The fatal flaw with the current business model.

I am big on being open and being candid in my conversations, there are definitely times when that is not possible as well as a line where timing comes into play a bit too. An example of this would be when we have emergency maintenance to resolve an exploit currently being taken advantage of; it's important we don't open that information up and let the hackers know we are running investigations. This is just one example, but I wanted to try and shed light on why complete honesty isn't always the best policy. Another would be deadlines being pushed; reveiling content too soon can be a double edged sword for us. While some players may be extremely excited to hear what is coming down the pipeline we lose a lot of face if we promise something and it doesn't come to fruition.

That being said, I am constantly listening to players on multiple channels. Fansites and Official ones alike! Just because you don't see me reply doesn't always mean I haven't seen something. I also lurk at times so my name doesn't always appear in the "read" section. :0P


We've been in talks about this. No promises *see above*

I remember the situation KhainiWest posted about very clearly. I wasn't personally affected by it, but I do remember hundreds of unhappy players, many of which were heavy spenders who quit long ago over this. What's more, it wasn't limited to MapleStory. there were database leaks at least twice in Dungeon Fighter Online and the community got the same transparency treatment resulting in losing their accounts and items.

Every company is entitled to a monumental screw up, but this situation is just one of many for Nexon. They repeatedly screw their players again and again. I've personally been foolish enough to be screwed by Nexon more than 3 times myself. Why did I keep coming back? Well, part of it was love, dedication and hope for the games that I invested so much time and money into and the other part was friends and community.

Furthermore, the fact that the servers were going down was hidden from the community for months, despite the fact that it was blatantly obvious due to the lack of updates, events, and statements from GM's. The enquiries of the community were ignored until a small group of people started spamming the forums with inappropriate images to get the attention of GM's. The result was a threat to close the forums down.

On the subject of bunk compensation, many players didn't get any compensation at all for the closure of Dungeon Fighter Online. Others got lame compensation since compensation didn't apply to many of the major dispensible items which were typically purchased from the cash shop. It's not like Nexon couldn't have fixed the issues with this game or with DFO. The very same pomegranate people are complaining about now were issues years ago. They just sugar coat things and choose to ignore issues for what they consider to be the sake of profit, but it is backfiring big time.

I genuinely feel bad for you Aurtax, as I can see you are trying to do an honest days work here, but you're going to end up just like all of the other community managers. Lying, dodging, and stringing us along about things until we end up with another CM who will do the same thing all over again.

That being said, honesty most definitely is in the best interest of the community. It's just not the best policy for Nexon.

I genuinely feel bad for you Aurtax, as I can see you are trying to do an honest days work here, but you're going to end up just like all of the other community managers. Lying, dodging, and stringing us along about things until we end up with another CM who will do the same thing all over again.

You feel bad for him but you believe he's going to be another terrible CM because he's working at nexon which makes every person corrupt? Lying from miscommunication isnt lying, by the way. Its called miscommunication/KMS lied to him.

I am big on being open and being candid in my conversations, there are definitely times when that is not possible as well as a line where timing comes into play a bit too. An example of this would be when we have emergency maintenance to resolve an exploit currently being taken advantage of; it's important we don't open that information up and let the hackers know we are running investigations. This is just one example, but I wanted to try and shed light on why complete honesty isn't always the best policy. Another would be deadlines being pushed; reveiling content too soon can be a double edged sword for us. While some players may be extremely excited to hear what is coming down the pipeline we lose a lot of face if we promise something and it doesn't come to fruition.

That being said, I am constantly listening to players on multiple channels. Fansites and Official ones alike! Just because you don't see me reply doesn't always mean I haven't seen something. I also lurk at times so my name doesn't always appear in the "read" section. :0P


We've been in talks about this. No promises *see above*

Echoing what [MENTION=4235]KhainiWest[/MENTION]; was saying, perhaps you should read a few more of the posts throughout this topic. I don't believe anyone is asking for exclusive information about new content or advanced notification of an exploit that may tip hackers off. I understand that you are just giving an example, but that is a very specific one that doesn't really give me a good idea of what your point is, at least. I'm sure a lot of players would agree that pumping out new content, although some of which is very cool, isn't really helping the situation. So, again, I don't quite get your point. Please feel free to clarify if I am somehow way off the mark.

