Why do we play Maplestory?

Would Plato's cave theory be what you're getting at here?

I suppose that would be one way of looking at it.
It's just when you stop at a fairly short level range and refrain from progressing, you can still technically have fun screwing around, but you're not really playing *the* game, but using it as a platform to make your own games.
If you choose to actually progress further you eventually find that doing so becomes increasingly impossible without NX.