The EXP Curve

It's not lost at all, he still made at there. If you're doing things just to be better than other people you've got some serious problems. An achievement should be about personal gratification, and in knowing that you made it that far under those conditions should be more than enough for anyone. It shouldn't be about making you feel like you're better than anyone else, 'cause you're not. Especially in a case like Maple Story where it's entirely dependent on the time you're willing to give and not your level of skill.

For people who leveled to 192 because they saw that as an achievement, they wanted to be recognized about it. All people want to be recognized and respected by what they feel they master, and this is no special case. If you're got an A++ and worked really hard in order to gain it, you'd be quite upset if noone really cared. Say you showed it to your mom, and she didn't care or didn't react the way you were hoping her to react, then that achievement of gaining that A++ feels way lower than if she had praised you. Same applies for all things.