The fatal flaw with the current business model.

As i said i never realised until quite late in the game how useful certain things were because i was dead set on never paying for anything. So my years of playing didn't pay off until i already had like 4-5 characters over 120, which was after i stopped, came back, took a break, then came back again.

So did you pay for those things or did you work up 80m:1k nx ratio to pay for everything. Or did you just buy the permanent?

agree it takes quite alot starting fresh for new comers, the learning curve as i would call it is kinda high. Looking at the other game i play however that isn't so far from the norm for me, Dota also takes a while to get into,

So what you call "NX dependency" is a "high learning curve", then try to compare it to something like Dota? Maplestory has no learning curve. You play the game how it's supposed to be played, you either break bank, or struggle for years. Dota actually requires strategic thinking, reflexes, and all sorts of skills. I'm not familiar on how it entirely functions, but I believe the only thing really purchaseable are champions. You can literally buy your way through any challenge in maplestory. Boss kills you to fast? Wheels? Can't buff fast enough? Pet buff? Can't be bothered to potion, auto HP, auto loot, hell there was some auto buff thing that made you unable to die. The sad part is, for the most part, these "chaos" variant bosses require it as they have some sort of 1HKO, where the frames can glitch up and even though you jumped through the necessary hoops yous till die. Your comparisons have absolutely no credibility at all.

you WILL get pineappled on first couple of weeks of playing, it's only after some studying and coaching with some friends, or playing with other newbies your level for a good while that you start to come into your own as a player and really start to grasp the vast concept of dota as a whole. Some games have high walls of learning, and that's fine, to some people it makes them feel good that they were able to overcome that hurdel, we all have the option of not going through it, that's the main point. You choose what you want to invest into.

Again...your entire comparison is so off it's not even funny. The first weeks of maplestory are great, you get free stuff majority of the time, almost everything you get is beneficial to you, no mastery books, little to no conflict (save for class releases), it's how it should be played to be honest. You can play maplestory for years, but your dependency on NX is never going to suddenly vanish. You're never going to turn around a profit to get the range required to fight bosses which in fact do, although small, turn over a profit.

It's never about inexperience, it isn't about understanding the concepts of the game, when it get's down to it, there is no genuine free oppurtunity that is proportional to the amount of nx you would have to spend. You aren't a more "skilled" player simply because you don't buy nx, that doesn't make any sense. I could throw 1.5 grand on the game, still know as much as you, accomplish more than you, while you take what I would consider baby steps.

If a person can't realise that and ends up spending their whole retirement fund on a game then that's their problem, if a person decides they want to spend 5+ hours for 365 days getting to a certain point in maplestory guess what...that's also their choice. They are loads of the same type of schemes in the real world, hell even an entire nation was built on it, Las vegas.

TIL Las Vegas is a nation. It's not about having a sudden epiphany that "hey my money isn't worth it", but the fact the option is there is ludicrous. You can default to this "It's their choice" but we're not talking about choices, we're not talking about masochist addicts, we're talking about how nexon's business model can be improved on. Nexon cannot rely on these top 15% to spend on cubes all the time, because these high spenders are getting fed up. They are getting banned(justly mind you) and they are quitting because it's too much. What we are seeing is a static population of the same 50 or so people playing the game like a day job. They grow out of it, better games come up, or life just beats them out. With the current business model, that caters to these high spenders, who have been dedicated for years, all because it's become their comfort zone, is going to bite their ass in the long run.

Nexon has no forsight, there is plenty of room for oppurtunity in this game, and they are focusing on tomorrow instead of next year. If they focused on an easier transition to an nx user, in fact, do as private servers do, and indulge free users, then we'd see a bigger community. There is a proportion in games like these, and Nexon DESTROYED IT after these frekin cubes came out. Perfect gear became a standard, cubing it to legendary with 3 lines that have some sort of benefit, is now a standard. These weapons costs several hundred dollars to make, only to be replaced with the next "tier" of equipment. Those are ridiculous extremes and are not acceptable.

Only thing i have to care about is how i manage with what they are currently putting forward
and don't give me that oh your just condoning what they are doing and not seeking to make things better, come on i'm pretty sure they are adults, i'm pretty sure they have teams of people dedicated to understanding what works and what doesn't, i'm pretty sure they are hearing the cries of maple players all over, if they wanted to do something about it they would have done it. They aren't ignorant, they just have different objectives, and that's fine, i have my my own as well.

Oh my god, and how old are you? "They're adults", lmfao. Their objective and their means to accomplishing it has and is slowly killing the game off. I have seen entire generations of players just dissapear and mock the previous generations for even bothering with this pit of retardation. You don't and frankly can't discredit peoples criticism based on "Their adults, they'll do what they want", that's not how the real world works. Nexon is not a charity, they are a business, they have, believe it or not, a certain amount of obligation towards their customers, which is people who use their service. This just shows how immature, naive and frankly selfish your mindset is on this. "I surivive and have fun while doing it, so everything is fine how it is".

