An open letter to Nexon and MapleStory players

Of course they do. So what? It still takes me about... 45 seconds to start the game from scratch and log in. 45 seconds wasted. Whatever shall I do? Perhaps it would mean something if this game wasn't a gigantic waste of time to begin with. Pretty sure thats the idea.

The comment I made is to indicate the faults of The Hack Reason GM D/C even more.

Yep. Was trying to make a point. How can you fault a system you never had?

The series of comments for this don't even make sense and don't even lead into the question you're asking. Let's take a look.

 Spoiler

Lie Detector System (no longer in game)
When the Lie Detector System existed, it would allow players to enter in the names of botting hackers. If the question is unanswered within a specified amount of time, the hacker is then sent to town. Three major problems exist with this. It costs mesos meaning a player without mesos is unable to report them. Two, it requires the player to know the name of the said hacker. With all the i's and L's out there, knowing the exact IGN of a hacker proves difficult. Third, if the player is successful in sending the hacker back to town, it does nothing. Furthermore, hackers made another work-around for this. They have hacks that let them teleport back to the map they were in before they were sent to town and they get to continue botting away.

Did this ever work in GMS? It's not super effective, but I've already addressed the whole meso thing.

It never did. That's why I listed it as a faulty system.

So than, IPv6 is a faulty system in America. Right?

What the hell? Try that again. If you're trying to start a strawman here, try that again.

Actually, if you read between the lines, that was my exact point. I was just pointing out that anything written in code can be reverse engineered and tampered with. I never said that Nexon was NOT at fault, however this situation is far less controllable than your posts suggest.

You specifically said Nexon was NOT at fault. Right here.

 Spoiler

What do you really hope to accomplish with that letter. Honestly?

There is no MMO out there that is safe from hacks, and the ones who do a decent job of preventing their usage just happen to be the ones with a plethora of active gamemasters. Wherever software is involved, it can be reverse engineered, and thus tampered with. Though you seem to think that this is Nexon's fault, it isn't. Want to blame someone, blame the hackers. Beyond hiring a pomegranateload of gamemasters and killing their profit margin, there is NOTHING they can do.

I'm not confusing double negatives either. Furthermore, you've mentioned nothing about the controllability of the situation. In none of the follow up posts either.

Because they operate 2 separate platforms? When you play a F2P game, you have to expect a lesser quality of service. Don't kid yourself.

However, just in case my point is missed, it is this: Nexon can pour all of their first quarter profits into stopping hacking, and they will STILL fail. Why fight a losing battle and give up tons of profit for it, knowing that kids will buy NX regardless?

While I'll agree with you that I, myself, don't expect quality service (as was my experiences with Maple, FlyFF, Trickster, and other horrid Korean MMORPGs), here's where the real differences in opinion operate:

As a consumer for either F2P games or P2P games, there is an expectation driven to receive good customer service nonetheless the company. Free 2 Play Games -CAN- have good quality service. In fact, most of them do, because their revenue comes from on-site advertisement, in-game cash shop-esque systems, and such. Here's a few examples: World of Tanks, FiestaO, League of Legends, etc. With that out of the way, I'm going to directly argue with you the very nature of MapleStory being a F2P MMORPG.

MapleStory is HARDLY a free to play MMORPG. It's certainly free if you want to start playing, but nowhere near free if you wish to continue playing. Now, I won't give a single care if you, as an individual, never spent a single dime on the game. Other people have, other people still do, other people will still spend money on the game. While the game does require you, as general, do pay, you definitely cannot experience the full game without it. Two classes required NX to play (arguable for DBs, not as arguable for Evans), NX is required to even sell crap in the market, I can go on and on. Players not only spend maybe $30 or so on the game. They can spend upwards thousands. Eosian of this site spent $8k alone on MapleStory over the course of 3 years. Are you to say that the players who spend such should not expect better service? I say they darn well should expect better service.

Nexon also made 59% upwards revenue during the first quarter compared to last year. Looking at the games Nexon offers: MapleStory, Atlantica Online, Combat Arms, Vindictus, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Mabinogi, it's a no brainer that the cash cow here is MapleStory. Nexon has more than enough funds to higher active GM's, raise their minimum wage, and actually combat hackers. Yet, no action is taken, not even for their cash cow. F2P games do not generate nearly the same kinds of funds that Nexon does (However, Nexon is the exception, not the rule).

Now, let's compare income intake with Blizzard. Blizzard's World of WarCraft has a monthly fee of $20. That's $0.67 (rounded) a day for 30 month days. Per average customer, they net $20 usually. Per average Mapler, they expend more than $30 for all of the various NX items. These items often are spent in the form of cubes, gachapon tickets, MTS, etc. In fact, I've asked some of the 16-18 year olds on my Buddy List without a job. They've spent an average of $50 to $90 a month on those items alone. The more "wealthy" players on my Buddy List (age 20 and up with a job), spend anywhere from $100 to $200. Now, these numbers I've provided are from those who don't merch for their NX, but buys them with cash/credit. These two demographics already spend more money a month on MapleStory than they would had they played WoW.

BUT, before you say anything about Blizzard having a larger player base which attributes to its overall higher income (and thus, better customer support), Blizzard spends a whole lot more than Nexon on advertising, administration, maintenance, customer service, promotions, etc. Blizzard's net sales during 2010 was roughly $1.05 billion from WoW. Total from their other games? $4.45 billion. However, what was their net income? I'll link you the very source I've been looking at right here. Only $414 million. Taking into numbers, this is less than 10% gain whereas Nexon announced 42% upward during year 2010. Does something look wrong here? A big company's willing to use more than 90% of its gains to provide quality service to its gamer base than a small company who doesn't even appear to use more than 10%?

HOWEVER, the funding doesn't drive to my initial point. Instead, it's to give you a good idea the amount of funding that a big company like Blizzard is willing to push into the company itself (and where Nexon is thrifty and doesn't). My point now is, Nexon is at fault for not making use of the funding they receive to better enhance the game itself, better enhance anti-hack measures, hire more GM's, revamp the ticket system. With their funding, they have no excuse to not up their standards at all, and we, as paying customers and dedicated players, have every right to having good expectations for this company to service us right.

However, I myself know better... =_=