After 2.5+ long years of playing this game.. it has changed a lot.

Come now, anyone seriously think the game would have made it past it's first year without the cashshop? I'm normally also very prone to dwell in nostalgia, and I do not like some of the more moneyhungry nexonian schemes, but really, had Maple remained where it was a few years ago, it would be even worse than now. A better exp curve instead of the 2x exp card from the start would of course have been the best for the players, but they need to balance that with what's best for the company.
The only thing that worries me is the lack of genuine care Nexons shows. Like not smacking down on abusers deleting their glitched crap and so on.

All in all, don't go around thinking change is bad, without change stuff dies.

play KMS, its accessable to anyone who follows the guide correctly...

-permenant nx clothing
-nx trading for mesos system
-nx event sales
-no 2x exp cards
-no vicious hammer
-no lolauto ban system
-tight knit english community (2 guild alliance)
-no leech
-koreans love foreigners
-no 2x drop cards
-no ip block (no proxys needed)
-no korean knowledge needed

nuffsaid

EDIT: oh and no lolglitch (LOL 10 slot weapons)

I think Free to Play was a bad decision in the first place.

Pay to Play would have been a way better option.

Also, Better EXP Curve, better then the EXPlosion one.

Making Quests actually worth the time to do, and have an alternative to leveling without grinding. They need more then 1 PQ for every 10 levels, and not JUST for the lower levels.

They need way more end game content. Not just a pink pikachu that is nearly impossible.

Of course it wouldn't have made it past the first year without cash shop. It's a "Free to Play" game.

And change doesn't always have to be bad, but the way Nexon does it....

play KMS, its accessable to anyone who follows the guide correctly...

-permenant nx clothing
-nx trading for mesos system
-nx event sales
-no 2x exp cards
-no vicious hammer
-no lolauto ban system
-tight knit english community (2 guild alliance)
-no leech
-koreans love foreigners
-no 2x drop cards
-no ip block (no proxys needed)
-no korean knowledge needed

nuffsaid

KMS is making it better, and hopefully all of this happens to GMS. But I don't see how they will change everything they pineappleed up. Vicious Hammer seems like it would be a hard one to fix. But I think KMS will be getting that too...

ew double post... forgot to edit..

Personally, im enjoying maplestory very much without nx now thank you very much, occasionaly buy some nx with mesos here and there to fund my self a pet and a shop permit and mts some scrolls.

The only thing i find game breaking in the cash shop is.... vicious hammers. 2 more slots on your items, A thing so game breaking.

Every other thing on the cs people can achieve alone, like
2x exp = So you train 2x the time, but you get to the same level eventually.
gachapon = you get mesos, you can get mesos by merchanting.

but getting 2 slots on your equipment...

People shouldn't be supporting this kind of thing. next thing we know an item that levels your character to level 30 will come out.
oh oops

Like client size, yesterday I was searching for some old perl codes at really old backup dvds, and found a maple client 210mb >:O. I remember "huuuge" ludibrium patch. I remember GMs inside zakum altar. Of course, more content, more MBs , just saying I realize I am playing for so long this game. Well, I started buying NX, when they put that reduced exp curve, was the first time I bought weekdays 2xExp cards, and only play that 4h w/ a friend. Another nice thing to do was going into HT runs, but... we cant no longer do HT in Broa, well at least for me and some friends. Lots of "cultural" changes in game, somethings get better and some dont. Starting a new character on maple is one of the good things those days, 99% of people I tried to make play maple, quitted 10min after creating a new character, like 2, 3 years ago.

Theres no way KMS is gettin such a gimp game breaking thing as vicious hammer XD and I love how there are no gachapon exclusive items in the KMS version of gachapon, the "pigmy". So yeah come join us!

Everyone in my class in elementary school who introduced me to Maple has quit for at least a year now. I used to keep spending money on CS items, maybe spent over a few hundred bucks on it. But now that I have less time to play, I've realised that spending money on Maple, or any game at all, is a huge waste. Better to spend my hard-earned money on other material things than just a few pixels.

my 5 year ms where like first 2 year Funfunfun than till about a half year back it was rather sucky/waste of time and now i jioned ems i have much more fun and i can even not come to a 2x event and just hang a bit with my friends. work and skool are fine i seem to enjoy live more and more just because i changed and tried to get more out of it and it works. still working on less time behind the pc but what so ever my life is getting better and better soo i am fine

Well for me, i would say that it has changed to: Although its free to play, you pay more for what you will normally do in a pay-to-play game, so that to keep yourself competitive in game.

You can still can play the game without cash, but ultimately, you will realise you are being left out, and will quit eventually.

Personally, im enjoying maplestory very much without nx now thank you very much, occasionaly buy some nx with mesos here and there to fund my self a pet and a shop permit and mts some scrolls.

The only thing i find game breaking in the cash shop is.... vicious hammers. 2 more slots on your items, A thing so game breaking.

Every other thing on the cs people can achieve alone, like
2x exp = So you train 2x the time, but you get to the same level eventually.
gachapon = you get mesos, you can get mesos by merchanting.

but getting 2 slots on your equipment...

People shouldn't be supporting this kind of thing. next thing we know an item that levels your character to level 30 will come out.
oh oops

So merchant for mesos and then MTS for a hammer?
Unless you're pretty well off you shouldn't really be scrolling most equips yourself anyway, and if you are then you can afford the hammers.