Put simply as i said before, it's their choice, the way you talk it would appear as though they are the government raising taxes or some other detrimental economic burden they are placing on the taxpaying people of the nation. I get what you are saying, believe me i sure do, the game is hard and kinda unfair/ unproportional for the rewards you eventually get out of it, really disproportionate and all that, but guess what, no one has to do it, people choose to do it. That's the biggest point and most important when it comes to a game, which is a want, NOT A NEED, so anything you say concerning their tactics and what we have to go through is completely irrelevant, because we choose what we want to go through, we are capable of reason and making choices that make us happy, that's part of the definition of the human condition, the search for gratification. As a person who hobbies in anthropology and psychology, i have seen that people will do what they w/e they want that makes them happy as long as they can get away with it without any negative consequences (subjective to them as what they see as negative) depending on a person's intelligence to discern long and short term consequences.

Oh my god, do you know how to write a sentence that doesn't spam half a goddamn paragraph. I can't break this up because if I attempt to it'll just be taken out of context.

I'm not going into this philosophical 101 bull sh`it with you, a video game is to waste time as a leisurely activity, maplestory does that, for a limited amount of time. But now you have time invested, a character you like, you want to grow on this hobby, reach accomplishments, become better, it's just natural. Why must it be a decision to begin with that I have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to achieve a decent dent in the higher hierarchy of end game content? Then you allude to, working hard, which to be honest takes as much time and dedication as a second job. It then loses it's lust as a game, but the friends you make keep you there.

They should encourage players at this point of their maple life to stay, not face this wall through an ocean of time, or an ocean of money. For you to dismiss this as "Well that's their intention!", is ridiculous. The whole point of using their service, thus making us a customer, which in the end, kind of effects their IPO, is our voice on the subject. There's a tipping point in any activity you invest into, whether it be time or money, where they don't want to suddenly make all of it in vain. For you to suggest the problem is the players with no dicipline complaining, is ridiculous, especially since they are very valid complaints, with very fair solutions.

Maple is a want, no one forces us to play it, your arguments are nice and make alot of sense, but when put to the realization that this is a game and we can stop at any time......then it just sounds like whining because you want something but can't get what you want but truth is you really don't need it at all.

Actually, I'm pretty well known for getting whatever I want in maplestory, I just don't indulge it anymore. What your problem is, you're looking at this as a general player basis, while the thread is about the company's strategy and how it's f`ucking over players. Your solution of "Don't like it, quit", is just obnoxious immaturity being cornered by logic. Nexon has made a few changes based on the participation of this forum alone, girasol was doing leaps and bounds before she left based on our input. So for you to suggest that criticism is simply whining and should be disregarded, is asinine.

Unlike you, I have taken initiative to make a difference, even spent about 3-4 months recording hackers and submitting them because the botting issue has gotten that bad. Nothing can be accomplished if you disregard it simply as "A choice that I have to deal with", I honestly don't think it's nexon's choice to get their database hacked, I don't think it's their choice that botters have such a benefit over normal players, and a million other examples. The only choices they made were unaware of the consequences, it's half ass'd and there are people trying to take initiative to change that. And you're dismissing those efforts as "their choice".

Anyone who is willing to go through what they go through in maple can simply pick up at anytime and find a game more suitable to their needs. Humans do what they want to do. If people want to be stupid and waste/invest their money then so be it, that's their right as a human being, If nexon wants to ignore our cries for easier stuff then so be it, game will either continue to float or sink eventually. It's their choice. I made my choice not to waste large amounts of money on it because i want to have life outside of it. That was my choice.

To be quite frank I believe it's the fact you don't have much money to spend to begin with. Just to let you know time is in fact money, so you're by default wasting it by participating, you are condoning the gaps, the glitches, the vulnerability, so your choice isn't exactly that smart to begin with.

Let me say this to all those who might not know or too young to understand, the world sucks and is not fair, research what you are getting into and prepare for the consequences. Don't wait until something happens (in this case maplestory) such as you get unfairly banned, get scammed, get hacked, rewards aren't what you thought they were or whatever else, to complain and wonder how is this right or i should be refunded blah blah. The game has a history of being unfair, look it up, if you still decide to push on knowing this, then it's your own dam fault if you get "screwed over", no one else's. Go play something else.

I love when people preach this, because when they're in those shoes, their tune quickly changes. I personally find it ironic when active maplestory players expect any less from nexon, but to encourage change, to discuss how things should be, is progressive, and shouldn't be shunned because it's expected. Apathy doesn't suddenly mean maturity, it's people with passion who change the world after all.