Maplestory's Longevity

Trickster Online shut down due to major inherent issues with it. It was flawed from its core, design-wise. Maple suffers to similar issues but not as much as Trickster did. Trickster has also had some of the laziest developers for years. It took years to receive any basic content, mostly the Korean version, however the sub-par core of the game meant nothing they added actually made any true difference. It was known for a long time that the reason the Korean and Japanese versions did decently even after all those years is because they settled more than the other versions did. They were the most content with just playing a cute game with cute equipment, whereas the rest of the world needed more than that. It just wasn't designed to last, and especially not outside Korea/Japan.

SGi was nowhere near as corrupt as Nexon is. The game itself was flawed and the developers (Korea) didn't even seem to give a damn and only released cash shop updates, pathetic-at-best bi-weekly events. SOMETIMES they would release content updates, but again, due to the inherent flaws in the game's design itself it never meant anything. The SGi GMs at least did a very fine job of trying to entertain the players personally with O/X events among other things where they would actually TALK and JOKE with everybody who participated. You'd easily have nice conversations with any of them. O/X events were held at least 2 times a week, every week, unless technical issues prevented it; e.g. maintenance, moving servers, etc. Winners didn't just win either, they got to spend even more time with the GMs to talk about random crap if they wanted. They'd usually tell you what to expect from the next update if you asked.

Maple has many core flaws, but again, not as many as Trickster had, and Maple at least has better developers if you can believe it or not. I would have loved the type of revamps Maple had but for Trickster, but even years of being in service Trickster has yet to be legitimately revamped the way it needs to be. They also do a better job of nickel and diming their playerbase which leads to ''pseudo-loyalty''. How many times do you see people say they ''can't'' quit Maple because of all the time and mostly money they've spent on it? This happens in a lot of MMOs, but Maple is the worst I've seen yet. So many of its players refuse to believe they just completely wasted a pomegranate ton of their time and money for such a crap game and continue to play with their friends who have similar mentalities.

TL;DR: Trickster had more core flaws than Maple, and a far worse development team. It shut down because its only appeal was that it was cute, and that just doesn't cut it in the west. Game died of natural causes.

i dont see maplestory, as a whole, going down in the next 5 years. NEXON KR is still making big bucks and as long as they are feeding the distributors content, GMS is gonna stand strong until about 16 years or so ?

MSEA on the other hand....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. MSEA on the other hand might only live one or two more years because hardly anyone logged in even for the special 2x event last week.

First Wonderking now Trickster.


I thought these two games were better than Maple. Shame they didnt outlive Nexon.

If North Korea was trolling South Korea on final destruction, then maple will go on and live a long life.

Or alternatively if maple makes it into North Korea somehow, then you can bet it will go on forever.

I think the community on maple is still good.. I don't know what people are talking about when they say it's been changed. It's still the same old same old from back in the day except no one wants to do party quests or bosses, They just wanna chill.

First Wonderking now Trickster.


I thought these two games were better than Maple. Shame they didnt outlive Nexon.

Wonderking has a fair shot at coming back, though. IgnitedGames + Ryu&Soft are in active negotiations as of January 2013.

I think the community on maple is still good.. I don't know what people are talking about when they say it's been changed. It's still the same old same old from back in the day except no one wants to do party quests or bosses, They just wanna chill.

The incentives to do said party quests have largely evaporated. Thats why many people would rather head straight to the unbalanced/absurdly high exp-per-kill mobs instead of PQing with other people. Back in the day, PQs were the place to be for fast leveling and socialization. Not anymore. I really hate what they've done with all the PQs in this game, particularly KPQ and LPQ. APQ doesn't give good rewards anymore, and GPQ was axed entirely.

I think the community on maple is still good.. I don't know what people are talking about when they say it's been changed. It's still the same old same old from back in the day except no one wants to do party quests or bosses, They just wanna chill.

Yea, chilling is absolutely the first thing you want to do in an mmorpg, right?

