How many years has it been since I've been back to this site? For that matter, how many years has it been since I first played it. I feel like Professor Farnsworth after his lifetime membership card expired. I'm such an old school Mapler that my account has died and rotten to dirt. I don't even know if it exists anymore. I sure as heck don't remember my password, or even my login anymore.
Through sheer happenstance, I started to listen to the old maple songs I remember, and it got me all nostalgic and teary eyed for the old days. I wonder what the old MINT members are doing now? I'm sure everyone who remembered me has long since moved on with their lives. Graduated college, gotten married, maybe had some kids. Makes me feel old.
Don't get me wrong, I do not miss spending months and months just trying to get to lv 30. Hours spend outside KPQ, using auto-click, scouts and every dirty trick in the book in order to be the team that entered. How many dozens of hours did I spend grinding those undead monkies as a cleric? And LPQ, what a nightmare that was. Just as bad as getting into KPQ, but you had those whiners who did nothing but complain if you didn't know the JMS system for the password blocks.
Looking back on it, I cannot believe the amount of time I spend grinding. Literally hours on 2x time just for a level or two, and that was considered fast. I spent years grinding for hours every night in hopes that I could reach lv 90, and be allowed to join the Zakum raid. Yes, I said raid. Full teams of 30, to beat Zakum. The power creep is amazing. And the lag, OMG! The lag. It was a flip of a coin to whether you wouldn't lag out, no matter how good your comp was. But it was all worth it though for the chance to be put on the Zak helm list.
*Sigh* I just wanted to reminisce a little bit. The game balance was truly awful back then, and the grind was just unbelievable. But I'll never forget those times with my old friends. They were what made it bearable.