I watched all of the Classic World reveal on live stream and I firstly want to say, wow. Awesome job!
I can understand that a lot of players may not share my perspective, and not everything that was revealed for Classic World was something I could have predicted. I was surprised by a lot!
My suggestion here is a bit indirect, but I know that some people may understand what I am saying.
The direction that Classic World takes is a bit irrelevant, the class balances, the new areas added, all of these things are completely fine. Even from a very early, die hard Original Maplestory player like myself.
I want to shine light on something that the development team can ponder as they add new and creative ideas to keep Classic World relevant and fun. It seems like they know what works and what doesn't, but input helps. I will give voice to the majority that don't know how to put their ideas into words, or maybe don't entirely know why the game is so enjoyable for them.
The panel at MapleCon talked about the three pillars that made MapleStory so successful. I want to shine light on the one thing that isn't always realized: Challenge and reward.
I will use myself and my experiences as an example, even to a fault. I have played so many illegal private servers of maplestory throughout the years. I know this is ignorant to voice publicly, but to me it's worth it if I am heard and the development team can take into consideration my ideas to help them give the best experience to their player base.
In my experiences, the most lively moments of an old school private server were always when a server would first launch. People would play for nearly 24 hours straight. The competition to be the best is remarkable. And where the challenge lies, is the constant need to rely on lucky breakthroughs. Getting an item drop from a monster just to have enough meso to buy the potions to keep grinding. The grind starts to die off for a lot of players around level 40, because at that level the challenge is a lot less severe; people get comfortable and the reward comes much slower(leveling takes longer).
There's a happy medium of difficulty that makes MapleStory perfectly balanced with challenge and difficulty. That balance is hard to find sometimes.
My suggestion is simple, this server doesn't need to be incredibly difficult, or easy. Whatever direction the development team takes, whatever content that they decide to add, or class balancing for player satisfaction, just please know that there is a way to keep players seeking that thrill long beyond level 40, and it's not just new content or class balance.
It's the balance between challenge and reward factor.
I'll spend 3 hours grinding to get from level 49 to 50. Or even 4 hours. Or 5. If it means that when I level, I personally feel like adding those skill points into my next skill are going to aid me in getting level 51. That is the catch! That is what players dive into. It's not just the feeling of accomplishment, it's the feeling of payoff.
Keep it challenging to level up. Keep it challenging to kill a boss. Keep it challenging to job advance. And let it be so worth the risks with the last bits of meso we had getting there.
Thank you.
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