This is a post I made on another topic before, regarding 2x exp cards, but I figued I’d turn it into its own topic, because it was rather long and not many people saw it anyhow.
*rolls eyes* Don’t you guys see? 2x exp is Nexon’s entire money making strategy.
Everyone knows it takes far longer than it should to level up in Maple Story, it’s a free game in the sense you needn’t pay to play it, but time is money, and you’re practically working slave labor for Nexon by playing their game. They try to act like there isn’t a subscription fee, but in order to level up at a pace acceptable to most players, and consistent with every other MMO out there, you have to buy a constant stream of 2x exp cards. The game is meant to be played on 2x exp all the time. That’s their entire intent. You get to pay a huge subscription fee all the time, or your game goes so slow it’s neigh unplayable.
For those of you who would say I’m just whining, clearly you haven’t played enough MMOs to judge the leveling speed.
Take World of Warcraft for example, level used to cap at 60, now it’s 70, though I dunno, might be 80 by now, the point is while it does take awhile, you’re eventually supposed to max out your level and enjoy the endgame content. That’s the point in most MMOs, that’s why you’re really leveling, you’re earning the right to show off a high level character, and play the real ‘gameplay’, which is all endgame. High level bosses and instances. I know hardcore players who can max level in a week, so this is totally doable for the average player in a couple of months.
Another example; Phantasy Star Online. I used to play the ‘Blue Burst’ edition alot, and leveling up in that game is nothing. If you got going on a good session, you’d level up around five times before you finished. I played it one weekend over vacation and leveled up 34 times. This was a two day weekend. Before I quit the game I was level 1xx, with a bunch of legendaries, including two awesome armors I couldn’t equip yet, and had the most powerful possible shotgun type weapon in the game. Their level caps at 200 the same as Maple Story, just that you aren’t expected to devote your entire life to leveling up. Not to mention, PSO’s idea of grinding was actually fun, as it entailed replaying this one mission over and over in which you were tasked with killing every boss in the game, it was sheer awesome.
A different sort of example, why does grinding have to be so boring? Space Cowboy had you blowing up airborne enemies with MISSILES from a high tech flying attack gear. Not to mention you were given a constant stream of exp bonus missions up until level forty, before they start to slow down to a sane pace, I was having trouble doing the missions before I leveled up too high for them to be beneficial to me,
Conclusion; Maple Story makes you grind ALOT. They make grinding BORING. They have ALOT of nice endgame content you’ll never reach at 1x exp speed. *gestures to KMS* Have you seen all the insane endgame bosses up there? They look awesome, right? The only way you’ll ever get to that level to play most of the real gameplay is by buying 2x exp cards constantly. The leveling is intentionally made to be grindy and boring until then, so that you have to subscribe to 2x exp, or else toil in the low levels forever. (And when I say low levels, I mean anything below 12x, because you can’t handle bosses well at all before then.) The game is designed to be fun, but it’s designed to cost money. It’s only pretending it’s free.
Whether you agree or don’t, we should get discussion going about this.. hit the likey so we can frontpage this, and then post your questions/comments/opinion below!
I don’t believe anymore that Maplestory was designed for fun. It’s just that everyday, if you’re not grindin’, you PQin’, GQin’, or talkin’ with your friends. There’s no real collaboration or strategy other then when to use this skill, which is not really shooting aliens in the most explosive matter, so to speak. Parties? They’re just a way of leeching off of each other, should the levels differentiate. Every other game I know has some other way of fun, rather than just grinding. Besides, the presence of hackers and KSers really kill fun off the game too.
Well, Maple Story was meant to be fun enough that people will stick around, and get committed, but if you don’t feel the ‘fun’ portions were designed well enough, that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. Before recently, there just wasn’t much to do in GMS, but now that there’s all these new party quests and bosses finally getting ported over, I feel the game would be genuinely entertaining if the leveling didn’t take so long. Thus, Maple not being free.
Furthermore, I was checking the fees on 2x exp cards;
They activate on purchase, and have various different time slots and lengths of effect. Typically it’s about four hours a day (all days, weekends, or week days), for 10-30 days. Depending on which card you buy, this costs about $20-30 dollars a month. (Yes, I see the one that costs $9, but that’s only for a third of a month.) Compare this to World of Warcraft or Everquest 2, Maple Story is simply the most expensive pay to play RPG out there.
All I care about MS is that it’s getting worse. With each update, Nexon America just screws it plain up. It isn’t worth playing anymore, so that’s why they’re doing commercials, that are even lamer than the game itself, currently.
So you’re saying I owe the company $800?
Well, Iepiat also has a point.
There’s no basic proof that you HAVE to buy those cards, it’s only the best way our for players.
Now this is where Nexon is actually smart about this. They make it hard enough, and sure, it’s because they’re a business!
