As there is a GMS Boycott movement happening right now, it is important to bring up another significant issue in GMS: Pottable Badges being unobtainable. It is a controversial topic in the GMS community, with some players supporting and pleading for the return of pottable badges, some players being opposed to bringing them back, and some players being neutral to the situation.

I believe that one of the main reasons that Nexon has been able to go so long without addressing pottable badges is because the GMS community is so divided on this topic. As most posts, comments, and suggestions to bring back pottable badges are faced with an opposing force of players, we are essentially telling Nexon that the community does not care about pottable badges. However, I hope that the ideas presented in this post will bring to light the deeper issues associated with pottable badges being unobtainable, to unify the GMS community to support the return of them and to provide enough reasons to Nexon for them to bring them back.


BRIEF BACKGROUND

Pottable badges (Ghost Ship Exorcist or Sengoku Hakase) are the only two badges in the game that can gain potential, can be star-forced, and can be scrolled (for non-reboot servers). They are considered best-in-slot (BiS) items by a considerable margin in the badge slot, giving players a final damage boost of ~2 to 5% compared to their realistic alternatives, depending on the player's class and level of progression. They have not been obtainable in the game by any means since 2018, when they removed Singapore and had their last Sengoku High event.


SURFACE LEVEL ISSUES

1. Players without a pottable badge are 2 to 5% weaker than players with a pottable badge.
2. Players without a pottable badge do bosses 2 to 5% slower than players with a pottable badge.
3. Players without a pottable badge have 100 to 5000 less main stat than players with a pottable badge.


DEEPER ISSUES

1. At any stage of progression, players without a pottable badge need to put in a significant amount of time, effort or money into the game to become as strong as a player at the same progression level who has a pottable badge. For a mid game player, this might mean that they need to cube their 4 of their 21% main stat gears into 27% main stat gears to gain the benefits of a 12*, 2L stat badge. For an end game player, this might mean that they need to cube 11 or 12 of their 30% main stat gears into 33% main stat gears to gain the benefits of a 17*, 3L stat badge. As many of you know, these types of upgrades are significant upgrades that take a huge amount of time to complete, and the difficulty
of making the upgrades required are amplified the more endgame the player is. It unfair that players without a pottable badge need to put in so much more time or money into the game to get as strong as players with a pottable badge.

2. It is impossible for a player of a certain class to become the "strongest" player of that class without a pottable badge. Maplestory is a MMORPG and one of the main joys and goals of an MMORPG is to become the strongest player of a certain class, and to become the strongest character that a player thinks is possible within reason (time, money). However, this goal is not even possible for players without a pottable badge - there can always be someone who is "stronger" than you who has a pottable badge (within the same class). Although this issue only affects a small percentage of the playerbase (players who are very dedicated to the game), it also affects players who plan on going
endgame or are thinking of dedicating time/money into the game.

3. Players without a pottable badge have a competitve disadvantage compared to a player with one. One of the main aspects of any MMO game is that players who do invest the time into the game to become knowledgeable/strong enough to clear the content (bosses, etc) are rewarded by the items that the bosses drop. Any boss at any level of progression has a minimum threshold of strength and knowledge required to clear the boss. For example, to become eligible to be a member of a Hard Lucid party, you need to do enough damage in a 40 second BA. To become eligible for a CGloom or VHilla party, a certain Mu Lung Dojo floor may be a minimum threshold. The issue is that it is more difficult for players without a badge to reach these minimum threshholds, meaning that they need to put in much more effort to be able to reap the rewards of clearing
bosses, compared to a player with a badge. This point is especially an issue in non-reboot servers, where boss rewards can be traded. Furthermore, as the game progresses and harder bosses are released (Seren, Kalos, other Grandis Bosses), this competitive disadvantage will continue to exist and players without a pottable badge will continue to suffer.

4. There are no comparable alternatives to a pottable badge. In the early-mid game, the only badge we have is the Crystal Ventus badge, which gives around 2% to 3% main stat equivalent to most players. This is not even close to the benefits of a 12*, 2L unique badge (~50 flat stat + 17% main stat). The other two badges (Monster park badge, genesis badge) are extremely difficult to acquire and are only available to endgame players, and even then the benefits are not even close to a end game level Pottable Badge. In GMS, because of the abundance if IED sources (familiars, gollux 30% ied set), the benefits from the Monster Park badge (10% IED + 10 %IED) are not that significant for end game players (1-2% final damage). The benefits of a genesis badge, assuming that it helps you get the best pitched boss set effect (5% crit damage), is still only equivalent to around 15-20% main stat, which is still not comparable to an endgame pottable badge at 17* and 3L (~80 flat stat, 33% main potential, 14% bonus potential for non-reboot servers - totalling ~56% main stat ). Why is an endgame pottable badge used as comparison for these two alternatives? Because only endgame players are capable of acquiring the monster park badge (70 bill) and the Genesis badge. Another important point is that Nexon has not communicated whether or not pottable badges will return or what their plan is for the badge slot. This causes a really unreasonable dilemma for endgame players - do I spend time/resources to acquire a Monster park/genesis badge which are not even BiS or do I wait for Nexon to someday bring back Pottable badges?


WHY ARE THESE "ISSUES" BAD FOR NEXON AND GMS AS A WHOLE?

1. It will continue to cause a divide in the GMS community and create unhappiness in the community. Currently, there is a divide in the playerbase on this topic, and a lot of arguments are made between players on this topic. In addition, with respect to the points above, there is a sense of unfairness that comes with not having a pottable badge. These factors cause players to be unhappy with the game, which as a whole reduces the likelyhood of them spending time and money on the game, which is bad for Nexon. In addition, unhappiness over a long time can damage player retention rates, which also hurts Nexon. I have personally seen people who love the game eventually lose interest
and quit, due to the pottable badge situation.