If I can be candid as well, although I get the whole faceless multi-million dollar company PR campaign, it's pretty surprising that a gaming company based on the internet would operate in such a way for this length of time. It is 2013, not 1983. I don't want to shoot the messenger by any means, but the general impression many players get is that Nexon knows as much about how to balance MapleStory and ensure its longevity as they do about rocket science. It's great that you read a lot of posts on fan sites and the official forums and it's understandable that you cannot respond to every one of them, but I personally, and I know many others also feel this way, feel like it is and always has been a one way conversation. In the age of social media, this is unacceptable, and I think it is becoming very apparent that things aren't going so great in the court of public opinion. Most players don't know that you are reading their posts and what specifically is getting back to those who make decisions at Nexon. I don't think it would be too difficult to have a consistent two-way conversation going on.

To be blunt, actions speak louder than words. Time and time again we have heard that Nexon is making changes and is listening to the community and time and time again decisions have been made that have negatively affected the ability of players to compete fairly. MapleStory has clearly been taken for granted as the guaranteed cash cow and in my opinion, Nexon America has run MapleGlobal into the ground repeatedly.

Your community managers can spin things any way they want, but no one is buying it anymore. If that was true, you wouldn't see several of the most-talked about topics on ANY MapleStory fan site complaining about the game and Nexon, the vast majority of tickets wouldn't be going unanswered for months, players wouldn't be complaining about being wrongfully banned and having to fight tooth and nail for fair compensation. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on why over the past year some of the biggest MapleStory fan sites around have closed shop or gone inactive. People are getting past the point of just complaining - they're leaving. You can fix things if you address a customer's complaint quickly and reasonably enough, but after a while they just stop complaining and leave.


Although your post is appreciated, Nexon has come late to the party. You can spin quarterly profits however you want, but anyone who logs into MapleStory or one of your other games sees a huge drop in the amount of players, and enthusiasm. If you have taken the time to go through the 9 pages in this topic, then you probably see the consistent hopelessness many players feel toward the current state, and future, of MapleStory. GM events, cash shop giveaways, and 2x EXP events will only keep people satisfied for so long.

Others may disagree with me on several points, but as someone who has played this game faithfully since 2005, has run a website that has helped to promote your game for 6 years as a player and someone who was once passionate about this game and wanted to continue to engage with the community and promote the game, I feel abandoned and like the time I spent was wasted. The reasons for my feelings are varied, but mainly revolve around the current pay-to-win model you have implemented and the horrific customer support and community relations. As a customer I do not feel respected and like my business is appreciated. I think I will take my business elsewhere.

All this being said, as others have said, I wish you luck in your endeavor to get something beneficial and meaningful done swiftly enough to actually have an impact and retain what is left of your playerbase.

I know the best option! Maplestory 2. Without the terrible hackability.

You feel bad for him but you believe he's going to be another terrible CM because he's working at nexon which makes every person corrupt? Lying from miscommunication isnt lying, by the way. Its called miscommunication/KMS lied to him.

I feel bad for Aurtax because he's working for a company where he will do things Nexon's way or he won't bring home a paycheck. The position he is in forces him to lie and decieve. It's not miscommunication when you know what's going on but aren't allowed to say, often giving the community false hope or dancing around serious issues. CM's have to keep the community content with the way things are, which can, and has in the past, ranged from ignoring serious issues because we wouldn't like the answers to directly lying to us. KhainWest's post is a good example of when Nexon directly lied about database breaches by stating they didn't happen and years later revealing that they did. The delay in acknowledging this issue hurt loyal players.

A Community Manager's job is to interact with the community and keep them satisfied. Their job is to make the community feel like we are being listened to. That's what CM's do. This job would not be easy to do if you were honest about how things really are. That's why I feel bad for Aurtax.

