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MapleStory
File:MapleStory.PNG
Developer(s)	Wizet
Publisher(s)	Wizet, Nexon, Shanda, AsiaSoft, and Gamania
Platform(s)	Windows(98/ME/2K/XP)
Release	May 2002 November 2003 December 2004 July 4, 2005 August 16, 2005 (Global) May 11, 2005 (SEA) June 23, 2005 (Europe) July 27, 2006 (Closed Beta)
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	MMO

MapleStory (Korean: 메이플 스토리) is a free, 2D, side-scrolling MMORPG developed by the Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Wizet and Nexon. Although playing the game is free, many player appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the "Cash Shop" using real money. MapleStory has a combined total of over 50 million players in all of its versions. MapleStory Global, for players mainly outside of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe, has over one million players.

In the game, players defend the "Maple World" from monsters and develop their character's skills and abilities, as in typical role-playing games. Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading, and playing minigames. Groups of players can band together in "parties" to hunt monsters and share the rewards. Players can also band in a guild to interact more easily with each other.

Gameplay

Like most Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combating monsters in real time. However, MapleStory's 2D side-scrolling viewpoint more closely resembles a platformer than the typical 3D or top-down view of other games (such as Guild Wars or World of Warcraft). MapleStory characters fight monsters through a series of attacks and skills. Along with combat, jumping is an integral part of the game. MapleStory is played primarily with the keyboard; the mouse is mainly used to trigger NPC's (Non Playing Characters), select various menus from the user interface and to interact with other players.

Characters in MapleStory advance in level by gaining experience points. In each level, the user has the ability to improve various skills, and collect various items and pieces of wieldable equipment. The players combat monsters and in the process, acquire fake money called "Mesos" or "Meru" (depending on version) and various items, and complete quests.

MapleStory characters exist in "worlds" or "servers", e.g., "Broa", "Bellocan", or "Aquila". Players are allowed to create up to three different characters in each world. Each world, similar in content between each other in the same version, is split into up to twenty channels, among which characters are allowed to switch. However, characters and their items cannot be transferred between worlds, although there is limited functionality in transferring items between characters of the same world: for a small fee, a storage NPC can be used to store items and mesos that, once stored, can be used by any character in the same world. Players can use facial expressions in game. Players may also buy additional facial expressions from the Cash Shop.

New players

New players are sent to Maple Island, a floating island specifically designed to be beginner-friendly. Unlike many other MMORPG's, players in MapleStory cannot choose a character class or job when they create the character. Rather, every character starts with the job Beginner until they meet the requirements to complete the first job advancement.

When a player creates a new character, he or she is able to allocate 25 ability points amongst four different statistics: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT), and Luck (LUK). Players cannot manually choose where these points will be placed, as the distribution is randomly generated by a dice roll, to which 262,144 rolls are possible. The minimum possible point level scored when the dice is rolled in a statistic is four and the maximum is thirteen. When creating the character, the player can also choose from a limited variety of faces, hair styles, hair colors, skin colors and initial equipment. These can be modified only through the purchase of special coupons from the Cash Shop.

Advancing in Level

Characters begin the game at level 1. To increase in level, the character must kill monsters or complete quests to gain experience (EXP). The maximum any player can level up to is level 200. At each level gain, a player receives three skill points (SP) and five ability points (AP) to be distributed among the stats of HP (health points), MP (mana points), STR (Strength), DEX (Dexterity), INT (Intelligence), and LUK (Luck) at their own will.

Parties with Players

Players can kill monsters alone, or they can form a party with up to 5 other characters (6 characters total). One character forms a party as the leader, and invites others to the party. While killing monsters, money and EXP are shared based on damage dealt to the monster as well as each character's relative level. More EXP is given to higher level characters and characters that do more damage. The EXP and money gained is only shared if the party members are in the same map and channel. Joining a party without helping is called leeching and is generally considered rude. Another act which is generally considered rude is the killing of monsters already in combat with another character. This is typically called Kill-Stealing, or KSing for short. Any player Kill-Stealing runs the risk of getting their fame lowered by other players.

Ranking

When a player logs on, they can see how their character is ranked among others in the same world and among the other players at the same class as their character; it will also display the character's changes in ranking from the previous day. All characters in the game are ranked based on how much total EXP they have gained, approximately equivalent to the character's level.

