What are we smoking?

My point is, if you're conducting an analysis of what modern Maple Story is

Just a note of how I'm using the term "modern maplestory" even though it's not our topic at the moment: I'm referring to maplestory as of September 2008. Because Global Maple Story is only three years old. But the game has gone through drastic changes. Hell, even gMS now differs greatly than gMS six months ago due to new content, and new standards.

What I'm saying is, you're not getting all the facts, and the only way to consistantly prove these "discoveries" to be empirical "truth" is to conduct the same study several more times, and recieve the same or similar results.

I tried to present facts to the point where every sentence was backed up by some sort of proof (in this case, url's). I didn't have every sentence backed up, but I did present enough sources.

I wouldn't necessarily call this thread a "study" because all I did was string together a bunch of event's that were correlated with each other. We cannot say correlation imply causation, but we certain can draw conclusion from those correlation events. Which was exactly what I did. Drawing a conclusion from those said events.

Why are you complaining about a game you don't play anymore, or a community you're not part of anymore?

It's like saying that I quit watching baseball because I hate the sport, but I still talk about it with my friends, and look at the scoreboards to see the standings and stats of the different teams and players. Doesn't that mean that I'm still somehow interested in baseball despite my decision to "quit" it? Isn't quitting defined as to stop, cease, or discontinue a certain activity?

I thought we've discussed pass the part about how this thread is about complaining when complaining is not what I'm trying to do? Anyway, I suppose what went wrong here is how we both defined "quitting" in our own terms. You're association this forum with maplestory. And by your logic, one who actively visits this forum is at least somewhat active in maplestory and if you're not active in the maplestory, why visit it's forum?

Quitting like you said, is to cease or discontinue a certain activity. I have ceased playing maplestory but I have not ceased browsing its fan forum; the difference is there. Like Judgment and I have mentioned, why must one be continually playing mapleglobal in order to post on a maplestory fan site? I certainly don't see anything wrong or faulty about you hating baseball but still show interest in the sport. Perhaps one time in a game, the ball struck you so hard you're traumatic about ever playing again but you still like baseball. I'll admit I do like playing maplestory. I wouldn't have made three fourth job characters if I didn't. I just don't want to put up with the ridiculous exp curve, the community, and the service (any longer).

And dear god, high school over university? I'd never go back to high school after spending several years in university... high school was a joke - University is so much more stimulating. High school is not the be all and end all: there's so much more to life, there's so much more after high school.

I obviously haven't spoken to every person that ever went to college but apparently it seems that coincidentally the people I've talked too all would've chosen high school over college. This isn't the case for everyone, namely yourself. So the number of people I've talked to isn't very representative of the 'norm' which is why I chose to phrase "many college students" rather than "most college students".

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Since you agree that maplestory is a culture, then I'm sure with it comes subcultures, and micro-culture (The Western culture is a culture, American is a subculture because it follows the Western culture, and the teenage group is a micro-culture because it is a small branch that stemmed from the two). Like Judgment and I have mentioned, why must one be continually playing mapleglobal in order to post on a maplestory fan site? I suppose it's because I'm still looking at many aspects of the game while not actually playing the game. Similar to what Judgement said, there are people who are active when it comes to maplestory-related events but they do not have to necessarily play. Sleepywood had more people who visited the forum because it dates way back to global's beta days and the players of those times have quit for a long time. However, they have not stopped viewing or posting on the forum. Some of them are still presenting "discoveries". I can name Stereo. Stereo had mentioned she does not very active in maplestory but is still proving to be very active in posting and does number crunching outside of mapletory. Does a person who writes articles about maplestory have to actually be playing maplstory? Probably not.

To understand a culture, you must live with the culture. This is what the fieldwork of cultural anthropologist does. They live in the culture, learn its customs and dances, and eat its food. I've lived with maplestory for three years. I don't think I would've been able to present all this if I didn't.

If you're seen my thread history, I present thoughts that not many people give thought to

Papulatus--One of a Kind (about the uniqueness of Papulatus)
Sad Indeed... (about luk, lukless, and elemental weapon's contribution to the two).
Something I never quite understood... (about hybrid heroes)

Similar to how you "would waste so much of your energy on such a long post" when you disagree with what I'm presenting on so many levels. It's something I "enjoy" doing.