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Man Who Returned To MapleStory Is Asking If He Should Return

The Kerning City News, June 20, 2016 VOL 1 Issue 1

Kerning City, MW - A grown man who has made the decision to return to the popular multi-player massive online video game MapleStory has turned to the popular forum BasilMarket to ask the question of whether or not it is worth coming back to the game. This has occurred even in spite of their effort at communicating an expressed interest in actually returning, even at times having already made the decision to return to playing the game.

"I often like to refer to other people to make my decisions for me," said John Smith, a 23 year old grown man. "For example, I had just recently heard of this new addition that is called the Reboot server. Even though I know Google is just around the corner and that I can type in 'maplestory reboot update', in which the first results come directly from Nexon themselves describing the update... I often prefer other folks to tell me exactly what it is and whether or not it is worth trying out, even though I had already expressed my interest in this particular server and that the comments of others are often opinionated."

"I usually like to tell people that the game is full of crap and that they should not even bother," said a self-proclaimed Nexon expert who goes by the name "iPownUNo0bz". "I know I am one of those folks who continue to play the game while also paying Nexon loads of money at the same time for those extra perks. But just the other day I was banned unfairly. I thought it was so atrocious that I have decided to join in the class-action lawsuit against Nexon, although I'm not even sure myself what the lawsuit is supposed to be about or what it's supposed to target. But at the end of the day I just want to go back to playing the game while continuing to support Nexon for those additional perks that I love."

Some players of the game have sided in the middle, preferring to only play on specific times where events occur that could double your "EXP" and your "drop rate" within the game. "I often feel like this is the only time when it is worth playing the game nowadays," said Alan Smithee, who plays a level 50 midget wizard in the game. "Even though the constant disconnection and lag issues are so severe as to completely nullify the benefits of these events in the first place, I still like to suffer through these experiences of playing the game at only those specific times. I might be a sadist after all."

According to a study published by the Maplings Institute, about 50% of surveyed MapleStory players have expressed dissatisfaction with their overall experience playing the game. This is in spite of the fact that about 89% of these players have continued to be active players on the game 3 weeks after the study was conducted. A follow-up study found that 76% of these same players had continued or had returned to play the game at some point within a two-year period after the original study.

"There has been an increasing phenomenon that has separated the 'newbs' to the game from the veterans of the game," said Mike Hawk, a researcher at the Maplings Institute. "The old-school veterans of the game often suffer from a case of nostalgitis, where they reminisce about the good old days when there was a more social and heavily repetitive aspect to the game. They often play the game for brief spurts at a time, returning every so often in an attempt to relive a more nostalgic era of the game. This is in spite of the fact that these older players are now adults [or are approaching adulthood], so these old experiences simply cannot be recaptured as they are now matured. Henceforth, their act of reminiscing simply flies into the aether."

Jablome's theory also states that with subsequent updates to the game over the years, the nature of the gameplay has changed dramatically. These changes are often apparent in the actions and behaviors that are present in the newer players. Added Hawk, "They often pray to the god 'RNGesus' to bless them with good luck as they create their own 'godly' equipment. Social interaction within this group is often limited to the accomplishments that are heavily dependent on how much real-life currency one can spend on the game. These include the amount of 'dmg' one can do in the game. On top of that, they enjoy hanging out in the town 'Henesys' within the game, wearing the same bought outfits that five other people are also wearing in the town at the exact same time."

When asked about whether or not the grown adult individual should return to becoming their child self again and play MapleStory, Hawk replied, "I don't know the answer. All I can say is that I think it is quite unfortunate that an ever increasing amount of individuals like him are incapable of making their own decisions. I can only hope that 'RNGesus' will shine upon him brightly in the near future when [and not if] he ever does decide to return to MapleStory like he already has."

June 20, 2016