Nostalgia of Pre-BigBang Maplestory

Edit: The lack of social aspects popped up in here too, and I think that can be at least partially attributed to the absurd difficulty and monotony of the game at the time, it actually made you want to talk to the people around you. Maple worked it into its favor, and as a result was probably the most social MMO I had ever played.

I already posted in this thread, but you brought up a really good point. I hadn't thought about the difficulty level as a motivator to be social, but thinking about it that's exactly what it did. It definitely forced people to be social, to make friends, and to work together in parties for training or PQs. You obviously always had those who would grind till all hours of the day and night, but the vast majority of players were very social. I suppose LHC was an attempt to get people to be social again, but more often than not people just have mule accounts or friends who leech them and there is very little 'party questing' going on.

I remember all too well the frustration of leveling, but when you got to a specific level it meant a lot. It was inspiring (and made people jealous) seeing higher level characters. I guess nowadays everyone just expects everything now. We have tele rocks, which are extremely convenient, but gone are the days of having to wait 10-30 minutes on a ship and running into the cabin before Crogs came out (if you went AFK, well, enjoy waiting another half hour!). That's pretty reflective on the way our culture has developed, and you can't necessarily fault Nexon for giving players what they wanted. I made a fan site because I enjoyed the game so much, but as of late, I have lost the motivation. Nexon doesn't give back to their fans or their players, unless they have something to gain by it whether it be promotion or some marketing scheme.

I think the question at the end of the day becomes: can this be fixed? It would be extremely difficult for Nexon to put stricter leveling restraints on players now that tons of people have gotten to 200 with the post-BB changes. Everyone who gives a pineapple about the game and is part of the community especially on forums and fan sites is looking at Nexon wondering, what the hell are you doing and can this be fixed? I fear that this may just be a generational gap and maybe we're all just too old. Who knows. What's strange is, there is a lot MapleStory has done right and I'm surprised that no one else has tried to take what MapleStory began and do it in a much more refined and intelligent way.