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Check out the v.258 - MapleStory x Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Patch Notes
here!
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Edit: If someone is only going to post in order to complain about something I did then try sending me a private message instead. No need to make clutter for the thread and I would be glad
… (more)to discuss any messages that come my way.
There was once a soda pop company that changed its drink and then later changed it back to the older formula. this drink was called Coco cola. Could it have been that the customers had a deeper connection to the older drink or more nostalgia power with it? Possibly, it might have been that people were mostly drinking the soda because of nostalgia but instead of talking about soda, I'm going to talk about Maplestory.
I don't think nostalgia for this game can fully be captured in words. Even 300 threads or more would probably not be enough if everybody was included. Instead I can maybe share a small sample of it through drawing on my own experience. Players nostalgia is unique but also universal in some ways. People say "what is this Maple nostalgia that you speak of? I have never heard of it." You could say it is an affection for the past but in order to be accurate, I might need to make comparisons among versions. Which is not to claim that one is better than the other only that they are just different. Like apples and oranges, its all fruit.
To start with, I miss the Old MS loading process and sign in procedures. It was quick to start up and the sign board with mushrooms and grass in the background was charming. Today there is more to load so I guess the trade off is needing to wait for a while, maybe not a bad thing but I prefer when the loading was faster. Creating a character was like a mini game, perhaps not efficient but I thought it was always fun. If everybody could adapt to the newest version then that would make all the players happy. What else could there be in Old MS that cannot be found in a newer version? (this is the question I asked myself when thinking of nostalgia)
Remember, I do not see the past and present games as being inferior to each other only different. For instance, what would you rather do after playing for an hour?
1. Level up 10 times, auto assign a lot of stat points because its not that important to pay attention and maybe change training map.
2. Level up once, carefully distribute the few precious stat points and use the newly improved powers to better fight mobs of comparable strength.
Really just different ways of doing the same thing but with emphasis in different places. Some people say that the Fairy arc in SAO was less interesting because the hero was not in as much "real" danger. Old MS had a larger emphasis on making bad choices hurt more if the player goofed.
Like in exploration, today you might say "check the in game map." but in Old MS a player could become lost if they did not have directions or had seen a map on a site like Hidden street. Similar right? No dude, the in game map only provides an overhead view. In Old MS you literally needed to study the field maps (or get help) to figure out the routes to places. Little nooks and crannies are a tiny part of the larger world but they did help provide depth.
Speaking of travel, that brings me to the air ships and the dimensional portal. This is another instance of differing approaches to the same problem. I think the Phantom class was released just before the portal appeared. While I admit my other characters were jealous of Phantoms ability to fly anywhere, making fast travel easy for everybody sort of cheapens it. A few other classes have expanded travel options but I think they are robbed of some of their special-ness when class specific abilities get canceled out because there is a commonly accessible portal. Maybe things become more streamlined but I am not so sure that is always a good thing. Chief Tatamo of Leafre must really be having hard times because nobody needs to buy anymore of the warp seeds. The opposite approach could have been to make long distance travel even more difficult like with a broken down air ship or something. It might sound inconvenient but details like this add to the sense of adventure. Where as making travel much easier maybe lowers the sense of adventure a little. Given the choice between the slow air ships and fast portal I don't think there are a lot who would go slow but it is supposed to be something special that is reserved for a few classes. (like Phantom and his fancy airship)
Similar to walking 15 miles in the snow to reach point A from point B. During the long trek maybe you discover a Polar bear, or a frozen person who needs help or find buried treasure in the snow? Or you could hop on a snowmobile and arrive in about 15 minutes. They are kind of the same journey but also not the same. This is one of many things I miss.
Naturally streamlining is not always a bad thing but it is definitely not always good. How long could it be until Maplestory resembles one of the other zillion web games that exist?Games where the action boils down to:
1. push button to auto walk to quest Npc.
2. push button to auto walk to mobs
3. push button to auto kill mobs
4. push button to auto walk to quest Npc and complete quest.
5. repeat
Granted Maplestory and Old MS are not a lot more than pushing multiple buttons but I would think that players want more immersion and not less. At the end of the day it is still Maple and they are both online games so neither is really "bad" but in my very limited view of nostalgia, I would say that I like Old MS because it has good immersion.
One more thing I liked about the period of Old MS is that there were no artificial divisions between old/ current/ new, it was all just Maplestory.
Good times. (less)
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1. Never discuss ideas or suggestions that anyone might disagree with. If you do encounter someone with a different opinion, do not try to have a conversation and don't explain anything.
… (more)Just forget about it and walk away.
2. Harassment is ok if enough people are doing it.
3. Parts of the code of conduct could be a placebo. Maybe good news for some but not so good for others, who knows?
Correct me if I'm wrong. (less)