2. It greatly damages the new player experience. If you played a new MMO game, and someone told you that you are 2-5% weaker than existing players at any level of progression just because you're a new player/ didn't play before 2018, would you be fine with it? A lot of people may be fine with it. But I think that most people would say that this is really stupid and unfair. Imagine a popular maplestory streamer or a community manager with a pottable badge is streaming the game to invite new players, and someone asks "why does your badge have a potential on it"? How would you explain and justify why they (new players) cannot have a badge with a potential on it? Shouldn't new players be incentivized to play and learn the game? How do you recommend this game to new players knowing this issue? Why do new players need to be at a disadvantage? They already need to do a lot of things to progress like Legion, Links, levelling, arcane symbols, dailies, learning boss mechanics, gear progression, etc...

3. Existing players do not want to start a new character, because the new character will not have a pottable badge. One of the main sources of revenue, and one of the main reasons that Maplestory is still a popular game after 18+ years, is that as new classes are released or existing classes are revamped, players can create new characters and experience the game again with a new set of skills. This may be in the form of starting a new main, or starting a sub-main. In the process of starting a new main/sub-main, a player needs to put in a lot of time and/or money into the new character to progress it. However in GMS, players who are interested in starting a new character just decide not to do so, because they know how impactful not having a pottable badge is. I have personally heard of this case from many of my guildies and friends who already play Maplestory.
This ultimately reduces the revenue that Nexon America can make as well as reducing the interest in the game for existing players.

4. Because players without a pottable badge can never really become the "strongest" that they can potentially be or be the strongest player of a class in a server, there's no point in them trying to min-max their gears or put in more time and effort to upgrade their gears. I'm pretty sure that one of the main sources of revenue for Maplestory are the whales, and by making one of the endgame goals unachievable for players without pottable badges, I would think that this directly hurts Nexon's revenue potential.


COMMON OPPOSING ARGUMENTS AND MY THOUGHTS ON THEM

1. "A pottable badge is not required to complete all content in the game so they shouldn't bring it back. There are people who clear Black mage without one"
This is true. However, how much more effort is required to clear all the content when comparing a player without a pottable badge compared to a player with one? As discussed earlier, a huge amount of effort is required, especially in endgame. My question would be if this difference in the effort required is justified, just because a player is a new player/didn't play before 2018/was not aware of pottable badges before 2018. Furthermore, as new content is released (Seren, Kalos, etc.), a pottable badge may just be the final push to help a party clear.

2. "A pottable badge is not that significant. It will only help you clear bosses 1 minute faster"
I would disagree with this one. There are many players who like to test their limits (struggle runs), and a 2-5% final damage boost could be the difference between a clear and a failed run. Think damien, lucid p3, will p3, etc. In addition, for many classes, a 5% final damage boost is equivalent to the final damage boost that their 4th V skill provides. If you are arguing that a 4th V skill is insignificant, I disagree.

3. "I am a long time player of the game and I deserve to have an advantage (pottable badge) over newer players who just started."
A. The advantage that a pottable badge gives is too much. Up to a 5% final damage boost is very significant.
B. There are players who have played since 2018 who don't have badges. Is 3+ years not a long time of dedication? In addition, there are returning
players who played the game for 10+ and did not know of pottable badges and their disappearance in the past. How about these players?
C. Is this mentality healthy for the overall growth of the game?

4. "Newer classes like Adele are broken and do not need a badge"
A. What if a newer player wants to create an older class like a Demon Avenger? Does this argument also apply to them?
B. Class balance is being worked on by the team in KMS as stated in their recent live Destiny showcase live Q&A. Class balance should not have anything to do with the pottable
badge situation. If people want to put it that way, I will say that strong classes like Kanna, Night Lord, Ark, and several others have pottable badges.

5. "You might as well argue for all other legacy things to come back (Lab server, dark totems, pink bean title)
A. Dark Totems: alternatives that provide similar bonuses are available (yu garden, afterlands in reboot), and tradeable totems in non-reboot
The final damage difference between dark totems and yu garden totems is less than 1%.
B. Pink bean title: similar alternatives are available (Root abyss, Monad). The final damage difference between these titles are less than 0.7%.
C. Lab server: I would argue that the ideas in this post also apply to lab server (no alternatives, significant bonus of 1-2% FD.)


POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

1. Bring back Singapore, and occasionally bring back Sengoku High as an event.
2. Occassionally have a Sengoku High event.
3. If Singapore caused issues for Nexon, make a new type of GMS map/content where players can obtain a badge.
4. Make all badges be able to gain potential.
5. Bring back pottable badges in some form, buff boss hp by 2 to 5% to make up for the difference in strength between GMS and KMS.


FINAL THOUGHTS

To whoever read up to this point, thank you. I am a dedicated player of Maplestory who has played since the Monster Carnival PQ days, and I truly hope
that GMS grows as a game and I wish that Maplestory can be a game I can be proud to play.

However, I feel that the issues associated with pottable badges, in addition to the many other important points made in the recent boycotts are
hindering the growth of the game.

Nexon, I hope that the points made in this post convince you to make the right decision for your game.
And to the GMS community, I hope that for once, everyone can unify to protest about something that is clearly an issue.

To close, I would like to end with one final thought. In recent years, Nexon America has said that they want GMS to more closely follow the direction that KMS is going. Based on this premise, I want to ask Nexon America and whoever is making the decisions for GMS a simple question: If the pottable badge situation were to be present in KMS, would their playerbase be okay with it, and how would Nexon Korea react?


Thank you,
Fellow Mapler