2013-12-16, 01:06 PM
The thing about old maple was that it was so boring and difficult to level, you were willing to do almost anything else. This led to lots of people exploring, partying, and questing together. I would make friends either by sharing a map in the perpetual grind, or when I was off doing something else to avoid grinding.
When someone on my buddy list or guild asked for help with zakum pq, needed help gathering some random item for a fetch quest, or was hitting a major milestone (every 10 levels, or even every level for my close friends) I hardly hesitated to drop my grind and go spend some time with them. That was maple for me, grinding when no one was there, spending time with friends when they were around. The flip side of the slow leveling was that I could be busy for a few weeks, but when I came back my friends were only a few levels ahead of me. Then they would get busy and I would catch up eventually. We were all always around the same levels which helped us enjoy similar content. Because levels were so far apart, I had time to save up and shop for my next set of equipment, encouraging me to keep leveling so I could equip it.
Maplestory of past was boring, but people I met were also bored, so we all made the most of it together (which actually made the game really fun). A group of us would get together to take down mushmom in the hopes of finding ilbis. 90% of the time we were waiting and chatting, but that was fun. I worked with other people on the forums to write in depth guides, and we worked out the weapon defense formula (which took weeks). I spent some time in low level training areas giving out crossbows to encourage new players to pick the path of the sniper. A few of those people became some of my best friends. In the end though, I would hunker down on a map, alone or with a buddy or two, and just grind for a couple of hours. Making conversation with my friends, or trying to make new ones with the people passing through.
There is no doubt maple today has more interesting content, more unique content, and plainly just has more content, but now the people I meet are too busy gaining levels and improving their damage that they don't have time to enjoy it with others. The few new friends I have made I haven't been able to keep because I'll stop playing for a few weeks, and when I get back they will be 50+ levels above me. So instead of a game revolving around friends and doing random things to keep ourselves busy, Maplestory to me now means playing by myself. And even though there are enough quests, enough skill points, and enough mesos to go around, I just don't enjoy that as much.
In short, to me, old Maplestory was boring to level, but fun because the bore brought people together. New Maplestory is fun to level, but I'm having trouble justifying the leveling without friends to enjoy it with.
When someone on my buddy list or guild asked for help with zakum pq, needed help gathering some random item for a fetch quest, or was hitting a major milestone (every 10 levels, or even every level for my close friends) I hardly hesitated to drop my grind and go spend some time with them. That was maple for me, grinding when no one was there, spending time with friends when they were around. The flip side of the slow leveling was that I could be busy for a few weeks, but when I came back my friends were only a few levels ahead of me. Then they would get busy and I would catch up eventually. We were all always around the same levels which helped us enjoy similar content. Because levels were so far apart, I had time to save up and shop for my next set of equipment, encouraging me to keep leveling so I could equip it.
Maplestory of past was boring, but people I met were also bored, so we all made the most of it together (which actually made the game really fun). A group of us would get together to take down mushmom in the hopes of finding ilbis. 90% of the time we were waiting and chatting, but that was fun. I worked with other people on the forums to write in depth guides, and we worked out the weapon defense formula (which took weeks). I spent some time in low level training areas giving out crossbows to encourage new players to pick the path of the sniper. A few of those people became some of my best friends. In the end though, I would hunker down on a map, alone or with a buddy or two, and just grind for a couple of hours. Making conversation with my friends, or trying to make new ones with the people passing through.
There is no doubt maple today has more interesting content, more unique content, and plainly just has more content, but now the people I meet are too busy gaining levels and improving their damage that they don't have time to enjoy it with others. The few new friends I have made I haven't been able to keep because I'll stop playing for a few weeks, and when I get back they will be 50+ levels above me. So instead of a game revolving around friends and doing random things to keep ourselves busy, Maplestory to me now means playing by myself. And even though there are enough quests, enough skill points, and enough mesos to go around, I just don't enjoy that as much.
In short, to me, old Maplestory was boring to level, but fun because the bore brought people together. New Maplestory is fun to level, but I'm having trouble justifying the leveling without friends to enjoy it with.