General

Gms

KMS/JMS/GMS Wanting to play again but

I understand that Maple Story is popular in Korea and Japan however to my understanding is that Maple Story in America is Dead and has been for a long time. I understand it has some player base but however as an active and social community I feel it is lacking very much. I've tried coming back several times when I had free time and while I do see people for example in Henesys but a majority of it's players are either AFK or stick to the cliches they're use to.

I feel that all of the social people have long left the game and most of the awkward people are the ones who still regularly play. (Not trying to be rude) However Nexon America continues to push out updates because of the few supporters it has buying billions in NX which.. it's their money I have no right even if I disagree.. but I wonder how much longer Nexon can continue to milk Maple Story.. especially once Maple Story 2 is officially released.

I guess i have mixed feelings because I have feelings that make me still care for a game I grew up with and I know I should move on but.. some reason I always come back for a few days but only to be disappointed... perhaps Maple is to big it has to many maps no one uses, to many servers and a lack of social activities that are worth peoples time.

I wish nexon would listen to it's loving audience but I know that America is in the small minority because it seems to be working in Korea and Japan. In a strange way I feel like Nexon America is trying to kill off Maple Story to make way for Maple Story 2 if it does well enough. I mean they have been known to simply just throw away games that don't do well like a bag of trash.

but that's just my thoughts about it, how about you?

June 28, 2018

8 Comments • Newest first

capnmurica

They have a fix called MapleStory 2. Apart from this the only other way to bring players back would be a pre 2012 server, but that would never happen. Too much pride to lose from Nexon if they released one.

Reply July 11, 2018
Endurance

@kirenisa Seems Maplestory 2 is their main focus right now, and that game will be complete trash other then on Mobile devices. There really isn't any point coming back to this game. just hope that ZEMI Interactive makes a Dragon Gem remake, and if they do then Maplestory would be completely dead at that point.

Reply July 10, 2018
GakiNoTsukai

@kirenisa: and once again, you're hanging onto an image of MapleStory that is no longer there. If ms1 stuck to your ideal image you know what we'd have? Explorer classes only, no potentials, bosses that have no mechanics at all, a game so simplified that yes there would be no bugs but so repetitive that you'd actually have a higher chance of getting bored and getting shutdown.

You say nexonna shuts down games in a whim, I recall games like DFO, games that could have been successful as a mobile game but really had no future as a PC game. Think about what MapleStory meant from the beginning and look at where it is now. It has a story, it has content which is arguably good/bad depending on who's looking at it, theme dungeons/blockbusters. When your comment references things like Ms is junk because gpq or pvp, it shows that while everything else about the game has evolved and moved on, you were never able to. Whether that was because you left during those stages of MapleStory's life and that's all you remember or because everyone you knew couldn't adapt to change but you wanted to but couldn't get over the fact that they left I don't know. In all honesty that happens with games and still the bottom line is if you don't like it then leave and don't come back.

No one is disagreeing that NexonNA could do a much better job, however over the course of the past year they've gone from absolute garbage to just garbage.

- pet loot lag fixed.
- nexon memes from Reddit at a 25-75 (positive to negative) versus almost 0-100.
- pay2win nebulite finally gone and replaced with flames WHICH do not contain the scissor limit.
- human interactions more prevalent in their autoban system (more people getting their cases actually looked at).

I'll address everything else separately.

Going back, trying to socialize and getting ignored - so you want to be friends with people that ignore you? I just ask... Why? This is why I said, it's much better to talk to folks who are actively doing things, whether it's events like bingo/number guess, training, chu chu pq.

Gms' ch1+2 only stable. This I agree with you, but it's a problem with not knowing the route cause. In order to keep other channels up and running, they have been restarting them constantly and have maintenances to attempt to fix but they keep coming back. Is it a hardware or software issue who knows. I've speculated it may be the issue JMS notified after the Eva patch due to auto target mobs but that doesn't seem to fit when 1/2 are still fine.

Global should mean everyone but Brazil and China. Um..... Some of your most chatty folks play from the South America region.

Gms exclusive content. If there was anything that was true junk, it's exclusive content we tried to produce and most likely because Korea calls the shots, trying to patch their stuff in is causing most of the coding errors since we most likely still have the old code somewhere buried inside.

People playing for a few weeks and then quitting. This is solely because people don't put any time or effort into the game. Whether that is by spending money or spending time. You level and level but don't merch so you have no money to upgrade and so now you're stuck unable to get anywhere. This is the trap that all players who just come and go fall into. I'm so weak and unable to do anything. The hope is that this will get better as legion shop has epic pots and crimson flames. Enough that should get people back on track. It's a game where, time spent does equate to more benefits but people want instant gratification which was possible when endgame gear was literally a Zak helm. With the possibility of 25* even 140 gear can be enough to get you through to being party members at higher end bosses. How quickly is that approachable? Not very quick but it's doable. Is that an answer players still stuck in the past want? No.

You want nexon to care more about the player base. What exactly do you want them to do? Come to your house and login to the game for you?
Akradrian is now a vfm which was an extreme positive for the community, we have slightly more personable help desk folks, the crap channels are attempted to bring addressed with channel restarts. There are great QoL changes to the game itself. If that doesn't show that at least one person internally still cares about the player base then I don't know what will.

