2011-05-09, 06:29 PM
The world of hacking is always present in MapleStory. Always. You may not see it, but it's always there, slowly changing the economy, or allowing a select few to benefit. Occasionally though, hacking is thrust into the open by a radically game changing event. MapleStory experienced such an event this past week.
This is now the 3rd time that hackers have ruined a profit method that I've personally used.
Back when Chaos scrolls were still allowed in the mts (worth about 10-12k NX each), my goal was to run through the various area bosses that dropped them on 2x and 4x drop. Doing this I was able to make a handy profit via NX and convert to mesos when I needed it. Then the first Chaos scroll duping event happened. No more MTS-able Chaos scrolls, and the meso price for them dropped from 100m to 30m and continued to lower, making this inefficient.
Then I started to find that the best method for profit was Pieces of Time. Again, I used 2x and 4x drop to gain PoT's that I could sell for a decent meso profit. Much slower than the chaos scroll method, but at least it was consistent. Then hackers began to invade ToT and the deflation of PoTs was on, making it worthless in terms of profit vs time.
Finally we come to the GMS 6th anniversary event. lvl 64 maple weapons can be traded in for chaos scrolls. 3 weapons for each scroll. Going to places like Sage Cats and Book Ghosts seemed to be the best place for drops, and I settled eventually on Book Ghosts as I could clear the entire map before respawn. This worked pretty well, and even when I was paying for those "2x drop" usable items, I was able to make a very nice meso profit converting weapons to scrolls and selling them for about 15m each. Now hackers have destroyed this as well.
I've only listed 3, but there are surely dozens of examples others can give. MS is slowly losing its best revenue streams due to item deflation from hackers. I constantly have to alter my play, and find ways to avoid intervention from hackers. I've played the game over 4 years now, and have always had encounters that have hindered my progress... either by taking up maps that I would have trained on (ex: Wolf Spiders) or destroying my profit centers (the above examples).
I am now 100% done with buying NX, and 100% done with using the MTS for buying or selling. It's the only way that I feel I can hurt Nexon where it counts. ItÂ’s always been clear that the game is vulnerable in so many ways, and yet people continue to buy NX, and fund a company that time after time screws its user base by ignoring potential security risks, and refusing to truly understand its own game.
I urge everyone to pledge to do the same: Avoid any transaction that would benefit Nexon via NX use. I've already sent a letter to Nexon informing them of my decision.... but I'm at the point now where I truly believe that Nexon is incapable of saving this game.
Perhaps this is the curse of the 'free to play' game model, where you don't need to put down real money to enter the game world. To hack here, you risk nothing. On the off chance that you're caught, and your account is banned? ... Just create another one, seamlessly, and for free.
I know some legit players that have admitted to me that they will now attempt to jump onto any exploit/hack that they can find, as they are easy to perform, and free from Nexon's 'security' measures. Sadly, I find that I don't really have a counter-argument anymore when people tell me these things.
This is the culture that you have created, Nexon. And this is the culture that you, as a player, continue to fund when you buy and use NX.
This is now the 3rd time that hackers have ruined a profit method that I've personally used.
Back when Chaos scrolls were still allowed in the mts (worth about 10-12k NX each), my goal was to run through the various area bosses that dropped them on 2x and 4x drop. Doing this I was able to make a handy profit via NX and convert to mesos when I needed it. Then the first Chaos scroll duping event happened. No more MTS-able Chaos scrolls, and the meso price for them dropped from 100m to 30m and continued to lower, making this inefficient.
Then I started to find that the best method for profit was Pieces of Time. Again, I used 2x and 4x drop to gain PoT's that I could sell for a decent meso profit. Much slower than the chaos scroll method, but at least it was consistent. Then hackers began to invade ToT and the deflation of PoTs was on, making it worthless in terms of profit vs time.
Finally we come to the GMS 6th anniversary event. lvl 64 maple weapons can be traded in for chaos scrolls. 3 weapons for each scroll. Going to places like Sage Cats and Book Ghosts seemed to be the best place for drops, and I settled eventually on Book Ghosts as I could clear the entire map before respawn. This worked pretty well, and even when I was paying for those "2x drop" usable items, I was able to make a very nice meso profit converting weapons to scrolls and selling them for about 15m each. Now hackers have destroyed this as well.
I've only listed 3, but there are surely dozens of examples others can give. MS is slowly losing its best revenue streams due to item deflation from hackers. I constantly have to alter my play, and find ways to avoid intervention from hackers. I've played the game over 4 years now, and have always had encounters that have hindered my progress... either by taking up maps that I would have trained on (ex: Wolf Spiders) or destroying my profit centers (the above examples).
I am now 100% done with buying NX, and 100% done with using the MTS for buying or selling. It's the only way that I feel I can hurt Nexon where it counts. ItÂ’s always been clear that the game is vulnerable in so many ways, and yet people continue to buy NX, and fund a company that time after time screws its user base by ignoring potential security risks, and refusing to truly understand its own game.
I urge everyone to pledge to do the same: Avoid any transaction that would benefit Nexon via NX use. I've already sent a letter to Nexon informing them of my decision.... but I'm at the point now where I truly believe that Nexon is incapable of saving this game.
Perhaps this is the curse of the 'free to play' game model, where you don't need to put down real money to enter the game world. To hack here, you risk nothing. On the off chance that you're caught, and your account is banned? ... Just create another one, seamlessly, and for free.
I know some legit players that have admitted to me that they will now attempt to jump onto any exploit/hack that they can find, as they are easy to perform, and free from Nexon's 'security' measures. Sadly, I find that I don't really have a counter-argument anymore when people tell me these things.
This is the culture that you have created, Nexon. And this is the culture that you, as a player, continue to fund when you buy and use NX.