How many people are REALLY still playing Maplestory?

I actually really like entry limits. It gives people reason to have to come back and do more of that thing, rather then doing something until they're sick of it and never coming back. With entry limits, what could possibly feel like a grind (as you have no reason not to just do it over and over until it's no longer relevant to your character) instead sticks to you as a possible daily activity.
A perfect example is PQs... *note, this is how I see them, I'm sure others aren't bothered by this as much* Ever since they removed their daily limits, I just gave up on ever doing them on my characters. PQs like LPQ and R/J have become extremely boring without a daily limit, and because those PQs don't have limits, no one bothers to do any other PQs like they used to! I remember doing all sorts of PQs during the Ascension Update, I leveled a BowMaster to 120 through PQing everyday! It was fun! But now it's just LPQ and R/J...you can never get people to do anything else, and that sucks!

Maybe that's just how I feel though. Maybe everyone else really loves ignoring the PQ prizes and would rather grind in R/J until it no longer gives them good exp.

I typed a response but then I accidentally killed it. I got here late; others have already responded to most of your points, but I felt bad saying nothing since you responded to my post directly. You're entitled to your opinion, but PQ limits are just a way to patch up bad game design, and they're a pretty cheap way to keep players coming back. If the only reason anyone does, say, henesys pq is because they're all out of options, then that doesn't mean henesys pq is worth doing, or is even fun. It just means that the player picked it as a last resort. That everyone does two pqs, and only two pqs, should be noted by developers. Other pqs should have their rewards changed accordingly, so that people will be willing to try them. As it stands, the only PQ I would touch is hob pq, just for the mount. The other rewards are pomegranate. Glasses with stats that were negligible when they were released. Ugly hats with poor stats. Antiquated earrings and other gear that can't even be scrolled conventionally. It's trash.

I came to the realization recently that the only reason I log in is to do my daily boss runs. That's pretty fucked up. There used to be stuff to do in this game. Even at higher levels, back in the day, you could take a team through the mu lung dojo or take some newbie to zakum and make him happy because the drops actually meant something. Now, it's like -- people either afk in town or leech at drill hall, because there's just nothing to do once you've finished your daily stuff. And that stuff is so few and far between that it barely takes me an hour to complete. Everyone I enjoy playing with has quit because there's nothing to do, and I am about to follow suit. Summer was fun for, like, a month, but nexon fucked it up; the game is dead again and it's not even mid August. But I am digressing.

People who talk about power creep in relation to boss limits are fooling themselves for a number of reasons. First off, Nexon doesn't give two shits about power creep. They introduced cubes and potential into the game; how can you say they care about power creep? No, they only care about people getting stronger when they're able to do it without spending NX, and that is exactly what would happen if, say, an average player could solo easy gollux an unlimited number of times per day.

I would say multiple reasons.

1) They actually don't want you to level too fast.
2) "This is why we can't have nice things" (ie., abuse)
3) Keep players engaged
4) Artificially boost numbers; explanation: Part of the reason we (probably) still have Hot Days/Times, 2x EXP/Drop events, and Attendance Events is so Nexon can be like "look how many people are playing". This kind of ties back to #3.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to respond to what I wrote.

I don't understand their logic behind point number one. Like, I could see a nexon rep genuinely saying "we don't want you to level too fast," but why not? In comparison with most MMORPGs, bosses in maplestory give really shitty EXP rewards, and their drops are rarely worth writing home about either, unless you're funded enough to kill the Nightmare Mode of everything. I killed Zakum twice the other day -- just, regular Zakum -- using a rune and HS, and I barely got 9 percent out of both kills combined. On regular exp, I would have gained three percent. Are they seriously worried that someone will Zak 33 times in a row? And if they do, disregarding health issues, is it really so bad? I don't think it's game breaking if instead of sitting at drill hall or mindlessly doing DIPQ over and over again, some 18x player who has -no options- content wise simply utilizes repetitive bossing strategies for his exp instead.

Point three... I've seen the opposite occur. I'm close to quitting the game over this pomegranate, so it's a stretch to say that content limits have kept me engaged. Hell, the game's pretty empty today and it's a Saturday, so I don't think anyone else is very engaged either. People stop actively searching for fun pomegranate to do when there's a barrier to Fun around every corner.

As for point four, yeah, I can see it. I'm willing to bet they do hot time events whenever a high ranking corporate executive comes in, just so they can show him the numbers.