The KoreaMS, JapanMS, MapleSEA and GlobalMS websites have ranking systems that allows anyone to view any character's ranking within the version. On the MapleSEA and GlobalMS websites, rankings may be viewed in four ways: overall ranking compares all characters across all worlds within the version; world ranking only compares characters on the same world; class ranking compares characters across all worlds based on their class; and fame ranking compares characters across all worlds based on the amount of fame they have. This adds a new level of depth to MapleStory as it allows players to compete for higher rankings between friends.

Abilities

There are four types of abilities and two sub-types of abilities, with varying degrees of value, depending on character class. General effects of each stat do not depend on a character's class; however, damage will vary based on job, level, and the equipped weapons. Most classes have one main stat which they raise to increase their damage output, as well as one minor stat which is raised to meet the requirements to equip weapons and armor and/or increase the specialties that come with some of the abilities. These are raised using Ability Points. Characters do not have to follow these general beliefs and may choose to raise other abilities at their will. For example, while warriors generally raise their STR and DEX, some may put more emphasis on their HP over the increased damage from STR, better accuracy, and better item-handling from DEX increases. As the player can build their character to their liking, there is no such thing as a "perfect character."

• Strength (STR) has a major effect on melee attacks, as well as somewhat affecting a bowman's ranged attacks and a thief's dagger and throwing star attacks.
• Dexterity (DEX) increases accuracy at the rate of 3 every 4 DEX points and avoidability at the rate of 1 every 4 DEX points. It has a minor effect in most melee damage except for bowmen who use it in place of Strength for damage.
• Intelligence (INT) increases magic attack, which determines spell accuracy and spell damage. It also increases magic defence.
• Luck (LUK) increases avoidability at the rate of 1 every 3 LUK points and accuracy at the rate of 1 every 2 LUK points. It also has a major effect on a thief's dagger and throwing star attacks. Some players believe that LUK increases the drop rate of items, however, this is not true. Also, when one dies, depending on the amount of LUK one has, the extent of EXP loss is lessened. Other job advancments e.g Bowman and Warrior do not require LUK whereas Thieves and Mages do. The most % exp can be lost with a good amount of LUK establishes will be 5% loss of experience.
• Health Points (HP) - Adding Ability Points into this will increases the maximum HP a character has.
• Mana Points (MP) - Adding Ability Points into this will increases the maximum MP a character has.

Skills

Every character class has specific skills in which to invest Skill Points (SP) into. The effects of these skills vary. A skill becomes increasingly powerful or helpful depending on the amount of SP invested in the skill. There are 3 types of skills: Passive (activated automatically when the moment is right), Supportive (manually activated to help the player or allies) and Active (attack skills).

• Passive skills such as a bowman's range-increasing "Eye of Amazon", take effect as long as SP has been placed in the skill. The gamut of passive skill effects enhance the character and are not prone to negatively affecting other user specialties. Passive skills do not require any usage of MP or HP.

• Supportive skills can be used when necessary. They always require MP and, in some cases, HP or even special items. Their effects can range from giving temporary benefits to one's character (such as the "Weapon Booster" skill every class receives), to affecting allied members as well (such as the Assassin/Bandit skill "Haste"), to powering down monsters (such as the Page's "Threaten"). Some Supportive skills are only available depending on the equipped weapon, such as the Hunter's "Bow Booster" skill which cannot be used while another type of weapon is equipped. Certain monsters can 'dispel' these types of skills requiring the skill to be recast. When a player is affected by a Supportive skill, an icon with the skill's image is shown in the top-right corner. The player can deactivate them by right clicking on these icons. Some characters have supportive skills to alter their weapon defense, magic defense, and damage. Clerics have more support skills than any other class.

• Active skills are skills that are used to damage and defeat enemies. Like Supportive skills, they require MP, and sometimes HP. First job active skills usually can be performed with any weapon that is in one's class (an exception can be made for the Thief's "Lucky Seven" and "Double Stab" skills). From the second job however, nearly all active skills require a specific weapon. For example, a Dragon Knight's active skills can only be performed with either a Polearm or a Spear.

Dying

When a character's HP on the red health bar reaches zero, a character dies. This is depicted by a tombstone falling from the top of the screen, and the character transmuting to a floating, ghost-like body. The character is incapable of moving and going through portals at this stage but they retain the ability to speak. Instead of the usual speech bubbles, a "thought bubble" is substituted. A character may still use facial expressions when dead.

Upon dying, a window appears notifying the character of their death. If the character presses the "OK" button on this window, they are transported to the nearest town and revived with fifty HP. The amount of MP after a character's death does not change. Upon death the player can remain in ghost-form for an unlimited time, though this may vary from version to version, as the Global version will automatically send the player to the nearest town after an allocated time.

