Tuesday, June 16, 2009
This is a post all about Maple Story, and my view on this game.
First and foremost this post is written based on my knowledge of Maple Story, and unlike you hardcore Maplers out there I know nothing much about Maple.
Maple Story is a game whereby you play as a job ranging from an archer to a magician. The goal of the game is simply to gain as much experience as possible, followed by as much gold as possible, so that you can afford those crazy-ass bitch items that can deal 50000 damage in one hit.
According to my experience, there's this one particular scenario whereby my friend created a new character. I think it is a bowman or something like that.(I don't know) Then there comes a scene whereby your starting stats are shown.(There are 4 if I'm not wrong)
You have to click on this stupid dice and the stats will shuffle around. Even as you start the game with a new character, you have to busy yourself clicking away on that dice so that one particular stat is the value 8, according to the job that you took. My friend even told me to help him click on the dice, while he went to the toilet... He told me that one of his other friend who also plays Maple Story had once clicked for 2 hours straight before getting his ideal stats...
The training right from the start is very tedious. You are immediately allowed access to the noobest place of all of Maple Story where you need to fight snails to gain experience slowly. Once you reached certain levels, you are slowly allowed access to greater things such as weapons, events, new spells, new abilities, quests and so on.
I remembered that some weapons can be hunted. When one mean 'hunted', one mean that he/she had to kill off a particular monster that keeps 'spawning' out numerous times until it dropped a weapon. Some legendary weapons can only be bought in shops, which may cost up to 200 million mesos? I don't know.
Events are probably the most anticipated 'thing' in Maple Story. Though I know nothing about any single event, I know that events are what that cause ex-maplers to go back to mapling for a while. When I mean a while, I mean 4 hours a day, which lasts for maybe 3 weeks?
Quests are possibly something that you spend your entire playing time in Maple Story doing them. You have to go from place to place, kill off monsters and collect 100 or 200 of a particular item, and walk all the way back to the person who gave you the quest. The reward? One stat up, some experience and maybe a few ten thousand mesos? Yet while one is busy gathering experience from fighting monsters, he or she has to bother to do the SIGNIFICANT, COMPULSORY quests that are EXTREMELY WORTH IT.
Now Maple Story is a game that allows you to see other characters/players inside the game, and that brings us to the part about fame. I believe fame is probably an insignificant part of your status, but there IS such thing as increasing and decreasing your fame. I mean, you play Maple Story to get that virtual satisfaction I can tell, but you also need to pay attention to the numerical value that represents how 'famous' are you on Maple? It just doesn't make sense.
And there's this place in Maple Story called the Market Place if I'm not wrong. Once I saw my friend getting there to 'look for people that wants his item' and negotiate a trade, and the screen is literally filled with characters jumping around with notices about their offers. They make their notices really high and noticeable by spamming @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ behind their notice. With about 50 characters doing it at the same time, that's something.
I don't think I know anything further about the game. All I know is that there is now a Maple Season 2, whereby things are getting much more interesting, unique, fun and basically revolve around killing new monsters and getting new 'classes'.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot about mentioning two more things!
#1.
Double experience.
I think I remember there's this event/thing that you need to buy which allows you 24 hours of getting double the normal amount of experience. I mean, OK you need to pay for that double experience and obviously you are very happy that you can level up much faster and accomplish more quests for the day, but is it really worth it? After the time has run out, there is tendency for a particular player to go back and buy that thing again, leading to a waste of money.
#2.
Hacks.
A majority of ex-maplers have a unique talent of creating new hacks and codes to modify the current game, creating all sorts of ridiculous 'mods' and enticing people to come and play in their server. Examples of hacks may include killing a green coloured snail and levelling up 40 times, or a gold coin you picked from the ground that's worth 10 million mesos. Isn't it ironic that people actually do bother to hack? It simply beats the purpose of the game to try and reach the Level 200 mark slowly, in about 5 years?
I believe people who play Maple Story only gets the satisfaction when they managed to level up to their ideal level for the day. The time and experience needed to go to the next level, obviously, increases at an increasing rate. It is able to drain you of the remaining energy that you might have reserved to revise your homework. What's more, if supposedly you managed to get to level 45 in 1 hour 45 minutes and you gave yourself 2 hours of gameplay, one would definitely feel like doing a quest since he/she has enough time. The problem is, the quest USUALLY lasts about 45 minutes, and USUALLY have other MINOR things to accomplish alongside it, you get what I mean.
There are also people who play Maple Story as a JOB. They train accounts to level 50+ in a relatively short time, probably with the help of doubling their experience, and sell the accounts off. There has also been a case whereby a level 134 account was offering approximately S$6000 over on ebay, and there's actually a deal. I honestly believe that a level 134 account would need 2 years to be achievable? Would you rather spend 2 years rotting away on your chair playing Maple Story and perhaps earning S$6000 after selling off that character, when you can be working and earning definitely more than S$6000 annually? If you are a student, sure there could be some extra income for you, but Maple Story is very likely to jeopardise your studies if you put it as a priority over your studies. Nevertheless, this group of people is a minority.
To put it altogether, I think that Maple Story is a game created simply for recreational fun and nothing else. I simply don't get the appeal of wasting time doing all the quests and so on, when you can get better satisfaction doing other things. In the end, when you are finally sick of Maple Story, imagine the time you have wasted downloading the entire server, giving your soul to Maple Story, and taking note of the 'major upcoming events' within the game. The opportunity cost of playing Maple Story, in my opinion, is simply too high. One could have used the time to get some sleep, get some assignment or work done, or even do housework! I'm not going to say Maple Story sucks anymore, I'm going to say that it is just a total waste of time and too much concentration is needed to play this game, much more than you may have expected when you are playing it.
Phew I felt much better after this so-called rant. It's 3.35 in the morning and I should probably be going. =) Seeya guys!
I posted at
2:49 AM