Do you have a lot of spare time?

No, really, do you have a lot of spare time?

Do you like MMORPGs of the no-money-to-play variety?

Are you stubborn enough to face many many hours of training to achieve power?

Then you should check out MapleStory . One of its distinguishing features is that it's 2D - at first you'll feel like you're Mario with a sword. It gives a really different feeling to, say, FFXI or WoW. It has all those classic features that most MMOs do - you can chat, you can join a guild, you get a buddy list, and there's around 50 quests as of now that you can do (though they are very poorly translated and mostly involve mass-killing a creature for drops).

On the other hand, it takes a very long while to really sink your teeth into. You'll start out as a Level 1 Beginner, a class that has no special skills or stat bonuses. During this time you learn the basics about the game and its systems on Maple Island, and will enjoy very fast leveling (i.e. getting to level 5 takes 1-5 minutes depending on what class you aspire to be). At Level 10 (or Level 8 for Magicians), you will reach your 1st Job advancement, where you can become any of four generic RPG classes - Warrior, Bowman, Rogue, or Magician. You get a few bonuses and a skillbook, and then its back to the training board. During this time, you are so ridiculously weak and have such little purpose that most people are turned off before they even reach L20. The other problem with 1st job is for every class, you don't get much customizability - every class has an iron way of doing first job, and if you screw it up, you'll either have a very hard time of it, or you may even have to start your character over.

Fortunately, at this time, you are open to a new form of recieving experience - the Party Quest, or PQ. In a group of four, you work together to go through a series of tasks, then take down the Slime King before recieving your reward. Yes, in addition to experience that is 2x as fast and entertianing as training, you recieve rewards - most of which don't suck. L21-30 is when you may do the Party Quest, after which you are ready for second job advancement.

Once you finally reach the elusive L30, you reach 2nd Job Advancement. Unlike first job, where you simply go to your master of choice and say, "I'd like to become a !" you have to do a test this time to prove your worth. Find your instructor, enter the testing chamber, and hunt 30 Dark Marbles from extremely powerful versions of monsters you've been seeing for a while (Marbles? Apparantly monsters get bored too.).Once you complete this (walk in the park of a) task, you are at second job advancement, where things start to get interesting. Each class gets 2-3 options of what to become: Warriors can become either Fighters, Pages, or Spearmen; Bowmen can become either Crossbowmen or Hunters; Magicians can become Fire/Poison Wizards, Ice/Lightning Wizards, or Clerics; Rogues can become Assassins or Bandits. Whatever you pick, you get a new skillbook unique to your new class, and you keep all skills from 1st job. There's a new PQ for levels 35-50, and you become powerful enough to have fun just screwing around.

2nd Job is big though. It's not 10 levels to 3rd job, it's not 20 levels, it's not even 30 - 40 levelups before you reach 3rd job. That's a lot. Most people make it to 2nd job and don't get very far in it because they expect themselves to be good right away, and certainly, 30s and 40s are tiresome and difficult (though vastly improved since the release of the L35-50 PQ), but 50s are a blast, and 60s is the vast trek to 3rd job. Fortunately, 2nd Job skillbooks are much more lenient as to what order you pick for skills, and what skill you skip (you only recieve enough Skill Points to master most of your skills, not all). However, if you manage to make it to 3rd job, then you are in for a doozy of a task.

Find your master, and he will tell you to go to some Dimensional Rift and kill his dark side. Typical. After you defeat your master's evil self, you will have proven your strength and will have to prove your wisdom. After a quick quiz in the middle of nowhere, you'll have the Necklace of Wisdom, which is reedemable for one free 3rd Job advance. No new branching classes, but you get a new one, complete with skillbook - this time with skills that will REALLY let you put some ownage down.