Beginners do not lose EXP when they die, which suggests that dying is a quick and free way of getting to the nearest town. However, once a beginner makes their first job advancement, each death will cost them a percentage of EXP (between 5%-10%) based upon the amount of LUK possessed. Dying in towns or other specific areas (such as Zakum's altar) will always result in an EXP loss of 1% regardless of the character's LUK stat. A character cannot fall below zero percent EXP of their current level, rendering leveling only incremental.

Items such as the Safety Charm (available from the Cash Shop) can prevent EXP loss when the character dies; however, the user loses the item after they die. The Safety Charm is available in all versions of the game and there is no limit to using the charm as long as the user buys more. Other variations of the Safety Charm are the Box of Chocolates and Easter Charm, which were both released for GlobalMS events.

Players can only be killed by monsters, as player versus player combat is only available in KoreanMS, ChinaMS, and TaiwanMS. However, summoning sacks can be used to spawn monsters near another player, potentially killing them.

However, this 2D interface does not really appeal to many teenagers around the globe. Most teenagers get tired of the slow gaining of experience points, and the more mature adolescence opt for web-based games eg. MUD games which do not require downloading.

Monsters

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Killing monsters gives a player experience, or mesos, or items, or sometimes all three. Any experience gained is automatically added to the player’s total experience, whereas the mesos and items are dropped at the location of the monsters' death. Dropped items include monster leftovers (a piece of the monster), ores, equipment, quest items, usable drops, and during certain periods of time, "set-up" items (see the items section). Stronger monsters (those with a higher level than another compared monster), give more experience when killed, drop larger sums of mesos and tend to drop better items in terms of their use and selling abilities.

The monsters residing on the beginner island, Maple Island, are known for being suited best to characters below level ten. The second continent, Victoria Island, has monsters suited to much higher levels. The final continent, Ossyria, harbors even stronger monsters in the game, making it a prime location for high leveled characters to train. The release of the new sub-continent, Ludibrium, harbors extremely high leveled monsters in the game, deep in the Clock Tower.

Strengths and weaknesses

Each monster has a defense rating against physical attacks and another rating against magical attacks. For example, a "Sentinel" is substantially armored over other monsters in its level range against weapon attacks, making it hard for most characters near its level, minus select mages, to obtain a sufficient attack upon. Magicians, however, are less adept at killing monsters with magic defense including "Luster Pixies", which are less vulnerable to magic attacks. Some monsters have elemental strengths and weaknesses making them more or less susceptible to specific elemental attacks. For example, "Fire Boars" take extra damage against ice-elemental attacks, but take reduced damage against fire-elemental attacks.

Monster skills

All monsters can damage the player simply through contact. However, some monsters can use other skills while battling the player. Some can use skills to improve their own, or nearby monsters' attack or defense capabilities. For example, "Fierries" can increase defense of other nearby monsters temporarily. Others can cause status ailments on the character, such as poisoning or stunning, though there are potions available to counter each effect. Many monsters also have attack spells. Similarly to character skills, monster attack skills can be classed into two categories, physical and magical, with characters having different defense capabilities for each attack type. These skills can be melee attacks or ranged attacks. Some target only one character, whereas others can damage all nearby characters. Higher level monsters typically do more damage and have a wider assortment of attacks to use.

Boss monsters

There are several boss monsters which can be found throughout the MapleStory world. Each boss is located at their respective map and do not appear at other maps beyond their bounds. Most boss monsters have special privileges such as being unaffected by some spells, higher than normal HP, higher than normal attack, defense and special attack power and summoning powers. They are also generally very large. Spoils from bosses are also typically dominant over other similar items in the boss' level group. However, bosses spawn less frequently than normal monsters ranging anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. Bosses can also be found in accompaniments's such as King Slime who is located at the end of the Kerning City accompaniment.

Quests

Template:StrategyWiki Quests are varying tasks that players may perform for NPCs in return for experience and possible rewards. There are over a hundred available quests, each with varying prerequisites; most quests require the player to be at or more than a certain level limit and/or the player to have a specific character class, minimum fame data point or to have completed another certain quest. For example, the quest "Building Blackbull's New House" requires the player to have a minimum of level thirty, ten fame and the completion of "Fixing Blackbull's House", an earlier quest. Most available quests require the player to retrieve a certain amount of spoils attained from monsters or they must traverse through obstacle courses. Different rewards, such as experience or unique items, can be received by the player after completing certain quests. Some quests can be repeated, although the reward(s) and given EXP may be different from those attained during their first completion. Unlike some MMORPGs, it's not possible to escape the grind by completing quests. Also unlike some MMORPGs, MapleStory does not follow any quest storyline mainly because MapleStory has no backstory.