Look at McDonald’s. They’re making the US the fattest country in the WORLD, and do they care if they put millions of people’s LIVES on the line for money? No! It’s the same thing with Nexon, how are they going to keep the game f2p, if they don’t have people buy they’re products every day?
The only way out is 2x exp cards, which is what you have stated: The main aspect of the game.
—
The other main point is: Advertising.
Why do they say it’s free? Because it’s attractive.
Look at WoW and RuneScape, etc etc. They only make a LIMITED Trial to what the real game has to offer. MapleStory? You can explore the WHOLE game without spending ANYTHING. It’s only after you had enough, and decide that the game is good enough that you HAVE to invest money it, and that’s why it makes it attractive.
It’s the same thing with McDonalds again. They introduce “PREMIUM” salads, supposedly healthier, and a bunch of tugboatingcrud! What are they? The SAME thing with actually more calories, only with a new name for commercial purposes.
Bottom line is, Nexon is a business. They are designed to make money, and to make profits, and continue to make money. That’s it.
If it’s ideas that’s making them richer, they won’t complain. And so won’t the rest of the population, 1) because they get a FREE game, if they don’t play they don’t have to pay a membership. 2) You don’t have to pay to access the 100% of the game.
Dude, RuneScape is free to play, the member’s area is optional. Limited my butt.
Take a look at the map F2P is allowed in.
Take a look at the map P2P is allowed in.
Fair much?
-I play Member’s version, why? Cuz you make millions in a mere few hours by doing a low requirements. Either spinning flax/ which is extremely cheap, or simply collecting unid herbs. . which makes a few 100k’s in a few hours. .
Now F2P, making millions can only be done by merchanting, or it’d take LOADs of time. That’s the bad part, F2P is quite limited. . and crowded. :-]
Take a look at the map F2P is allowed in.
Take a look at the map P2P is allowed in.
Fair much?”
Approximate content statistics:
Free to Play : 25%
Members Only : 75%
Take a look at the map F2P is allowed in.
Take a look at the map P2P is allowed in.
Fair much?
-I play Member’s version, why? Cuz you make millions in a mere few hours by doing a low requirements. Either spinning flax/ which is extremely cheap, or simply collecting unid herbs. . which makes a few 100k’s in a few hours. .
Now F2P, making millions can only be done by merchanting, or it’d take LOADs of time. That’s the bad part, F2P is quite limited. . and crowded. :-]”
Still, there’s no time limit for those in FTP to go PTP, right? That or I have not went to RuneScape’s website for a long time.
Agreed, wholeheartedly. Don’t forget Nexon’s brilliant idea of capitalizing upon players obsessed with perfection. *points to previous blog below reply*
They know people want to be the best, or at least better than others. That’s where AP resets and skill resets come in. People will indeed pay about $3 to change ONE ability point (or to HP wash). ‘course, they’re not as popular as 2x exp cards, obviously.
Omgosh.
ZACKY WROTE A BLOG? Does this mean you’re back on MMOTales? x)
And I agree with you totally. I just leech off of other 2x exp carded players.
I just log on to talk to friends mostly.
It is horrible playing without x2 at lvls 1xx. I just barely staggered out of the Squid maps training a lvl 123 Hero for, um, 13%? Took an abnormally long period of 2 hours. >>; ‘Cept for the really freaking cool Brandish skill, it was kinda boring. :X
Which is why I hardly train. XD
And I agree with Piat too. :/
Yeah. I struggled to gain 20% within an hour or a few (I lose track) at gobies at lvl 98. I went to basil for a bit of a break, and saw a thread. A lvl 115 sniper was asking if he was ready for himes. His answer? No. Stay at gobies some more. So basically, I have 17 more levels of gobies to look forward to until some better monster comes out.
HELLS NO!
Maple was orginally designed for fun and a little bit of cash . Then the makers saw the potential and changed everything . * stabs * But you can still play it for fun . It’s still free . It’s just about the levling and cash . You wanna chiong and show off , then you gotta have x2exp . Other than that , no it’s free .
Then there’s EVE Online. Where some “levels” take MONTHS (Not joking, 30+ Days, 720 hours, 43200 Min, w/e) This is in real time.
Here’s a question: Did you consider the game free before x2exp cards or cash shop came out? Then why should that change?
Maplestory is very hard to play without the use of NX.
I mean, its difficult to make an honost mesos earning without using nx.
And NX looks so dam cool!
Can I hear a “Touche!”?
Yeah, MapleStory was built so that people would be forced into shelling out oodles of money like this. All of my friends say to me, “Why play MapleStory? play WoW! You have the money!”
And yeah, I do have the money. Hell, to be honest, I pay more for MapleStory in a 3-month period then I would WoW in a 3-month period.
