Maple Advisory Council

As a former member of the MWLB, I like the idea of the council, hell I liked the idea of the MWLB. Doing something to help the community of a game you enjoy playing is always a fine ambition. I just don't see it succeeding sadly. I've often thought Nexon could have done a lot more with the MWLB if they'd done a better job of things, but I don't think a community driven group is going to work out any better than that experience did. I liked the people they chose for the program, I liked the GMs who worked with the program, but in the end it always fell short of where it needed to be in order to be successful.

Not that there weren't some people who tried very hard to make it successful, but there was a rather high drop rate of people involved amongst the few chosen to help, without even going into the other problems that plagued the program. I think if you try to add just a few people and make it work, it will fail rather quickly. Even highly dedicated people can't always find the time to split between the game and real life, let alone a significant time sink like this would be. I feel like unless you get a solid group of people on each server who can all take on some of the burdens that it would entail, it has little to no chance of succeeding. And even with a group like that, there will still be times when some servers would be understaffed just due to the way life works out.

So do you add more people or allow people to transfer servers? Do you dedicate more resources to the larger servers? Then there's issues with larger groups of people, like how do you all stay on the same page when you may have very differing viewpoints? What if you don't present a unified front, how long will it take for the community to take sides? Then there's the issues further down the line after the program has been working for a while. For example, how do you decide who should and shouldn't remain in the program? How can you keep people motivated after the initial starting period?

There's a lot of issues with programs like this (Takebacker mentioned a few more to consider too), and while the MWLB may have helped Nexon answer some of the questions I posed, there are many more that are unknown, simply because you can't predict how things will turn out. I'm not saying all this to dissuade you from your goals, I'm merely suggesting a handful of things that occurred to me as I looked into the idea and thought of my own past experiences.

Still, I like the thought of a community cleaning up their own games, even now. And perhaps Nexon will embrace the idea, if only for the good PR they might be able to get out of it. XP So in spite of my doubts, I wish you well and I'll throw my support in as well if you would like it. Not sure what sort of proof you might like, but I suppose that's probably best left to PMs or emails.

Thank you greatly for writing this response and I'll take much of it into changing the program to make it more stable and supportive. An idea can jumpstart the project, but you're right about not letting it die down and keeping the interest alive. I can accept your involvement with the MWLB as you're aware of how it was kept, although being aware myself; I wanted to build upon what was previously there, and correct all those little mistakes that were present before.

I've been with the community for awhile and it's something that means a lot to me, so doing anything possible to keep it alive and better it for everyone is important to me. While it may be a game, MapleStory has been apart of hundreds of lives and I can say myself it's impacted who I am. With that in mind, the community in-game has worsened, a lot to blame to how certain matters have been handled by Nexon and other issues. In time, let's hope that can be better.

A great part of being able to work with the Council myself however is my presence already with Nexon. I visit them almost every month and am invited to occasional events and private discussions so I would have to option to actually sit down with their team (assuming it's needed) and plan out what has to be done, expenses, etc.

I'm looking forward to having the project be a success, but that doesn't mean there won't be pitfalls along the way. Thanks for the support you've given yourself though now and then!

Not positive on this but GM's, and hopefully the "council" have the ability to look at previous chat within the channel.

That would be the case. All chatlogs are accessible by Nexon's team but wouldn't by Council members because of how their system works. All of that is only visible from their computers + wouldn't be needed.

This, all by itself, represents way more investment than Nexon would ever put into this program. In my humble opinion.

If they were willing to spend time in forums and in-game (roflmao) they wouldn't need this "volunteer police" force.
And don't tell me "yes, but this is once and for all, not a continuous effort" - no, not really. First, you yourself write "series of elimination" which means trying and retrying. And then I expect a high level of attrition among the members, as with the MWLB before them. There are only so many "GM, he's ks'ing me, ban him!" (and the ensuing "He started it" "I've been here for hours" "I was born here and so was my father" "Ban him already!" "Sorry, I can't ban, but I have alerted a GM") a person can take before deciding this community isn't worth their time.
So every time one of your not-even-a-handful per server wears out, Nexon need to go scouting for someone new? Forget it. Might as well hire more GMs.

They went through quite a bit of investment of time to consider who would be a Volunteer, including myself and others, as well as when the original MWLB program was in existence, except it was by email application.

If there's ever a confusion or a Council member doesn't know how to handle a situation they can always ask their Nexon representative or merely ignore it. In more situations unless told otherwise a Council member will not be able to interact with players while they're 'patrolling' which would include watching over a fight. This is why there would not be an idea of misusing their power, as players will not know if they are infact in the map or simply poofed.

Nexon wouldn't have to go scouting for a new player, there would still be the original list of players and the next couple would be contacted. There's been dozens of players on their own forums (as well as other places) that are veterans of the community including some of the members and other staff here that would be able to contribute in the case a previous member has to leave. When the issue comes along, it'll be dealt with then.