World

There are three main continents (Maple Island, Victoria Island, and Ossyria Island) and two subcontinents (Florina Island and Ludibrium Island) common to all versions in the MapleStory world and two additional subcontinents soon to be common to all versions (Korean Folk Town and Riprey).

Maple Island is where every new player begins their journey. It has short, tutorial quests and is occupied with monsters whose levels are suited for Beginners. When a player leaves this island, they are unable to return to it later.

Victoria Island has six towns. Lith Harbor is a port town where one first arrives after leaving Maple Island. Henesys is located in a plain-like area; beginners advancing to archers can do so here. Ellinia is located in a forest; beginners advancing to magicians can do so here. Perion is located in a mountainous region; beginners advancing to warriors can do so here. Kerning City is a run-down, urban area; beginners advancing to rogues can do so here. Lastly, Sleepywood is a town located in the dungeon in the middle of Victoria Island. The passage between Ossyria and Victoria Island is located in Ellinia.

On Ossyria Island, one can travel among Orbis, El Nath, Ludibrium, Omega Sector, Aqua Road, Korean Folk Town, and Riprey. Orbis is a town whose background art and other features make it seem as though it is floating in the sky. El Nath is an arctic village located at the bottom of Orbis Tower. Below Orbis Tower lies the underwater town of Aquarium. Ludibrium is a toy village accessible via a flying train from Orbis. From Ludibrium, descending the Eos Tower, one will come across Omega Sector, an area where players resist an alien invasion and at the bottom of Helios Tower, one will come across Korean Folk Town, an area modeled off Korean fairy tales. Riprey, an island with an egg theme with strong monsters can be reached by a huge blue bird in Orbis Station.

In JapanMS and KoreaMS, there is an additional continent called Zipangu which is based on Japanese culture; similarly, Korean Folk Town is based on the Korean culture. Formosa was exclusive to TaiwanMS, however it is now also accessible in KoreaMS. Dong Fang Shen Zhou was exclusive to ChinaMS, however it is no longer a ChinaMS exclusive, Dong Fang Shen Zhou is now accessible in KoreaMS and TaiwanMS. Peach Blossom Island is available only in ChinaMS, TaiwanMS, and MapleSEA, where couples take part in traditional Chinese marriages (by purchasing a crush ring from the Cash Shop. Traditional Chinese marriage clothes, music, invitations and fireworks are optional which can be bought from Cash Shop as well). In addition, there is also an event town Happyville which is only available during the Christmas period.

Premium Road has been made available to KoreaMS, JapanMS, ThailandMS and MapleSEA; it can be accessed only if the player is connected from a real-life Internet Cafe which has contracts with the staff of its local MapleStory version.

Free Market

The Free Market is a place set aside for people who wish to sell their items amongst other players. They can either use regular chat to advertise their item, or they can set up their own miniature shop in which a maximum of three people can concurrently browse their stock. In order to set up a Free Market shop, players must purchase a special permit available only through the Cash Shop. There are two types of store permits. The standard store has the player stop playing while the store is active. A new permit called the Mushroom House Elf has a NPC run the store while the player fights monsters or is offline.

One can meet with players located in other towns or even continents, provided the town contains a Free Market entrance. However, one cannot use the free market to travel between towns. There are entrances to the Free Market in the following towns: Henesys, Perion, El Nath, Aquarium, Ludibrium, Omega Sector, Orbis (KoreaMS and JapanMS), Riprey (KoreaMS and JapanMS), and Showa Town (JapanMS).

As of late, users have basically defined the price of in-game items by friends and/or groups of people putting massive amounts of items in the free market for a higher price than before, causing the prices to rise. An example of this is 'Glove for Attack' scrolls, which, at one point, were 1,000,000 mesos, but due to recent 'free market attacks', are now above 5,000,000 mesos.

Items

Items can be acquired from monster drops, purchased from other characters or shops, or as rewards for completing a quest. Unnecessary items can be dropped (where they can be picked up by any other character), sold to any shop for a sum of meso, or sold/traded to other characters. Generally the stronger the monsters are the better the items they drop. However, some high level equip can be found from low level monsters. Due to the time required to sell valuable items to other players as well as the quantity of items received, many players create a mule account to store excess items and as a dedicated trading account.