And Double XP is something that Nexon created to make you shell out even more money. A single EXP card made me play even more. And it was heartbreaking to see it go away after that one month, although I didn’t buy another one.
Nexon’s a greedy, sneaky, Money-Reaping corporation that seeks to destroy all of us,
<_<
At least, That’s what I think. *Plays More Maple*
@Iepiat: No, instead of money you’ve invested your time, and last I checked minimum wage in the US of A is seven dollars and change. Which is 2-4 weeks subscription to most (reasonably priced) MMORPGs.
@Darkwar4ever: I don’t know whether you’re trying to disagree with me, or just elaborating on what I did say, but I’m not arguing there. Nexon is a business, it’s reasonable they try to make money for what they do, just that I don’t approve much of their methods. Also, their commecials make me die a little inside.
As for limited trial versus full access, if you want to explore all of WoW without paying just use a private server. They’re rather empty, but you can do anything that doesn’t require a bunch of other players,
As for any problems you have with RuneScape, the solution it to simply stop playing. There are simply too many better games out there to bother.
@Liyah-ducky: I keep an eye on MMOTales sometimes, and am posting this because I felt in the mood for ranting,
@SilSil: Thanks much for the testimony.
Everybody, this is my long time friend SilverFx, who’s also a hardcore mapleholic who has experienced first hand the horrors of Maple Story grinding.
@repty: See, you missed the point. What I’m arguing is that you can’t actually play any of the real gameplay until you’re at a high level, which you can’t reach unless you pay, either in money, or time. (And time is money.) Thus, Maple Story is not free.
@HUNDaemon: Before there were 2x exp cards, there was also very little to do in terms of powerful bosses, or entertaining yourself better as a high leveled player. Before there was proper endgame content, Maple Story was really all about grinding, and essentially a fancy way of twiddling one’s thumbs. Back then, I didn’t consider Maple to be a ‘free game’. No, I didn’t even consider it a game. I knew I was wasting my time, and I didn’t care. That was back when I had free time, and very little to do.
@Snox: Don’t they have a help group for that? *frowns* MapleCrack is terrible for your brain chemistry,
@Munky: Yeah, well, you know how I always prove you right anyway.
Actually, NX cash was originally designed for things like clothes and stuff, nothing that would influence the gameplay.
However yes, this is what it appaerently has turned into ,welcome to the casual economy nowadays, and the entire game’s balance has been shifted. I mean, for another example, you can pq from 21-71, no actual skill required. I leveled a character from 1 to 70 (and beyond) 3 times, on one I didn’t even use the kerning (nobody takes warriors) or ludi pq (mainly ’cause it didn’t exist, on the other 2 characters the area was so empty, smugglerushing was very do-able). Never, have I used OPQ, and missing experience from 50-70, will make you get owned badly late-game. I mean, I have a hard time finding a hermit that can ks me, how bad is that?
Well back in my sader’s days, if you had 3rd job, you were as pro as possible. Now in GMS and SEA, 3rd job is what 2nd job was. This proves that the game’s balance has been killed even without 2x exp. Well, guess what.
If you’re done pq’ing, buy a card, go to FoG, be an arrogant douchebag and ks people till you get a map, I mean, you’re on 2x exp so that totally justifies your acts. Because you spammed gapachon and thus gained good equips after lots of work *cough*, you are pretty much able to ks most people in FoG, coolies, or wherever. Now, you’re 75 or so, and want to go to another training spot, because it was “sooo slow”, then you get killed by DT’s, vikings, squids, gobies, and whatnot. But in the time that you do survive, you are busy trying to ks the people that were already training there, like you did in FoG. Thus annoying them also, suddenly the tomb stone falls and you see your ks-target f2, then you spam “lol noob i got safety charm” and come back in 5 minutes or so.
So yes, this is what we expect people to be like. It sure as hell makes nexon rich, but would you like these kinds of people in your zakum party? Say byebye helm if they happen to survive by a strange coincidence. Sure, not every 2x exp user is like this, but the majority is. Rude people that cannot play, nor merchant, yet have a high level and good equips. Well GG for ruining the “late-game-experience” also.
Grinding is fine, if you know what you’re doing. It proves to be quite entertaiming to set up experiments on how to gain the ultimate %/h, especially in parties, so make good buddies, join a nice guild and grind together. Secondly you almost always talk if you’re on maple (though this gets harder at ludi/aqua, not to even mention himes), if you’re just playing to get a higher level, gtfo, ’cause you won’t like it all that much. I mean, you go like “yay 3rd job” on lvl 70, only to realise, nothing changed. Since level 74 is where the first jobs can actually REALLY start profiting from the new skills. Hell, a sader will have you wait till the late 8x before you start noticing differences. A WK will barely let you notice differences ever and a hermit is just flashier, their only real addition is flash jump.