The community has not really changed per se, it is the climate that has. Nexon changed some things in Maple, making everything simple enough to fit even the most retarded of monkeys. Hence the community is now fostered in handheld instant gratification where a) you don't need anyone to do stuff and b) you don't stay in one spot during the earlier levels long enough to actually socalize. When you get to LHC it is too late, the damage has been done.

First Wonderking now Trickster.


I thought these two games were better than Maple. Shame they didnt outlive Nexon.

that cuz those 2 game barely even have 100,000 people and daily online is like about 1-10k people online daily
and on the other hand maplestory had atleast over 3mil people and dily online range from 100-500k people online daily
here one fact i found tricker online has only 37k facebook like while maple has almost 900k facebook likesee the huge diff?

Wonderking has a fair shot at coming back, though. IgnitedGames + Ryu&Soft are in active negotiations as of January 2013.



The incentives to do said party quests have largely evaporated. Thats why many people would rather head straight to the unbalanced/absurdly high exp-per-kill mobs instead of PQing with other people. Back in the day, PQs were the place to be for fast leveling and socialization. Not anymore. I really hate what they've done with all the PQs in this game, particularly KPQ and LPQ. APQ doesn't give good rewards anymore, and GPQ was axed entirely.

I have done pretty much all of the old PQs except for the original Dragon Rider and I'd say the only thing I like is that the EXP gain isn't piddly now and that they made it so you don't start swearing if an essential member disconnects. That being said I would say it makes little difference how the PQ is like if it is designed to be repetitive as you'd eventually master it and it would therefore no longer be a challenge, plus I have had more conversations with my party members now that we're not severely pressed for time in each PQ as we were before. It's not just a matter of the mechanics so much as it is a perspective; tigers don't become townspeople simply because you put them in cities.

I have done pretty much all of the old PQs except for the original Dragon Rider and I'd say the only thing I like is that the EXP gain isn't piddly now and that they made it so you don't start swearing if an essential member disconnects. That being said I would say it makes little difference how the PQ is like if it is designed to be repetitive as you'd eventually master it and it would therefore no longer be a challenge, plus I have had more conversations with my party members now that we're not severely pressed for time in each PQ as we were before. It's not just a matter of the mechanics so much as it is a perspective; tigers don't become townspeople simply because you put them in cities.

But there isn't much point to doing a party quest without EXP thats substantially better than grinding and/or substantial rewards to most people. The "because its fun" reasoning doesn't really apply here, as most people are only interested in cubing and grinding to 200 these days. I tended to make more friends/connections through the PQs back then because the gameplay was a tad more dynamic; It wasn't just "Lets all group together at Walls 1 and attack things until they die".

But there isn't much point to doing a party quest without EXP thats substantially better than grinding and/or substantial rewards to most people. The "because its fun" reasoning doesn't really apply here, as most people are only interested in cubing and grinding to 200 these days. I tended to make more friends/connections through the PQs back then because the gameplay was a tad more dynamic; It wasn't just "Lets all group together at Walls 1 and attack things until they die".

Well, that is why you find like-minded people in other ways. It's probably harder at GMS since there's LHC to lure people away but keep in mind that not everyone does well there or wants to train for hours. To be honest, I have encountered very little nice people in the so called 'good old days of Maple' despite being something of a PQ maniac and it's only now that I've got friends I'm happy to call friends and party members who even thank me for doing my routine buffs, you just have to keep trying and not let yourself get too jaded.

Incidentally, I dropped a 10% INT scroll on my mule just now and a Mihile looted it. Instead of yelling at him I simply asked him to please give it back and he laughed at first before asking why I dropped it, but he ended up trading me to give it back after I explained that I had no slots. He even refused my free gift of a Mihile SB to him as his main wasn't even a 4th jobber and was upset that he couldn't fame me back when I famed him, so it goes to show that hope does live on yet for this community.

This got kind of off-topic but I'll return to comment on the subject at hand after I get to level 194.

I think the community on maple is still good.. I don't know what people are talking about when they say it's been changed. It's still the same old same old from back in the day except no one wants to do party quests or bosses, They just wanna chill.