There are five different item categories in the game: Equipment, Use, Set-Up, Etc., and Cash. In the inventory window, each category has its own section, each of which is only able to contain a limited amount of items; however, extra inventory space can be purchased in the Cash Shop. Extra inventory space is also awarded after each job advancement.

The various types of equipment are clothing, accessories, and weapons; clothing and accessories adding defense, weapons adding attack. Most have a level, stat, and class requirement to be able to equip it. Additionally a rare few have a fame requirement. In addition to the basic attack or defense increase, items can also provide stat bonuses such as extra HP, MP, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Speed, Jump, Accuracy, Avoidability, and/or Luck stats. Most equipment have specific "average" stats which the item always has when it is bought from a store. When dropped by monsters these stats typically differ from the average.

Equipment can be upgraded by using item upgrade scrolls which give stat bonuses to equipment. Using a scroll on an item can only be attempted a limited number of times irrespective of the scroll's success or failure. The number of attempts varying with the item type. Scrolls have a certain percentage of success, and the lower the success percentage, the higher the stat gains provided by the scrolls.

Use items consist of consumable items, such as potions, pills, food (which serves the same purpose as potions), upgrade scrolls, town portal scrolls (teleports the user back to the nearest town or a specific town), arrows (for use with bows/crossbows), and throwing stars (for use with claws).

Set-Up items are mainly decorative special items for events such as Christmas or special quests. They usually serve no purpose after the special event is over.

Etc. items are monster leftovers, ores, materials and quest items. Ores and materials are used for forging items.

Cash items are the items bought in the Cash Shop. However, some Cash Shop items may appear in other sections of the inventory depending on their function.

Cash Shop

Since playing MapleStory is free, the developers of MapleStory introduced the Cash Shop to generate revenue. This is a virtual shop where players can buy items using real money. These items may or may not give actual gameplay bonuses to the character. The items sold in the Cash Shop include clothing items, haircut coupons, pets and much more.

Other than equipment that players can wear, some other items from the Cash Shop can grant the players special abilities, such as negating the experience points lost from dying and giving players a 2x EXP gain bonus and more recently a 2X meso gain bonus.

Pets such as monkeys, dogs, cats, bunnies, pandas, huskies, pigs, dinosaurs, tigers, robots and Yeti(Korean Version only.) can also be purchased from the Cash Shop. They follow the owner around and can be equipped to pick up the spoils dropped by the enemies. Pets ― like most Cash Shop items ― expire after a period of 90 days.

The Global Cash Shop markets items for two virtual currencies: Nexon Cash, or NX Cash, and MapleStory Points. NX Cash is purchased outside of MapleStory through the MapleStory web site. MapleStory Points, however, can be earned through special events.

On 23 June 2006, MapleStory Global announced that people had been abusing the NX Cash "gifting" feature, and ultimately decided to disable the feature indefinitely. The reason MapleStory Global has given for this decision is that many people have been fraudulent towards PayPal and Wizet itself. Those who have falsely charged NX Cash will receive a permanent ban unless they "self-report" themselves via the MapleStory Global website. Those who do so will receive a lesser ban of 30 days instead of a permanent ban. If a transaction resulted in a financial penalty for Wizet, users will still be permanently banned regardless of self-reporting.

In MapleSEA's case, in addition to credit card payment (through PayPal), it has also released Prepaid cards that are sold at a fixed price of SGD $10.50 (approximately USD $6.30) per 10,000 A-Cash (which can be used to convert into MapleCash) or RM 24 (approximately USD $6.40) for 24,000 MaplePoints (which can be used to purchase 10,000 A-Cash).

In the USA MapleStory Pre-Paid GiftCards will be released in convenient stores like Target (c) soon.

Guilds

Players can form Guilds in MapleStory with other players. The purpose of a guild is to be able to find and chat with each other more easily, to bond with other players, and make it easier when trying to complete a quest wherein one is allowed to have one's guild members aid oneself. When a guild member logs in, all other guild members are notified, similar to what happens when a "buddy" signs on. Members have their guild's name listed under their character name along with the guild's emblem, if applicable.

Guilds can be created in the Guild Head Quarters located in Orbis for a large amount of mesos. Additional upgrades to the guild such as a guild emblem and expanding the maximum amount of guild members (from 10 to a maximum of 30) will carry an additional fee. One can increase the size of their guild to reach a maximum of 30 members.