If you don’t like it, quit the game rather than buying NX I’d say, not a very much shared opinion, but why pay for a game you don’t enjoy playing?
We-ell. Munky did quit playing a long time ago. He is just pointing out something. o_o
Good thing i quit Maple. This game is just too time consuming and really boring after a while
@Sil-sil-muffin: Indeed, thank’ee for the irrefutable evidence, and the pointing out. XD *glomps*
@Aut: First, you mention that NX cash wasn’t originally meant to affect gameplay. While it didn’t, in the beginning, that’s always where it was going. To start with, they had the NX clothes for all those insecure preteens who needed to look ‘cool’ and ‘unique’, and by making the clothes expire periodically they could maintain a small but a steady income from this, it certainly wasn’t going to suffice forever. They were just waiting while GMS built up their fanbase, I mean, KMS had 2x exp all along, GMS just waited until they had players before they went and alienated half of them with the cards. People who may not have started playing a game in which 2x exp cards gave other players an unfair advantage, were now committed, having already invested their time. Eventually this Maple had to go the way of the others and begin making real money, and they do that by introducing an optional subscription fee. They can afford for it to be optional by making it unreasonably expensive.
Next, it’s been said time and time again that PQing is a terrible, terrible way to level. Yes, once you’re actually questing the exp is okay, but for one, it baffles me why they need to maintain a set number of instances and no more, but they do, so you spend 20 minutes to several hours trying to get in and actually play. That’s assuming you’re autoclicking of course, if you don’t cheat I guarantee you aren’t getting in these days.
As for gachapon, I agree, it’s absolutely despicable. They’re basically encouraging children to gamble, exchange real money for (in game) wealth and riches, or absolutely nothing. It would be one thing if they only had interesting rare items that actually afford no in game advantage, or nice items that can also be gotten in other ways, but gatcha tickets are just seriously br0ked, hands down. In that vein, yes, high level cashnoobs do piss me off, or they did when I still played, but I’ve seen high level players who actually deserve to be there, too, so it’s not fair to say all 2x users are jerks,
In closing, grinding with buddies can be fun, but it’s nowhere near as efficient as grinding without them. Furthermore, the fact of the matter is you aren’t having fun because you’re grinding with buddies, you’re having fun because you’re with your buddies. That still doesn’t change the fact that grinding is boring. What would be even more fun would be if you had a nice online game to play with your friends that doesn’t feel like a chore.
dude, plenty of people made it to 12x before 2x exp cards were even invented, which means its possible now to, its just that people do not want to invest as much time into leveling. Also, by no means do you need to be at least 12x to enjoy the game, my main is a 64 and i still think its fun
Take a look at the map F2P is allowed in.
Take a look at the map P2P is allowed in.
Fair much?
-I play Member’s version, why? Cuz you make millions in a mere few hours by doing a low requirements. Either spinning flax/ which is extremely cheap, or simply collecting unid herbs. . which makes a few 100k’s in a few hours. .
Now F2P, making millions can only be done by merchanting, or it’d take LOADs of time. That’s the bad part, F2P is quite limited. . and crowded. :-]”
Still, there’s no time limit for those in FTP to go PTP, right? That or I have not went to RuneScape’s website for a long time.”
Check this out, the summoning skill is gonna be out soon, and who’s only gonna benefit? Members. ._.
((I’m just elaborating a bit.
)
Yoon, obviously you’ve never played real video games then, because any true gamer recognizes the vast majority of Maple as dry and empty. The fact that you can have fun just grinding means you’re easily amused. Try twiddling your thumbs. Does that amuse you? (Yes.) That’s our problem. You spend all your time at low levels grinding for more exp and mesos, so you can kill stronger monsters, for more exp and mesos. It’s the classic example of a vicious cycle. The only time it becomes worthwhile is when you’re doing something for the heck of it, as opposed for the purpose of leveling up (and hell, if you can do both at once, that’s great), like PQ for example, or fighting bosses, or jacking around with friends.
The only point I’m making here is that the majority of that worthwhile content is only available to people who pay money or else an unreasonable portion of time to reach a higher level and access it. If you’re not willing to pay for Maple Story, you’re better off just playing a game that lets you have fun, as opposed to having to work for it. Call me lazy if you’d like, but I spend most of my time studying, and when I find the time for video games, I just want to have fun, not more work.
Is it just me, feeling like this has the potential to become a MASSIVE debate-ground, or what? .__.;;
@Shining: Nothing gets past you, mate. I don’t even play Maple anymore, or post here consistently, but I <3 controversy, so here I am. =D
Are you kidding me?
Most of the time, I’m so unaware of things, that even if you wave a giant shiny stainless-steel fork in front of my face, I probably won’t notice.
!
I’d be too busy sleeping.