2016-06-12, 12:52 PM
Honestly, you know what the issue is in my opinion. Why Maple seems to be suffering?
Social Networking.
Its changed since the days of Maple.
Way back in the days, forming a gaming community outside of a game was extremely difficult. What made Maple so great back then was forming guilds WAS your social network, along with the server itself. Players were motivated to grind with others and gear up because keeping up meant being able to play and participate with your friends.
The RNG, the grind, the frustration of hacking and terrible economies, it was all worth it for the social network Maple provided.
Today, things are different. We have discord servers full of people who've known each other forever, Reddit groups that gather up players before even starting a game, big skype groups. Guild Facebook pages with hundreds of members across several games.
Now, games with huge damage gaps just don't cut it anymore; MMOs where if you fall behind you become a burden to your established groups are now a complete turn-off. Why put up with that when everyone can just play a nice steam game or something and not worry about grinding tons of meaningless hours just to effectively spend time together?
Maple and games built around time sinking and stat-stacking just don't work anymore because, a decade ago, [B]the average MMO player put up with the grind to fit in with the game's community and play alongside them. Very few players care about a server's community like that anymore because they've built up their own.
But now, the average player is looking for a game that fits in with their OWN community, (reddit, discord,skype, other social platform). A game built around time sinks and damage gaps inhibit their ability to enjoy playing with each other, making them hard to enjoy. Its not worth it and they're becoming avoided around here.
I'd say gaming culture changed more than Maple did, and despite all the positive changes, maple refuses to fully evolve to adapt to this culture change, thats why its suffering.
My server's no longer my community, I have my own now.
Social Networking.
Its changed since the days of Maple.
Way back in the days, forming a gaming community outside of a game was extremely difficult. What made Maple so great back then was forming guilds WAS your social network, along with the server itself. Players were motivated to grind with others and gear up because keeping up meant being able to play and participate with your friends.
The RNG, the grind, the frustration of hacking and terrible economies, it was all worth it for the social network Maple provided.
Today, things are different. We have discord servers full of people who've known each other forever, Reddit groups that gather up players before even starting a game, big skype groups. Guild Facebook pages with hundreds of members across several games.
Now, games with huge damage gaps just don't cut it anymore; MMOs where if you fall behind you become a burden to your established groups are now a complete turn-off. Why put up with that when everyone can just play a nice steam game or something and not worry about grinding tons of meaningless hours just to effectively spend time together?
Maple and games built around time sinking and stat-stacking just don't work anymore because, a decade ago, [B]the average MMO player put up with the grind to fit in with the game's community and play alongside them. Very few players care about a server's community like that anymore because they've built up their own.
But now, the average player is looking for a game that fits in with their OWN community, (reddit, discord,skype, other social platform). A game built around time sinks and damage gaps inhibit their ability to enjoy playing with each other, making them hard to enjoy. Its not worth it and they're becoming avoided around here.
I'd say gaming culture changed more than Maple did, and despite all the positive changes, maple refuses to fully evolve to adapt to this culture change, thats why its suffering.
My server's no longer my community, I have my own now.