Guilds have a customizable hierarchy of five ranks: Master, Jr. Master, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st. An example of this is Principal, Teacher, 8th Grader, 7th Grader, and 6th Grader, in decending order. The "Guild Master", who initially created the guild, can invite or expel other players to or from the guild, raise or lower rank, define hierarchy terms, and add or subtract Mesos from the guild pot. He can also appoint other guild members to the rank of "Jr. Master". Jr. Masters can only invite other players to the guild and modify lower level rankings. Each guild member's information is displayed at the guild window, including rank, level and job.

In the Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese versions, there is a special quest for guilds called "Sharanian". It is much like a party quest but more difficult. It is mostly designed for high-leveled guild members (level 70+) but there is no level cap so anyone can enter.

Guilds may also make it easier for training purposes. For example: a level 80 player may want to create a guild of level 60 and up to train with players of the same strength.

Unique gameplay features

Although a purely two-dimensional game lacking certain features found in other MMORPGs, MapleStory does have features that distinguish it from other standard online games. For example, by pressing certain keys, a player can have their character temporarily display various emotions viewable by other players; some emotions showcase a confused or angry expression, while others show happiness or sadness. Other, more dramatic, expressions can also be bought using NX Cash or Maple Points in the Cash Shop.

Fame

Fame is the designation for one of the statistics on a character's character sheet. Although publicized by the game's creators, fame is rarely claimed to be an indicator of a player's popularity among others in the game. Once characters are at the minimum requirement of level fifteen, they are able to raise or lower the fame of any character, excluding themselves, once per day. A character cannot raise or lower the same character's fame more than once every thirty days (1 month). Some quests may award a player fame points, or even take some away. Fame has no significant effect in the game, except for certain quest pre-requisites and a selected number of high level pieces of equipment, usually 'dark' armor type such as the "Dark Anakamoon" for magicians. Though some players have suggested that fame increases one's chances of gaining rare items from monster drops, it is only a rumor.

Marriage

The Traditional Chinese Marriage system is only available ChinaMS, MapleSEA and TaiwanMS. The wedding ceremony is held at Peach Blossom Island (accessible via monk NPCs in Henesys, Orbis and Ludibrium). In order for the couple to enter the ceremony hall, players will need to wear a Crush Ring (purchased from the Cash Shop), and marriage clothes (Western clothes can be purchased from an NPC on Peach Blossom Island with Mesos, and Chinese clothes can be purchased from the Cash Shop).

The marrying couple may also invite friends to attend the ceremony by sending invitation cards (available in the Cash Shop). After the ceremony, both players will receive a Diamond Ring as proof of the marriage. The ring is vital to the marriage system, because if one of the players loses the ring, they will be unable to divorce.

Marriage can help the couple to heal HP and MP 3 times faster than normal healing rate while they are on the same map.

GlobalMS is releasing its own marriage system based on western culture soon, the ceremony is held in a new exclusive area called Amoria. It will be located outside of Henesys and requires various quests, including the receivement of the wedding ring and the blessing of the parents.

Events

During certain days, the GMs (Game Masters) host special events in which any user is capable of participating, given they are online and at a certain map at a certain time. All participants are rewarded with an "Event Trophy". In addition, those who win the event receive a "Scroll of Secrets", which can be used to obtain a random prize from an NPC.

Users are notified of an upcoming event by a scrolling box at the top of the game screen. Events are known to bring an influx of players to the event's respective locations, which generally causes massive connection lag and, possibly, disconnections from the game.

Select events include:

• Coconut Harvest, in which the player works with others in a team competing against another team to gather coconuts from coconut trees on a beach.
• Snowball, in which the player works with others in a team to roll their snowball to the finish line, and prevent the opposing team from getting their snowball to the finish line.
• Find the Jewel, in which the player must search for specific maps.
• MapleStory Physical Fitness Challenge (a.k.a. Hyperdash) and Ola Ola have the player attempt to reach a set location in a set amount of time. It is similar to a jump quest.
• OX Quiz and Minigame Challenge, which consists of correctly answering questions asked by a GM. Once players answer them correctly, they are teleported to the Minigame Challenge room, where they compete in minigames. The winner goes on to the next level of the tournament, competing against players with (presumably) steadily increasing skill.

Special events include Christmas tree events, wedding events, drawing events and quest events; for example, players might be required to find an item and return it to the event quest NPC or GM.

