One of the few times i've ever posted on the forums and just wanted to talk about 12 years of experience and what this game used to be.
Remember this? S>slime bubbles 2k, tree branch 1k, sap of ancient tree 5k. I used to spam this in the fm for hours back when the fm was so crowded that i had to fight with 30 others just to have my message seen.
2006, does anyone remember when papulatus release? New players have probably never even killed this boss except for in dojo. Used to have to collect pieces and go down the depths of ludi to fight this boss. Everyone would go crazy when mastery books dropped or cape scrolls. Even common gear was a big thing. Sometimes just getting down to the boss entrance proved difficult with monsters hitting hard dmg.
2007, NLC is introduced. All you veterans, do you remember how big foot would trample over you and 1 shot kill you? Remember the frustration of getting ksed? Maybe even being a sin and using dark sight and hitting and running this boss. Leech services? We used to think those that could leech big foot were gods, which in their time, they were.
2008, The battle to reach lvl 200, FangBlade became an npc. I remember being there when the guy turned 200 and the amount of megas fired off. Literally half of maple was dressed like fangblade at one point.
2008, The introduction of monster carnival. Here is where the strength of the individual class would shine. Everyone was very similar in strength at the time and people would never invite you to their party if you belonged to a weak class. Rough times for the warrior classes that didn't reach power until later lvls
2008, Maplestory trade shop. So much Hype, as it offered a way for people to get nx for items they would sell on the tradeshop. Unfortunately taken down later when duper dotcurrency posted tons of high att purple snowshoes/racc masks etc.
2009, My favorite year because the best pq in the history of maple pqs was released. Crimsonwood keep party quest. Where a ton of different classes had to come together and work as a team to enter the treasure room with OP loots like mastery books, black fist cloak, khanjars, Crushed skull (a must have for paladins at the time), and element staffs.
2009, the release of Aran and the first time ever that I'd ever seen a commercial appear on tv advertising maplestory. Such big hype and so many new characters! This was just a great year in general and I felt maplestory was the most populated it had ever been this year.
2010, Where i think everything just fell apart...... The introduction of potentials and the serious pay2win mentality.
2010, Maplestory Big Bang. "The world you thought you knew.... is now over"
2011, Future henny. We finally see some sort of plot movement with the black mage.
2012, Magnus and the OP tyrant capes
2013, Ra Gear, gollux, terminus gear
2014, I honestly don't remember anything memorable about this year
2015, Lotus
2016 Damien
2017 Lucid
As you can probably see, my enthusiasm starts to die after 2009. Been a very long run and I intend to play until the very last days of maplestory, like a true veteran would. Though I do feel the end of this game comming. The forums are filled with nothing but hate and the gms announce promises that aren't met. Overall community seems unhappy and of the 100+ times i thought maple was gonna meet it's end, I've never felt it this strong.