Maple Story - Wizet, Nexon 2003 - Current
The Basics
It's a Korean MMO. I mean, I really don't want to say a whole lot about it. There isn't a whole lot to say about it. After choosing a server, you're presented with a 2D world that you traverse from left to right, and a bunch of enemy monsters that take a certain amount of hits to kill. You level up, and along the way you pick up new equipment, money, and eventually move into stereotypical MMO jobs such as a Thief, a Mage, a Useless Body Builder, a Cleric, whatever. These jobs have later evolutions which further specialize you.
I mean, it's an MMO. At a certain point, they all play roughly the same way. Create a character, choose a class, disseminate points you earn, kick a lot of monster ass. Same old, same old.
Why It's Here
God help me I like it.
Well, maybe like is too strong a word. Maybe hate the least is closer to the truth. Whatever the reason, I find myself inexorably drawn back to it every now and then for absolutely no discernable reason.
If I had to guess though, the reason I keep returning to this infernal game isn't because the game itself is good. In fact, it's pretty far from good. While the progression is actual a load of fun and you always feel more powerful with each level up, the point is moot because the difference between different genuses of monsters in regards to their HP and Defence are levels of magnitude. You will be killing the same snails and mushroom spores you start on for at least your first five levels, and while the EXP required to get to the next level seems to go up exponentially, the EXP you're actually getting from every kill stays the same.
What it all comes down to is that while it's fun enough to actually play, in that you don't really come across 2D MMOs terribly often, there isn't a whole hell of a lot to recommend it. The art style isn't terrible, but it's not really fantastic either. The userbase is terrible in that early internet use way where everyone has a "xGokUx_399" username (though that's changed since the early days, now it's all Naruto in place of Dragonball). The leveling system is ridiculously unbalanced and takes forever. The world design, because it's composed of 2D interconnected scenes, tends to get confusing whenever there are three exits on a map, which happens far too often to be really good. The economy is also pretty much shit, where buying a single HP potion will take something like 25 of the lowest enemy type, if you're lucky. MP pots are twice that, and that's not even getting to the higher level potions. Or equipment. Or consumable items that some classes need to actually function effectively.
So with all those reasons to hate it, I guess I should actually give some justification as to why I'm including it. I mean, this is a pretty shitty game. Even for MMOs, which aren't exactly good in the first place. But yeah. I guess I don't really have a good reason why it's here.
I mean, the primary one is that I've never managed to bring a character up to the third tier. I've always been curious as to what's up there, what the end game is actually like. And while the art style is pretty balls, it's also not the worst. And the equipment design is actually pretty interesting sometimes, in that anime sort of way. So it's not particularly good, but it's never exactly boring.
Additionally, there's just something about it that I can't really deny. I started playing this back in high school, as a way of spending time with a close friend. It actually worked on a 56k modem, even if it took forever to download, patch, and connect. That lasted for a few months, at which point I promptly uninstalled and left it for dead. At least, until Senior year of high school, when I actually picked it up again because I was curious about it. I played for a few months, set it down, and left it for dead again. The cycle repeated again in college a couple times.
I don't know! Maybe it's because of the userbase that I keep going back to it. I mean, as terrible as "xXx_sasuke36_xXx" is, there's something primal there. It reminds me of the early days of the internet, when I first started actively browsing. Of the early days, back when Excite.com was the premier web e-mail service, back when MSN Messenger was a new and mysterious technology. It's not good, but it's nostalgic. It's comforting.
Doesn't make the game any better. Maybe it's just because I'm a masochist and I don't want myself to have good things.
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