Occasionally, certain versions of the game hold events that celebrate a certain event in real-life or an event specific to that version, such as a holiday or new server release. During these events, certain aspects of the game are modified in celebration; for example, the experience rate or drop rate may be increased, or special items may be released. GlobalMS has been known to celebrate numerous holidays, their first "birthday", and seasons: it has celebrated (in 2005) Halloween and Thanksgiving, (in 2006) Valentine's Day, Easter, their first birthday, Independence Day, summer and Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Versions and registration

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The Korean version was the first to be created, ergo it has the most features as of yet; other versions are at different stages of development and most are not as advanced in content as Korea's. With this advantage comes the problem of players from mainly the Global version, and some from other versions trying to play KoreaMS. The players are often referred to as 이주자, or "Immigrants" by a majority of the Korean MapleStory players. These "Immigrants" are the reason why a Korean Social Security Number is required to play. IP blocking is used between some of the other versions of the game, mostly for the same reason. Some attempt to bypass this by using Proxies, which spoof and IP address to make it seem like a player is playing from a different country - however in Europe MapleStory a GameGuard proxy check has been implemented. However, this is also because foreign text in the Latin Character-Based Global version causes glitches to occur. This is the same for Koreans in the Chinese version, and so on.

Though some versions share the same world names, they are different and independent of each other. They are defined by their language used, publisher, server location and specialized worlds (see main article: MapleStory world)

The Europe version of MapleStory is under 2nd closed beta testing as of 09 November 2006.

Revenue and Game Population

As of Feb. 2006, Wizet has generated 200 million USD from the game service in Korea. Wizet received 110 million USD for licensing the games to other parts of the world.

Game Population (as of Feb. 2006):

• Korea since 2002, 200 thousand subscribers
• Japan since November 2003, 9 million subscribers
• China since December 2004, 18 million subscribers
• Taiwan since July 2005, 3.5 million subscribers
• Thailand since August 2005, 550 thousand subscribers
• South East Asia (mostly Singapore and Malaysia) since June 2005, 550 thousand subscribers
• Global since May 2005, 1.5 million subscribers

Criticism

Some people believe MapleStory's level system is too heavily based on grinding. Most of the game can be summed up as "kill monsters to level up, get money, buy better equipment, kill monsters", and so on. This causes many gamers to quickly tire of the game and only the hardcore players, or "grinders" as the case may be, make it as far as level 70 or higher. On the same note, quests seem to be more of the same, making MapleStory a grind-based game. Most of the quests themselves are standard MMORPG fare where the player looks for a number of objects, which, typically, can only be obtained by killing monsters.

Game Master (GM) appearances are rare, and therefore, the number of cheaters and scammers in MapleStory is high. Cheating is common in ChinaMS, and increasingly common in GlobalMS, MapleSEA and TaiwanMS, sparking much anger with its players who claim that the Game Masters and the publishing company are not doing enough to stop cheating.

There is also no back story to the game, and events (double exp, double drop rate of items, etc.) are usually overcrowded, making it difficult for most to participate.

A new issue is the lack of new non-event features, especially in Global MS. Most events are also repeats of ones that have happened in previous years.

Game issues

As with most other MMORPGs, there are faults in the game and people who exploit them. There are also many third party programs (hacks) created to simplify gameplay for players. Some of these hacks make players invincible (such as "godmode" hacks), while others suck monsters into one spot ("vacuum" or "vac" hacks which currently disconnect hackers). The use of third party programs is strictly forbidden, and users who take advantage of them are not often banned from the game. Another issue is the sharing of accounts, where two or more users use the same user ID and password to play the same characters in the game. It is widely regarded that most of the higher level players all share accounts because they are on literally 24/7 grinding and training their accounts, however there is no proof to this. Doing this usually allows the player to level up faster than ordinary players. Account sharing is clearly against the rules as stated on the MapleStory website.

Another issue is account theft, in which people's login information is stolen through phishing or with keyloggers. To combat these programs, various security measures have been implemented such as GameGuard and a PIN requirement. Cheaters can be banned at any time after proof of their activities is discovered, potentially months after the incident even if they have stopped cheating. Since Beta MapleStory, Wizet has had a report system, which allows players to report hackers and scammers.