Wanting people to be more social. That's out of nexons hands and in your hands. Who knows how you're starting the conversation, but let me tell you one thing. Your struggle isn't a maple only thing, it's in every online game. People don't talk to strangers unless you can somehow make them feel comfortable.

Power creep only defines how quickly you can kill a boss. With flames and epic potentials so easily accessible, upwards to lotus Damien normal solos are no longer out of reach given that you put some effort into it and are willing to spend the full time (30min) to solo. With nodes, V skills we have people doing full CRA pretty much naked now. And this is with stuff accessible in game.

The party play aspect of this game is getting similar stage players together to kill bosses with skills in their arsenal. Can one shot normal RA but can't do CRA due to timeout? Look for similar stage players via reddit. There are also still people in squishynoobs (windia) who joke around and take funny SS.

We're finally approaching the final battle with the black mage, once that's out ms1 probably has no new content afterwards. If you really want this game to die because you don't like the direction it's taking then just move on and let it die, whether by going out of content or no one playing.

So again if you want to play it, play it. If you don't then don't. It's just no longer the simplistic game that it once was.

Reply June 30, 2018
Beefly

I don't really feel like typing much.

GMS doesn't have the funds to fix everything and I doubt they can find any way to appeal to the current West simply because of its theme, cutesy anime MMORPG.

But it IS the only major western maplestory left, since EMS closed down and merged with GMS. I don't really count MSEA, only aussies have the option to play that in terms of 'the west'.

So I think GMS can last as long as KMS and JMS feeds it content.

Reply June 30, 2018 - edited
Kirenisa

@gakinotsukai

I think you're missing the point, I have tried going back and talking to people only to be ignored by people who are talking and well AFK people are AFK. In most maps you don't see anyone with an exception of a few maps.

Nexon should either fix their game or kill it because if they only have 2 stable channels you know their is an issue considering the game has roughly 4-5k people who are active between all of the worlds combined.. not to mention a majority of the content is useless or outdated. I wish Nexon America cared as much as they did for the Asian servers.

Honestly they should have just kept it as "global" instead of blocking regions out I think that was one of their bigger issues. I feel if they lifted that up on MS at least it would lead to a larger population.. I mean maybe block Brazil / China (I mean no offense) but I feel like they have SO many things they could do to revive their own game but they refuse to do it.

I also understand that Nexon copy pastes updates basically and translates them but we have had exclusive content before.. and I'm sure the asian servers would appreciate some of the stuff the American servers need to keep people in. (like making party quests for example worth doing) as it stands right now Maple is mostly "a single player MMORPG" and that always happens with major updates people play for 2-4 weeks after a new class comes out or major update and then they quit. I mean lets be honest... Maple Story is one of the few games that can't handle it's small population.. that's very obnoxious considering how many players it could handle back in the day. Why? because they don't care anymore, it doesn't make them billions like it use to.

The only reason it frustrates me so much is because I do love Maple Story but I hate the company that owns it because they simply don't care unless a huge amount of money is involved. The point of this was simply saying I wish Nexon America cared more about Maple Story 1 and how I wish people were more social because I have tried talking to people in reboot who were talking and simply got ignored and in my main world.

There's also the issue of power creep, without goals for a community to strive for that takes a group effort people are less ambitious.. like the out dated guild PQ for example.. which is why they should update a lot of their content and bring back the missing content they promised years ago to bring back and never did.. and YET the game still has quests relating to outdated content you can't complete like PVP for example.

Reply June 30, 2018 - edited
GakiNoTsukai

You play for what your reasons are not what your "understanding" or what people "tell you".

If you browse any official/unofficial forum, you're going to get the impression that the game is dead/no one plays/"only socially awkward people play", but what is to say that your own experience isn't going to be totally different?

What if those sites where you get other's opinions are only coming from those who are negative, socially awkward and the ones who are still social and still play the game, just play the game and don't bother with outside websites? You'll never know that until you try.

Right now a lot of people are playing Ark because it just came out. Combined with the fact that Channel 1 and 2 are the only stable channels and you actually have a great opportunity to meet others.

People don't talk to others in game because there is this impression that other people are a-holes/jerks/r-tards, but how many of those people have ever tried just typing Hello or Could I....? Probably not a lot, from my own personal experience, just taking the first effort to actually start talking to someone (who's not an AFK'er in a major town) while you're training, passing through a map can take you a lot further than just assuming people are no longer social and not even bothering to try.

However, that's up to you to decide. If you're planning on coming back to play MS1 but are already telling us MS in global IS DEAD then you probably aren't going to find anything positive in your return.

Reply June 29, 2018 - edited
DeeeMon

MapleStory is still a good game, but global is ran by a very crappy, very incompetent company that never tests anything before they put it out.

I don't even care about social stuff, I don't talk to people in game. I don't fit in anywhere because I don't buy cash shop junk or care about high damage/numbers thing, a noob like me will always be a noob like me. My guild is full of my own characters. Yes, I am awkward, but that's okay, dood. The only thing I do now is play all these different classes and get them to 200 and be done with the damn thing because Vth job was a huge disappointment. Then off I go to play Nintendo Switch because Hyrule Warriors: DE is a much better grind, dood. I stopped caring because nexon America makes all these horrible changes (killed my Hayato) and doesn't care about anything else, they just want money.

I already did what I wanted to do in this game, crit all the time on every one of my characters. So I don't care if nexon bans me or shut down the game for good.
nexon America stinks!

Reply June 29, 2018 - edited