Also hammered items are tradeable, there's nothing stopping you from acquiring a +9 item without nx. With all the NX people using hammers the price of all equips are dropping in accordance with the new slots. For example 16 attack hammered gloves are now comparable to the price of 14 before hammers and so on.

Do not buy clothes, buy more permanent things. Like inventory slots and cosmetic things. This puts a run for your money and makes it worth it.

I'm glad to say, this game is completely meaningless unless you either:

a) Spend money
b) Put an unnecessary amount of concentration of 'time' into this game.

This isn't true. I hit 62 on my Dawn Warrior in 3 days. I did use x2 cards, but even if I didn't I'd still be right around up there. You don't need to spend money or an unnecessary amount of time to get anywhere if you know how to do things right. Even when it comes down to it, spending $15 a month isn't a lot.

I spend $20-$25 dollars every 3 months and I get enough cash for all my 2x exp and NX clothing needs. I don't really merchant, I just throw random things I find in my shop and MTS 5-10 dollars worth of random crap. It's much cheaper than WoW for me.

While I generally agree with a lot of what's been said, one thing I can't agree to is the fact that paying money is 'needed' to get somewhere in this game without spending too much time. While I definetely think nx is a big help, it can be MTS'd or bought from other players. On my Cygnus I do feel like I'm missing out since I don't buy a new pet and such, but he'll be 120 soon enough for it to be a waste. Hunting area bosses can yield plenty of scrolls, which can be MTS'd for enough nx to be comfortable (although saving for a wardrobe can take a while). With the maker system, even stat crystals can be refined and sold in the MTS for some impressive nx, and the same probably goes for steel.

If you're extremely competetive and absolutely need to be the best you can be, then yeah it can be time consuming and you can be driven to buy a lot more NX than is reasonable for a game, but that's the way the microtransactions system works. You shouldn't expect a multi-million dollar game to change for you, you either need to change for it, keep spending a lot of time/money, or quit.

Lol, this game is not NX dependent as in have said, alot.
Everything in CS shop is there if you want it, nothing there you need, its all WANT. Dependent would mean there are things you NEED to actually play the game and get to lvl 200.

Some games that I would call dependent on the Cash Shop would be:
LaTale [Bordering Dependent]
Trickster [You literally cant play the game without using SOME real life money]
Tales Runner [HIGLHLY DEPENDENT]

And let us not forget MTS and the new system in KMS that lets you (apparently) trade cash shop items for meso.
Even so, most normal nx people dont get NX on a regular [daily/weekly] basis. I get it every 3 months, or, when everything expires. I never buy gachapon becuase its a waste of time. And I rarely buy 2x cards (Only once did I buy it, but only becuase i had spare nx)

To the basic, im tired of people saying that this game depends on the cash-shop too much. Becuase, if you look around, ALOT of other games are highly dependent on its cash-shop.

To the basic basic. You can play this game without touching the cash shop. The cash-shop only give one statical (raising sats) item, unlike in other games where there are scrolls and other stuffs that raise stats in the cash-shop. Then theres 2x Cards, i never liked the idea much, but it isnt a big deal, go merchant in MTS , and then buy yourself a 2x card, problem solved.

And YOU CAN merchant in the FM without NX. Those people outside are clearly shouting "S>" "B>". Yes, its harder, but, you can still get "big meso" without touching the cash-shop.

I am having more fun than ever. I haven't spent any money since Christmas 2007 and I still have everything I need. The MTS is there for a reason, you don't need to spend money in this game.

I think the vast majority of people that dislike(or not have fun) the game is because they worry too much about what other people have. Brother, you don't have to be stronger or richer than anyone... that comes with time. It took me 19x levels to be "strong". There are not many game-breaking things in the game yet; who cares if PersonA has 50att PAC/Glove, etc... that doesn't affect you in the slightest.

This game is HARDLY money-dependent. I live in a 3rd World Country where the only way to get NX is to use PayPal(and you know how that works...), order the cards by Amazon or travel to the United States to buy.

I am having more fun than ever. I haven't spent any money since Christmas 2007 and I still have everything I need. The MTS is there for a reason, you don't need to spend money in this game.

I think the vast majority of people that dislike(or not have fun) the game is because they worry too much about what other people have. Brother, you don't have to be stronger or richer than anyone... that comes with time. It took me 19x levels to be "strong". There are not many game-breaking things in the game yet; who cares if PersonA has 50att PAC/Glove, etc... that doesn't affect you in the slightest.

This game is HARDLY money-dependent. I live in a 3rd World Country where the only way to get NX is to use PayPal(and you know how that works...), order the cards by Amazon or travel to the United States to buy.

Now I understand why you act the way you do!

MTS changed the game for me. It used to be fun to get nx occationally but it's more fun to get it all the time and it doesn't even cost any $$$.


Now I enjoy, way more hp washing than I ever planned, tons of extra item rows, beautiful mules and mains (it was just mains before), 2x all the time instead of just occationally, and pets on multiple accounts with loots. It's great to be able to have all I ever wanted and for free.

Lets see. I started out in Broa; I went on the other day to stalk some friends; only 3 still play, 1 doesn't remember me, and she's nearing level 200. Another just got to 3rd job after 2 years, and the other...We still chat from time to time when I feel like going on Broa. :3

But it has changed quite a bit...To tell you the truth, I miss the pre-4th job days.

I actually started playing before the cash shop even existed, yet, I'm probably the lowest level out of anybody on this board. I spent most of my time being social.

Ah, I remember the days when Lorang Lorang Lorang was the absolute best place for I/Ls...