Scamming is also common. Scammers use a variety of methods to mislead other players into giving them useful game items and currency, both real and fake. Such methods range from using hacks to simply preying upon newer users. For example, a common scam is the "item duplication" scam, in which one player requests a trade from a mark, telling them that pressing the keys "Tab, Tab, Spacebar, Enter" in succession they can duplicate the items they have placed in the trade. Due to the layout of the trade window, doing so causes an immediate trade to the other player, in which case the player that was scammed loses their item. As of Friday, June 23rd, 2006, Global MapleStory has indefinitely disabled their NX Cash gifting feature in prevention of NX Gift Fraud. Note that the use, promoting, or selling of cheating programs results in an almost immediate ban in most cases.

Rarely, one may find a small glitch in the game, such as falling through a normally solid platform caused by the different layers in the game like ladders, platforms and walls or disappearing people/monsters/items. This can be seen in a certain area of the map "Tunnel that Lost Light 1" where if one is to jump to the right off a rope in a certain spot of the map around the middle, one will fall through the platform and go to the portal. However, most of these glitches are commonly caused by lag or the way the game is designed, and one will not be banned for abusing them as long as the glitch does not affect other users negatively. However people in the past have been banned even though they have not been exploiting the game due to inaccurate judgment by a Game Master. One may also find many misspelled words, as well as various grammatical mistakes, in the game's text, especially when talking to an NPC.

See Also

• MapleStory DS
• Wizet

References

1. ^ Jun Sok Huhh (2006-04-21). "Some facts on MapleStory". Retrieved 2006-06-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "MapleStory - Intro - How to play". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
3. "FAQ | Gameplay - Can I transfer my account between gateways? Between worlds?". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
4. "Beauty Parlor coupons". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
5. "Nexon' ". Korean MS Ranking "Korean MS Ranking". Nexon. Retrieved 2006-10-24. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
6. ^ "Guide - User Interface". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-07-01.
7. "fillet2" (2005). "MapleStory FAQ - Tips for Beginners" (TXT). Gamefaqs.com. Retrieved 2006-07-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
8. ^ "MapleStory - Info - Quests". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-05-04.
9. "Various Features - Pet". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled JavaScript for mapleglobal.com.
10. "Notice - NX Cash Fraud: Gifting Disabled". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-07-04. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for MapleGlobal.com.
11. "Notice - Report Gift Fraud". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-07-04. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for mapleglobal.com.
12. "MapleStory - Cash Shop - Prepaid Cards". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-07-04.
13. "Various Features - Guild". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for mapleglobal.com.
14. "Intro - Game Events". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
15. "FAQ | General - Why is my country blocked from MapleGlobal?". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
16. . GameStudy.Org | Revenue of Maple Story and Game Population http://www.gamestudy.org/eblog/?p=32 | Revenue of Maple Story and Game Population. Retrieved 2006-10-12. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

Template:StrategyWiki

Official game websites

• MapleStory portal - Official MapleStory website
• Global MapleStory site - MapleStory Global (Requires Internet Explorer)
• Chinese MapleStory site - MapleStory China
• Japanese MapleStory site - MapleStory Japan
• South East Asian MapleStory site - MapleStory South East Asia/SEA
• South Korean MapleStory site - MapleStory South Korea (Requires Internet Explorer)
• South Korean MapleStory tester site - MapleStory South Korea tester (Requires Internet Explorer)
• Taiwanese MapleStory site - MapleStory Taiwan
• Thai MapleStory site - MapleStory Thailand
• Europe MapleStory site - MapleStory Europe closed beta (Requires Internet Explorer)
• Official MapleStory Developer site - Wizet Corp., Ltd. Korean
• Official MapleStory developer's site - Wizet Corp., Ltd. Japanese

Informational fansites

• Basil Market - An auction site to buy and sell items in MapleStory.
• Hidden Street - Extensive library of game information .
• MapleTip - Contains Maplewiki, library of game information, guides, a large forum for help, and more. .
• Sauna - Library of game information extracted directly from the client .
• Sleepywood Forums - Oldest standing message board with an extensive trading forums, guides, community, etc. .

Korean language

• Maple Playforum - Library of game information and trading forum .
• Maple GameZizon - Lastest patch news, library of game information, and forum .
• Maple Mud4U - Trading forum and library of game information .
• InSoya - Lastest Tespia patch news and forum .

Japanese language

• Adventures in JMS - English speaking forum for JMS players .
• A Drop of Maple - Library of game information .
• Omega Sector - Library of game information .
• Extreme - Library of game information .
• 日本的楓故事 - Library of game information .

Simplified Chinese language

• 冒险岛主题站 - Library of game information .

Traditional Chinese language

• 楓月物語 - Library of game information .

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• Computer and video games developed in Korea
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