Many MapleStory players spend a significant amount of money on loot boxes/RNG features in the game in hopes of obtaining a particular reward, never knowing what exactly are the chances of obtaining that reward. With the recent Philosopher's Book item, some users have spent up to $1,000 and more, believing they will eventually receive the much-sought-after Frenzy Totem. Because the obtainability rates are not made public to players, they are often under the misguided belief that the reward they want has a higher obtainability rate than what is truth. The only way players are able to estimate the probability is after the community as a whole spends a huge sum of money, and then compares the rewards received and items/spins used. Therefore I, along with some of my fellow players, would like to propose to Nexon to
publicize the obtainability rates of rewards from RNG features.
We feel players deserve to know the chances of obtaining each item before deciding whether or not to spend their money on such features.
The terms RNG (random number generator) and loot boxes both refer to features in a game where players can spend money for chances to obtain a random reward from a selection of virtual goods. MapleStory contains several of these features, such as the Gachapon, Marvel Machine, Philosopher Book, hair and face coupons, style boxes, and more.
The idea of transparency for obtainability rates is definitely not a new concept. It has been a system that is commonly seen in other recent games with loot boxes, especially ones that have origins overseas in Asian countries, where the gaming culture is much more expansive. China and South Korea have both required that games show probability rates for their loot boxes. In some western countries, including the United States, this practice is still currently being debated. While at the moment there are no laws in the U.S. requiring rates to be publicized, Asian countries have seen the possible extent to which loot boxes can negatively affect people immersed in the gaming culture, and thus have made regulations to combat those effects. Therefore, as the gaming culture continues to grow in other countries, future regulations regarding loot boxes may not be unlikely.
Someone might wonder, “Why should Nexon consider making obtainability rates public when it is not required by law and could potentially harm its profits?” Just like many other suggestions, making obtainability rates transparent is a sentiment that a lot of people who play this game share, and they feel this suggestion needs to be implemented. They feel that, because probability rates are not given, they have been misled to believe some rewards from these RNG features are more easily obtainable than fact. It is true that Nexon may lose some of its revenue by revealing the probability rates of the rewards to its players, but no company should have to profit off the misconceptions that players have over the contents of its game. When widespread misconceptions happen, it is expected that those misconceptions are handled and information is clarified so that the misconceptions cease to exist.
In a previous suggestion, one of the volunteer moderators, AKradian, made the following statement in regards to hair and face coupons:
Furthermore, according to data released by KMS and CMS, not all styles have an equal chance to appear. The new or highly desired ones are lower probability than each of the old or unpopular ones.
This statement brought to light a reality that I was not informed of until recently. In the past, I usually received the hair or face I wanted, generally a new style, within 2-4 coupons, so I was under the impression for a long time that the probability for each style in a rotation was roughly the same. Even if one style was significantly more rare, I did not expect it would take over 15 coupons, until I used a total of 22 coupons to finally obtain the Sakura Hair from the CardCaptor Sakura crossover. When talking about rewards that are purely cosmetic, each player may have their own opinion of what style they consider “highly desired”, and therefore players will have differing perceptions regarding a style’s obtainability rate. Also, notice the data mentioned was released by both KMS and CMS, but GMS has yet to release any data regarding probability rates. That is why it is important for Nexon to consider publicizing these rates in GMS.
My peers and I believe Nexon has a responsibility to make these obtainability rates transparent. After all, because obtainability rates are not made public, players don’t all initially agree on the rarity of the rewards. It is only through a community effort, after we have spent our money and combined information on the rewards we have received, that players get a general idea of what rewards are more rare, and to what extent. We shouldn’t need to spend our money first in order to find out what to expect. That potential difference in revenue that Nexon might lose from publicizing probability rates is caused by the misconceptions players have on the rates, and those misconceptions are caused not by the players themselves but by Nexon, because there is no initial consensus to the rarity of each reward since Nexon continues to not disclose its probability rates.
We would like to see the application of publicized probability rates for the following features in the game:
● Features that require or encourage the spending of NX or Maple Points:
○ Rewards from Marvel Machine, Gachapon, Philosopher Book, Premium Surprise Style Boxes, and any other similar features
○ Rewards from Hair and Face coupons
○ Tier-up for Potentials from cubes
○ Lines for Inner Ability and Potentials on equipment
○ Rewards from daily MVP box
○ Any other potential features not mentioned
● Other features that could be considered:
○ Drops from defeating Monsters and Bosses
○ Rewards from boxes obtained by defeating Bosses
○ Skills from Nodestones
○ Magnificent Soul
○ Rewards from seasonal/durational events
○ Rewards from Exploration with Monster Collection
○ Any other potential features not mentioned
I have included features to consider that don’t really require nor encourage the spending of NX or Maple Points because I feel, when we are talking about probability rate transparency, these other features should also be mentioned because transparency for them would greatly enhance the gaming experience for players without necessarily impacting Nexon’s profits.
Please support this suggestion if you would like to see probability rates be made available to players. Feel free to give your own opinion or suggestions related to this topic, or share some of the stories you have about spending NX or Maple Points for a reward that seemed to have a lower obtainability rate than expected.
