On the Issue of Power Creep and How It Relates to Nexon

Extra Credits is a really amazing series. I mean, really. They're episode on "The Heroes Journey" was fantastic.

There's kind of a point in MapleStory, where, even though everything more or less can be done with in-game currency, it becomes increasingly hard to stay a competitive player. Eventually, you just end up as someone who's going to do sub-par damage unless you start springing for cubes and some NX.

Interestingly, the Pokemon TCG has one of the worst examples of Power Creeping in TCG's that I've ever seen. There are so few cards from any of it's many early sets that are usable at this point. Things just keep getting replaced. It's too the point where competitive decks only use cards from the last three or four sets, though this happens in Yu-Gi-Oh! as well. At least YGO has some viable cards from early on. But still, to stay competitive, you have to buy the most expensive cards on the market. Remember Cyber End before it was limited? Ouch.

There are several spells and traps that remain usable; Call of the Haunted, Mirror Force, Dark Hole, Heavy Storm and Monster Reborn are the most obvious ones. Although the older monsters tend to lose value over time Konami will sometimes breathe new life into them. Blue Eyes Malefic Dragon is the first thing I can think of. I personally like to plantain around with some of the older Fairies in my Master Hyperion deck with varying degrees of success (this was before the nerf to Agent of Miracles, of course)

Back on topic, I fear MapleStory is on its last legs. People don't even bother to buy things with Mesos or even NX; they prefer PayPal transactions for the best stuff. Meanwhile nothing in this game turns a profit anymore; you know you've fucked up when your game's currency becomes worthless.