What are we smoking?

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.


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.


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).


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.

Now now, let's not get emotional, this is all in good fun. But all in all, fair enough, this portion of the discussion has been VERY entertaining, and a nice bit of procrastination away from my work. One must stretch the faculties and all that... hahaha, if only I were that pretentious. *rolls eyes*

I just thought I'd put in a bit of constructive criticism, as your outlook on maple seemed a bit one sided, but the point IS, why not encorporate your discussions into some sort of academic project (if you're in university, that is)? Wonderful stuff for a dissertation or thesis... Or just good practice?

I also had a hard time wrapping my head around how you - and many other ex-players like you - still continue to visit a forum that discusses a game you don't play anymore. From a personal standpoint, when I quit playing maple for 6 months last year, I removed it from my life entirely and sought other hobbies. I only started visiting the forums again when I started playing maple again. I guess in some odd manner, the hobby of visiting a forum doesn't die with the interest of the game that it was derived from in cases of ex-players like yourself.

It sucks that the company and community have left you jaded.

And on a final note Butterfli, I like your thief guides on sleepywood.

Some people in this forum need to learn how to analyze an argument.

Butterfli's thesis can be summed up thusly: "Why do people continue to play even though it's a common fact that Nexon's quality is terrible, the game is horribly imbalanced, and when Nexon shows no loyalty to its customers?"

The "why do people continue to play" is the crux of this argument. The facts about Nexon and imbalances are just supporting reasons. A few people got hung up in the supporting reasons and answered the thesis wrong.

Nowhere is Butterfli saying, "I hate this game it sucks" or "I want to quit". Butterfli is asking for a reason why people play DESPITE all of the crap that Nexon gets away with. He's asking about the players, not the argument for why Nexon sucks. Telling him "if you don't like this game gtfo" only means that you didn't read the argument well.

I personally was thrown off by the negative interpretation of Maple that Butterfli presented. I, for one, have not had much of any bad experiences with this game - except my fiasco with exp hair coupons (nearly $70 in nx later... yeah, I'm a slut, I know). Yes, there's a lot of arseholes in maple, yes buying nx puts a player at an advantage over those who don't buy nx, and apparently nexon's customer service sucks, but it's still a fun game for ME despite all of those discrepancies. I also picked a hermit as my character, so "balance" has never been a question for me (hahaha). My question is, was the purpose of Butterfli's thesis to find out why indeed people still play maple, or a nefarious plot to convince some players to abandon a game they still like? *maniacle laughter*

Anyway, I'll say it again: this has been fun.