The irony that someone like you would have an opinion like that. Your typical pesronal messages are so stereotypical as a mapler that it hurts.

that cuz those 2 game barely even have 100,000 people and daily online is like about 1-10k people online daily
and on the other hand maplestory had atleast over 3mil people and dily online range from 100-500k people online daily
here one fact i found tricker online has only 37k facebook like while maple has almost 900k facebook likesee the huge diff?

[MENTION=5537]Locked[/MENTION]; can you give him the actual numbers in terms of people actively on maple

Maple will survive a few years before it meets the same fate.

Unless they decides to change the way of the game... time to return to the roots... to the clasic metroidvania it was.

If North Korea was trolling South Korea on final destruction, then maple will go on and live a long life.

Or alternatively if maple makes it into North Korea somehow, then you can bet it will go on forever.

..yea, Nexon's headquarters are located in Japan.

..yea, Nexon's headquarters are located in Japan.

Being in japan is worse for longevity than being literally anywhere else.

Being in japan is worse for longevity than being literally anywhere else.

California might be worse

California might be worse

If you say that because of earthquake/volcano worries like i did, it won't really matter if yellowstone erupts because we're all f'ucked but if something happens in japan well...they and probably their neighbors including cali would be demolished.

California might be worse

But the weather is so nice here!

I agree with the OP about new content being "uninspired" and that maple is no longer "fun". IMO there's one thing that is the root of every problem.

It's too easy to get strong (with money).

This includes cubing, guardian/prot/shield/return/innocence scrolls, 2x coupons, etc. This leads to a lot of things but here's one that's discussed in this thread:

=>Large discrepancy between funded and unfunded players

Of course, not everyone has the money to make godly equips, but that's exactly why it's bad. There's a huge discrepancy between funded and unfunded players. Funded players can pay basically to do anything to their equips. They can never miss a slot, control chaos scrolls, control enhances, etc. Anything that requires work to get stronger, other people can just pay to get past it.

=>Impossible to create content for both groups

Now, there's a significant portion of the player base both close to completely/normal funded (always has had a significant portion) and decked out in cubed gear, making it necessary to cater to both of these groups of players when making content. It's impossible to do that. How do you make a boss or a PQ that's challenging, yet possible for both someone who solo's zak in 30 seconds and someone who takes 30 min?

=>Most non-endgame content becomes obsolete, eventually

The result is there needs to be completely separate content for both groups, which does not work very well because as soon as the unfunded players start liking the game and becoming more serious (funded), the rest of the content that they used to do becomes obsolete because it's so much worse for them than the end-game content. This would be fine if there were just a few outliers of super strong people, but that is not the case anymore because anyone can buy stuff from CS to buff up their character within a few minutes.

=>Everyone eventually wants to just grind to 200 and then improve their gear for the end game

Because that's what matters in the end, and the end comes too quickly (again: easy to level, easy to upgrade).


Most people play games because they want a challenge and also the rewards/satisfaction from completing them. Maple is admittedly a more social game, but at its core it's still a game. If you just wanted to socialize you'd use MSN/Skype/Facebook/Omegle/Whatever.

Being able to circumvent every challenge in the game is what's killing it for most people. With this model, the only thing you can do is of course make your end game content entertaining/fun. However, due to the nature of how Maple is at the moment, "fun" means you do enough damage to kill the bosses that give good stuff, which gets old pretty fast. To fix this they need more group content and more creative content. Even after that, they still need to somehow overhaul the pay-to-own thing to make maple enjoyable to play (as defined by many who played prepotential) again.

And this is just the surface, because even further below that, maple's just a pretty shallow, one-dimensional game. Recent RA/Magnus is a step in the right direction, but they have a looong way to go.

No one can say how long maple will last but taking a look recent history along with my personal experience (friends leaving very often), I'd say it doesn't look good.

If you say that because of earthquake/volcano worries like i did, it won't really matter if yellowstone erupts because we're all f'ucked but if something happens in japan well...they and probably their neighbors including cali would be demolished.

That and if North Korea shoots a nuke at us it'll hit california!

But the weather is so nice here!

Nothing wrong with dying in paradise!