I remember the situation KhainiWest posted about very clearly. I wasn't personally affected by it, but I do remember hundreds of unhappy players, many of which were heavy spenders who quit long ago over this. What's more, it wasn't limited to MapleStory. there were database leaks at least twice in Dungeon Fighter Online and the community got the same transparency treatment resulting in losing their accounts and items.

Every company is entitled to a monumental screw up, but this situation is just one of many for Nexon. They repeatedly screw their players again and again. I've personally been foolish enough to be screwed by Nexon more than 3 times myself. Why did I keep coming back? Well, part of it was love, dedication and hope for the games that I invested so much time and money into and the other part was friends and community.

Furthermore, the fact that the servers were going down was hidden from the community for months, despite the fact that it was blatantly obvious due to the lack of updates, events, and statements from GM's. The enquiries of the community were ignored until a small group of people started spamming the forums with inappropriate images to get the attention of GM's. The result was a threat to close the forums down.

On the subject of bunk compensation, many players didn't get any compensation at all for the closure of Dungeon Fighter Online. Others got lame compensation since compensation didn't apply to many of the major dispensible items which were typically purchased from the cash shop. It's not like Nexon couldn't have fixed the issues with this game or with DFO. The very same pomegranate people are complaining about now were issues years ago. They just sugar coat things and choose to ignore issues for what they consider to be the sake of profit, but it is backfiring big time.

I genuinely feel bad for you Aurtax, as I can see you are trying to do an honest days work here, but you're going to end up just like all of the other community managers. Lying, dodging, and stringing us along about things until we end up with another CM who will do the same thing all over again.

That being said, honesty most definitely is in the best interest of the community. It's just not the best policy for Nexon.

I was so ready to tackle true ancient modes on my MF

You feel bad for him but you believe he's going to be another terrible CM because he's working at nexon which makes every person corrupt? Lying from miscommunication isnt lying, by the way. Its called miscommunication/KMS lied to him.

The position of the job is very difficult. There are many things you can and can't do and when people ask for you something a lot of times you can't just say what they want in a straight-forward manner.
Sageon was the last CM DFO had and he tried to help but really he couldn't do anything as the game itself crumbled. I'm fairly certain GMs didn't exist at all for DFO which let people do whatever they wanted as they pleased.

I feel bad for Aurtax because he's working for a company where he will do things Nexon's way or he won't bring home a paycheck. The position he is in forces him to lie and decieve. It's not miscommunication when you know what's going on but aren't allowed to say, often giving the community false hope or dancing around serious issues. CM's have to keep the community content with the way things are, which can, and has in the past, ranged from ignoring serious issues because we wouldn't like the answers to directly lying to us. KhainWest's post is a good example of when Nexon directly lied about database breaches by stating they didn't happen and years later revealing that they did. The delay in acknowledging this issue hurt loyal players.

A Community Manager's job is to interact with the community and keep them satisfied. Their job is to make the community feel like we are being listened to. That's what CM's do. This job would not be easy to do if you were honest about how things really are. That's why I feel bad for Aurtax.

Except there are certainly still times when CMs are generally decieved themselves, and you would have no way of knowing that yourself unless you were that person. There was absolutely no way that Nexon had a reason to "decieve" us about not getting KMS boss changes. There would be absolutely no point to giving us 2 weeks of unneeded relief on it to be given all of them along with PDR changes without a single warning. Why would the entire GM base in the nexon forums along with Girasol deceive us for no reason? That's just an example, but you don't know and never know what is truly going on unless you are that person yourself.

Except there are certainly still times when CMs are generally decieved themselves, and you would have no way of knowing that yourself unless you were that person. There was absolutely no way that Nexon had a reason to "decieve" us about not getting KMS boss changes. There would be absolutely no point to giving us 2 weeks of unneeded relief on it to be given all of them along with PDR changes without a single warning. Why would the entire GM base in the nexon forums along with Girasol deceive us for no reason? That's just an example, but you don't know and never know what is truly going on unless you are that person yourself.

