Nexon Needs To Raise The Level Cap

The high level community was much smaller back then and as such, there where less bad apples, not that there weren't any at all. You probably remember KS wars and silly things like that.

Ks wars at maps that were soloable, not maps like Ludi. You can't compare the community like that because the level cap made it a social norm, because it's become so feasible. Level 200 is what level 120 was back in 2006/07. The community was better simply because we had to work together to get better exp and better gear. Today we can solo empress(unglitched), why do I need a guild, a buddy list, I can do everything myself. That's what makes that time different from then. Even in ks wars it was guilds not dc hacks.

Hackers didn't need to dc hack, because they could vac mobs right in your face to kill you and would go on unpunished. And that was about 2005/06 or so. If you remember, there was a flash game called Hunter story with Maplestory sprites. Someone made a parody a bit later called Mage story, where a hacker goes into your map and proceeds to vac everything next to him.

Hackers can vac hack now, I assure you if they could dc hack in the past they would have. Controlling a map vs controlling your very gameplay, which ones worse? Common sense says the later. DC hack wasn't discovered until early 07 and it's been abused ever since, you think vac hacking just stopped?

The fun argument is very much valid. You really want to say that you find the underlying mechanics fun? I'd give you that it's sandbox, albeit very restricted one, for emergent gameplay, but Nexon have gone out of their way to make that unfeasible. You're saying that the game is theorycrafting, but it's just a drop in the ocean when compared to the time spent pulling the one-armed bandit. Maplestory has never been good at the "game" part, but it has proven to be an amazing time sink. It's just that people(including me) start seeing it as a commitment and play it far after they've stopped having fun.

Yes maplestory's charm and simplicity is what makes it fun. Even for you, it was fun, before it became a job. That's why the fun argument is stupid, you strip the fun out of it because the only form of competitive gameplay is who kills faster. It's your own perspective that kill's it not the game. I assure you if Nexon actually managed the game properly it be one of the most prominent games of our generation. The problem is hackers have destroyed it, to the point where no legitimate player can play it. It wasn't like that in 06-07, hackers took maps, maps are replaceble, they took over quest items, quest rewards you didnt need, but they never took your ability to log on, to market, to train, to boss, and to train all together in a mere 3 second interval.