T w e n t y S i d e d

If there’s one thing people know about me, it’s that I hate MMOs. I don’t have anything against the concept of them or anything, but I typically just don’t care for the gameplay loop. I’ve tried it all. Everything from Guild Wars to Elder Scrolls Online to WOW to FF16. Nothing ever stood out of the pack to really grab me.

In all my years of playing video games, the only exception to this dislike has been Maplestory. So, when the “Classic” server came out and brought things back to basics (before all the feature-creep), I was excited to revisit a childhood favorite.

Firstly, I have no idea why Maplestory is an exception to my dislike. Maybe it’s the mechanical simplicity or the 2D perspective, but it always stuck out as its own fun thing that hasn’t been replicated by anything else. What confuses me though, is that the game is an old school Korean MMO. Nothing but grind. Which is usually mind numbing and exhausting to me. But, for whatever reason, I enjoy the process of it in Maplestory.

I’ve been having lots of fun pissing around in the game I remember so fondly. Nexon did a pretty dang good job of bringing quality of life improvements over while still keeping the game feeling like it did on initial release. The biggest problem I have is the cash shop and how it has changed. The vast majority of stuff is gacha based now. You can’t just buy the cool outfit to have your character wear, it has to be rolled. Or you can now buy those costumes from other players online. The other major gameplay mechanic of Maplestory is capitalism after all. It used to be that in order to get cash shop items in game you had no choice but to purchase them yourself or buy them online on the gray market. By allowing cash items to be traded in game they’ve cut out scammers and sketchy middle men, however it does raise concerns to me of some pay to win aspects potentially wrecking the in-game economy. No telling whether that’s a valid concern or not until the game matures a bit.

Which brings me to my next concern: When do they start reintroducing content that came after initial release and what does that rollout look like? After all, the game wasn’t in it’s best state on release. It needed more content for people to experience and balancing to make the game have more life. I feel like this is a concern in most of the “classic” online service games. I can’t speak to the experience of World of Warcraft but League of Legends Classic certainly suffers from the absence of some additions to the game. You get the hit of nostalgia but miss out on the fun of some of the newer content and balance that hit the game over time.

I feel like there’s not going to be any shortage of online focused games coming out with “classic” throwbacks. Everything from MMOs and MOBAs to less obvious things like FPSs. I know that Modern Warfare 2’s online PVP would absolutely crush as full rerelease, for at least a while. Lots of people, including myself, considered that one of the peak FPS experiences. I’d love the same from Rainbow Six Siege. I miss some of the old maps that got thrown away for the sake of “balance.” (Balancing for esports while ignoring the average player experience is another article for another day, though.)

I’m going to keep grinding and BSing with people in Windia for the time being. Hopefully more content gets patched in without feature creeping the game into the unrecognizable mess it was before. Until it somehow gets ruined for me, one way or another, I’m going to keep grinding for rare items and selling them to lowballers in the free market.

Life’s been tough lately. My wife came to the conclusion that our relationship wasn’t working out and so I’ve had to move back in with my parents. I’m doing okay but I’m struggling with the strange new world outside of that relationship. So, that’d be the reason why posting had scaled back for a while there. I’m now in a far more stable frame of mind and stable living situation, at least for the time being, so weekly posts should be back in order. Please refrain from the check-ins on my wellbeing and apologies for the crap I have going on. I’m okay and I’m at the point where that sort of thing hurts more than it helps. Thank you all for being patient and I look forward to getting properly back into the swing of things.

Ethan Rodgers