I won't claim that the CM's always know what's happening when issues arise, but I don't believe they are completely in the dark. You don't have to work for Nexon to see that some shady business is going on. Southperry seems to have figured it out from the look of threads such as this, so why wouldn't one of Nexon's own employees? As per the examples in my earlier posts, they definitely knew about the database leak and DFO's inevitable shutdown months before they announced these issues to the community. They were obviously told to keep it quiet because it was in the best interest of the company. I know for a fact Sageon knew DFO was going down months prior, yet he still let people go on believing the game had a chance of survival. This isn't necessarily because he's a bad guy, but CM's have their orders and strict rules on what they can and cannot say.

Community Managers are simply a face for the community to apply to Nexon. In my experience, they have been completely worthless and almost always frauds or tools. Take Justin Wong and DFO for example. The guy was obviously just a name that was well-known among the fighting game community who really had no interest in the game at all. He was LV.40 at the LV.60 cap, and despite being a frequent PVPer myself, I was never matched up with him once. Yet in every video Nexon always had Justin Wong there, showing his enthusiasm for a game he obviously never cared about or played. If only so much effort had been put into the actual game, maybe it would still be here today.

I'm not sure about the issues this game is currently facing, so I can't really comment on why they would withhold the boss changes since I don't know what they do. Chances are, though, it has something to do with avoiding community backlash and profiting from cash items.

All i know is i am not spending money on a game where the company intentionally withholds bosses dropping equipment for a whole quarter of the year just so they can be thrown into money driven supply boosters like marvel and gach and philosopher books.

You want to make money off the most expensive items in the game? That's fine. Just do it when they're available otherwise, impossible or not.

All i know is i am not spending money on a game where the company intentionally withholds bosses dropping equipment for a whole quarter of the year just so they can be thrown into money driven supply boosters like marvel and gach and philosopher books.

You want to make money off the most expensive items in the game? That's fine. Just do it when they're available otherwise, impossible or not.

This.

Myself and several of my friends have stopped logging in as a whole. Before unleashed my group of friends I boss with would farm evo daily to emp for shoulders, normal empress 3 times a week, and organize cht even with it's broken drop mechanics. We were all eagerly awaiting the chance to do cRA and hm magnus.

Unleashed hits and emps heals are broken, emp gears prices have plummeted due to cash shop boxes giving them out like candy, evo world bosses drop nothing, hm magnus drops nothing, cra drops nothing, and with all of this combined its near impossible to get players to cht because it dies in 30 seconds and then we need to wait an hour for drops which was implemented 4 years ago due to hackers.
We quite literally have nothing to do, what reason do we have to log on?

Since it was just posted on this site, I thought it'd be relevant to bring up the article on "Nexon: Market optimization key to free-to-play":

"I think there's also this stigma of Asian free-to-play games being pay to win," he continued. "Whether they've played our games or other Asian games or not, that's just a stigma that's out there, so that's another concern players have."

When the CEO of the company dances around the issue of Pay-to-win and writes it off as just a stigma attached to "Asian-developed games" and not a valid concern, you know how that might affect their philosophy in managing the game.

"When you look at Asian games, regardless of what their payment models is, or what their monetization scheme is, or how they design the game, that’s being designed for multiple markets . . . They can’t actually tailor the experience exactly towards any particular market, and it’s always going to lean towards the market where it originated."

And since Maplestory doesn't have a local development team (as far as I know), this is more or less saying the Maplestory is stuck with the Pay-to-win model and they're fine with keeping it that way. He does go on to say that he has respect for domestic developers such as Riot and Valve and how they basically understand the Western market much better, and yet Nexon itself has no clue how to actually cater their own game (Maplestory) to a Western market.

We can all admit we hate Nexon to a extent. They have done things so bad to make so many feel like they have been scammed, but there's nothing you can do but walk away from the game completely. People KhainiWest, Takebacker, Eos, Savage, etc have been around long enough to know this. Nexon employees have come and gone to these forums, to do nothing but leave us hanging. At least how I look at it, I rarely log on anymore myself after all these years to me it's still the same game just cycling over and over. From the Tiger days to the "Lf> Bigfoot Leech" days it was fun and great memories. Just to much money for me to keep up. =/

Since it was just posted on this site, I thought it'd be relevant to bring up the article on "Nexon: Market optimization key to free-to-play":



When the CEO of the company dances around the issue of Pay-to-win and writes it off as just a stigma attached to "Asian-developed games" and not a valid concern, you know how that might affect their philosophy in managing the game.



