General

Reflection On 2012 And The Years Before It

Hey Basil,
[header] Intro [/header]
This is just my reflection on Maplestory, the game itself in 2012 and the previous years before it. First off, I'd like to say that I've been playing this game for around 5 years with breaks in between and I guess you could say that I'm a 'veteran'. I just took a break from it for about a month (right before Luminous came out) and man, all these new events and classes coming out, it's pretty overwhelming. So let's start, start on where I think Nexon should change/improve.
[header] Events [/header]
Long time ago, before big bang when Wizet was in charge of this game, I thought that they did an excellent job on the events. When an event came out, the whole community came together to get involved and check out what Wizet had in store for the players. The events involved players and had games where it wasn't all about power. Nowadays, I feel as though the events are there as another tool. Rather than having a community based event, an individual can completed all the objectives. The prizes aren't bragging rights, it's more powerful weapons or stats. Now don't get me wrong here, the new weapons and armor that Nexon has came out with are awesome. I just feel as those these events hold little value and players just use it as a tool to get even more powerful. The wealthy are able to get more stats (such as those tempest rings with potential) while the poor, well, they still get the nice items but don't really experience it to the max. The events nowadays don't involved the community as much and people don't come together to have fun during these events. It all about getting the items or prizes, all about the power, all about who can get the best stats. Can you see where I'm going with this? This game had basically turned from a community feeling awesomelicioius atmosphere to a game where only power defines who the player is, when in reality, it really shouldn't.
The second part of events in which I believe should be improved is the timing. Back in the old days (I'm not saying that the old days were the best, just using them as an example) the events would come after months in which the game was just the game. No events going on, no special promotions or anything. The players would just play the game. See, when an event came, the players would come together to do it. I believe that this is what brings the community feel to the events. By having no events going on for a certain amount of time makes the players anticipate the upcoming events more and get even more siked up for them. Now, the events just come one after another non-stop. I actually can't remember a time in period in which the game was event-free. This kinda makes the events lose the excitement that they once held.
[header] Party Quests [/header]
Wow, what is a PQ? Seriously, every PQ "lobby" place I've been in, it's empty. Ok, ok, ok, I over-exaggerated...there might have been 1 person in one of them...Get my point? PQ stands for PARTY Quest. Not solo quest, or one man's quest, or individual's quest. P-A-R-T-Y. Come on Nexon, I miss these so much. It was a time where you could meet new awesome people, make new friends, all while completing a quest in which you needed one another. Trying to take down King Slime is waaaaay too hard if you were doing it by yourself. That's why you needed your fellow party members, your fellow companions! It was an important social aspect of the game and I've met so many of my cool friends while PQing. You know, I miss all the annoying little noobs too that tried to get into your party by spamming J>PQ@@@@@x10000. Or those so-called pro assassins that spammed "I THROW ILLBIS ADD ME NAO!@@@". Bring back the specialness of PQs, they were a great way of talking to new people and gaining experience.
[header] Party [/header]
This kinda ties into party quests, but what is the meaning of a party (I know what some of you guys were thinking of...smh) now in [b]Maplestory[/b]? Seriously, NO ONE uses the party system to train in regular maps AT ALL. Apart from boss runs, LHC, and Stronghold, there really is no perks of being in a party training with a partner, especially in the lower levels. I miss being in those parties at FoG training my butt off and finally achieving that precious level 70. Being in a party was so fun and it was another way of meeting new people and chilling out with them. Please Nexon, make the party system better so that it can be beneficially to us and we can use it more.
[header] Meaning of Job Advancements [/header]
The meaning of Job Advancements is a marking point in your character's journey to 200 or whatever it may be. Fourth job used to be so much more complicated and you would have to complete various quests just to reach the rank of a fourth jobber. And then you would have to do even more quests to get some of your main skills. Nowadays, it's just the matter of killing a boss or two. Bam, you did your job advancement. There's absolutely no specialness about advancing, you don't get proud that you successfully did the advancement anymore. Doing the job advancements was a way where the player would pass a milestone, it would be meaningful to do it. The meaning of a job advancement really went into a drain hole. No longer is it difficult to kill the bosses. Heck, they even made the travel time shorter to making it easier. And with all these new classes coming out, you don't even have to go anywhere. You can just advance right there and continue on grinding your character, as that's all that matters nowadays. Nexon, let's make the job advancements more complicated, so that the player can enjoy them more and feel more proud of why exactly they are grinding their characters in the first place.
[header] Conclusion I guess...? [/header]
Ok, it seems as those I've been just ranting off about all the down sides to this game. Yes, that is the truth, but in all honestly, this is what I experience while playing the game. I miss the old traditional stuff that you would have to do to achieve certain goals in this game. Some of you guys are going to be like, "Then just quit man." And if I was honest, I would. But there's just something special about this game and keeps having me come back to it. It's part of my childhood, and one day I will have to move on from it.
These ideas are just some things that popped into my head whenever I reflect on 2012 and the years before it. It's 2013, let's change this game.
Like, Comment, Discuss if you want. Just please be respectful when addressing other players even if they are not.