if you're having trouble making money, you could always make a party-able class to support your main (like a Cleric).

Unfortunately, the only way we'll ever get better customer support is if Nexon is either:

A.) Replaced with a better company, or
B.) Nexon gets new managers.

So all I have to say is, to anyone who gets banned unfairly/never has their tickets answered/etc, suck it up and move on. If anything, it'll make you rethink all that money you spent and the time you wasted.

I guess my personality with this game made me filled with contempt and resentment in which some low level noobs begging me for mesos while the cocky, arrogant players (sadly, I had to stereotype dexless assassins, I have a bad history with them) stating that I suck at that character. Another would be people being so superior in any number of ways (mesos over 9000x more than me, scrolling beyond godly equips that can dispatch a monster quickly that I can't even purchase, or people who are just a total douchebag) that redefines the word "fun" on maplestory. Oh sure, I made my archer into a ranger that casts strafe and a cleric who would soon turn into a priest but everything from such contempt and resentment turn my MS life into a cold damp mush. As long as I don't encounter such things, I am fine. However, if nexon decides to state I did something wrong that I haven't done, that's a complete turn off. I dunno what are the reasons that Nexon is ****ing up in such areas, and I continue to speculate that Nexon hires their programmers as brain dead (place other stupid jokes here) rejects who can't even put a single hour in the game to figure out the bugs/glitches etc exist in game unless they have proof that their programmers did test out the game before it is released to the public.

I am a self described cynic since there is absolutely everything that is to hate in this game yet I play it because A) kills time B) I play with my cousins C) To do research on the FM D) Make friends who aren't a total ass or competitor friendly to chat with them.

And I have quited my other characters, (level 3x's) for long since I absolutely care because they are used to get my palm beach chair since I'm really broke. Or used for some experiment that proves that NXless can be number one in a new world rankings in a chance to get maple points, but it fails in absolute number of ways.

we realy needa place were the more-immiture people can go...
(in GMS you know)

then it'd be better, and we wouldnt have this problem

we realy needa place were the more-immiture people can go...
(in GMS you know)

then it'd be better, and we wouldnt have this problem

We'll have a hard time defining mature and immature, and it's not like we can confine them in a server or something.

We'll have a hard time defining mature and immature, and it's not like we can confine them in a server or something.

"One's maturity is not defined by one's age."

I've been taking that to heart since... I was 13, but even then, the higher your age, the higher your chances of being mature, perhaps. SO Nexon could theoretically make a server specifically for.. 18+.. and a server for 17 and below, and so on and so on. -shrugs- Then again, a person could just fake their birthdate on the internet.

"One's maturity is not defined by one's age."

I've been taking that to heart since... I was 13, but even then, the higher your age, the higher your chances of being mature, perhaps. SO Nexon could theoretically make a server specifically for.. 18+.. and a server for 17 and below, and so on and so on. -shrugs- Then again, a person could just fake their birthdate on the internet.

I'm 14, and I'm pretty sure I'm more mature than a bunch of people, and I don't want to be confined to a server of immature idiots .

Then again I faked my age. Lol.

I'm 14, and I'm pretty sure I'm more mature than a bunch of people, and I don't want to be confined to a server of immature idiots .

Then again I faked my age. Lol.

im 12, and mature unless pissed off.
i faked my age by one year, so its not gonna matter >_<