And since Maplestory doesn't have a local development team (as far as I know), this is more or less saying the Maplestory is stuck with the Pay-to-win model and they're fine with keeping it that way. He does go on to say that he has respect for domestic developers such as Riot and Valve and how they basically understand the Western market much better, and yet Nexon itself has no clue how to actually cater their own game (Maplestory) to a Western market.

Welp.
That's it then, I guess.
I give up. No reason to go about hand-wringing and hoping for positive change when the writing on the wall says there's no way for improvement.
If they aren't going to try, then I guess there's no need for me to continue trying to hold on.

Welp.
That's it then, I guess.
I give up. No reason to go about hand-wringing and hoping for positive change when the writing on the wall says there's no way for improvement.
If they aren't going to try, then I guess there's no need for me to continue trying to hold on.

-pats- don't feel too bad, I came to this conclusion in 2010 when I failed myself.

I won't claim that the CM's always know what's happening when issues arise, but I don't believe they are completely in the dark. You don't have to work for Nexon to see that some shady business is going on. Southperry seems to have figured it out from the look of threads such as this, so why wouldn't one of Nexon's own employees? As per the examples in my earlier posts, they definitely knew about the database leak and DFO's inevitable shutdown months before they announced these issues to the community. They were obviously told to keep it quiet because it was in the best interest of the company. I know for a fact Sageon knew DFO was going down months prior, yet he still let people go on believing the game had a chance of survival. This isn't necessarily because he's a bad guy, but CM's have their orders and strict rules on what they can and cannot say.

Community Managers are simply a face for the community to apply to Nexon. In my experience, they have been completely worthless and almost always frauds or tools.

In general, public relations (PR) and everyone in that branch is mostly just a combination of hype/advertising and damage control. And I get why that's important to a business, especially one large enough where PR is a big enough job to hire people devoted simply to that. However, PR only goes so far, and isn't a complete replacement to hearing from the top suits in the company- the guys actually handing out the orders themselves.

So I guess from that perspective, I wouldn't call a community manager worthless. It's just...inadequate to the community's thirst for answers. I think at this point, the stuff Nexon's been pulling has been going on for so long that pretty much the only thing that would satisfy us would be to have a major media group or two send in their top reporters to get the true inside scoop from the people at Nexon who are calling out the shots. However, unless this turns into a nationwide scandal, that sort of media investigation will never happen. So we may never get eyes in the meeting where someone says, "Okay, the new best equipment is going to be this line of level 160 weapons. Let's make sure we monetize their release and make them only available through cash spending, and not cheaply." We know those orders are going out, but what we as a community want so bad is to take these people, put them out on a public stage, and have them explain their actions in front of a stadium full of Maple Story players. Because it seems like these people are so busy trying to work business angles and deal with their bottom line that they really don't really understand how badly they're ticking off paying customers.

Which is understandable. I've seen a few episodes of "Undercover Boss", where the company CEO who used to work the front desk and has worked his way up now has no idea that both the front desk worker and the customers are having a horrible time with the latest, company-mandated system or policy. And after pretending to be an apprentice learning how to be the new front desk worker, they figure out what terribleness has happened while under their command. Perhaps that sort of thing is what we need to happen, although I don't think there's a similar show that is based off of video games, where a game company's CEO is forced to sit down and try to play through their own creation in front of cameras.

i would like to see a business model without a single flaw.

i would like to see a business model without a single flaw.

We aren't asking for a perfect, unflawed business model.
Just one that isn't inherently unstable and fatally flawed.

i would like to see a business model without a single flaw.

OH POMPEII GOT DESTROYED BY A VOLCANO, ID LIKE TO SEE ANY ANCIENT CITY WITHOUT A FLAW

Fuc`king stupid comment

I think we scared him off guyz

i would like to see a business model without a single flaw.

Flaws are not something you avoid by being perfect immediately. They grow over time, and lead to glaring problems that get worse if not handled correctly and promptly.