Fourth job occurs at L120, but it hasn't been implemented into the game yet. Not that it's worth putting in yet - there's only a handful of people this powerful in Maple Global. But you probably aren't interested in that, or most of what I've typed up, you're probably skipping all of this trying to see how to start out.Each class is different. I recommend going onto www.gamefaqs.com and finding a guide for your class, and following it like the Bible. Make sure you do 1st job correctly and perfectly correctly, or you'll be regretting it later on. I'm one to know - I'm a L55 Ice/Lightning Wizard that has 8 Strength, four more than I should, which is costing me 4 million extra to maintain a normal-stats character. Oh, and one other thing - pick your server wisely. The server you create your character on is the only one you can access it on. Meaning, if you created it on Scania, you are in for overcrowding, insane prices, and the inability to access your character during hot hours and weekends. I'd personally use the least populated server, but if you want to start with a familliar face, join Bera and I can give you a hand starting out. When I get the game working again, that is, which should be sometime this week.

If you have any general questions about the game, shoot and I can probably handle them. If you have any in-depth questions about Magicianhood, I can handle those, too.

Blitz
at first you'll feel like you're Mario with a sword.

Interesting. Indeed. Site is hell to load on dial-up.

.: Myxomatosis :.

Myxomatosis
Interesting. Indeed. Site is hell to load on dial-up.

Dial-up?

You'll definitely want the least populated server you can get, lest you await a disconnection-every-three-minutesy death.

Hahah, y'know, if I didn't see you posting regularly on other parts of the forum, I would have sworn half-way through that this was a post from a spam bug.

Well, maybe not a spam bug. They're usually not that in-depth with their sales pitch, but you get what I mean. :-D

Tater, was there a point to that post?

I used to play Maple Story. It kind of emphasizes all the things I hate about MMORPGs, though. I liked doing the PQs, but waiting a half hour or longer to get in really defeated the purpose of offering extra experience and the better item drops. It was faster and more rewarding to just power level all the time or do the regular quests. Plus the number of bots and hackers was quite annoying back when I played.

.: isukun :.

Tater Salad
potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion potion die

Oh, I never die.

In fact, the only time I will ever have a chance of dying regularly is when I get to L90 and I train on Spirit Vikings (i.e. a couple centuries from now).

But yeah, potions are a lifestyle in MS.

I found this game to be a horrible timesink with little to no redemable social interaction. Not to mention the worst platforming mechanics I think I've ever seen. Why do they even allow you to jump if you can only do it about an inch off the ground? In a game that allows jumping, it should be a natural thing.

Not to mention the combat. I tried playing a warrior class, and combat consisted of desperate stabbing at a monster praying that I could kill it before it broke through my attacks.

And the leveling is very, very slow. I really don't want to have to level up 10 levels before I'm allowed to move on to the next recolored version of the same monster I was fighting two hours ago.

On the plus side, the art style was very pleasing and the exploration was pleasent as a result of this. I really would have liked to just explore the game world, but the stupidly powerful monsters made that a ridiculous chore.

So uh, I don't like Maple Story. It's a horrible timesink, like pretty much every other MMO in exsistence.

Eggbert
I found this game to be a horrible timesink with little to no redemable social interaction. Not to mention the worst platforming mechanics I think I've ever seen. Why do they even allow you to jump if you can only do it about an inch off the ground? In a game that allows jumping, it should be a natural thing.

Not to mention the combat. I tried playing a warrior class, and combat consisted of desperate stabbing at a monster praying that I could kill it before it broke through my attacks.

And the leveling is very, very slow. I really don't want to have to level up 10 levels before I'm allowed to move on to the next recolored version of the same monster I was fighting two hours ago.

On the plus side, the art style was very pleasing and the exploration was pleasent as a result of this. I really would have liked to just explore the game world, but the stupidly powerful monsters made that a ridiculous chore.

So uh, I don't like Maple Story. It's a horrible timesink, like pretty much every other MMO in exsistence.

Sounds like you didn't get quite far enough into it to enjoy it. But you hit all the flaws on the head - leveling's a pain, and as players of the North American targetted audience, we get the worst experience curve because we as a culture are renowned for having too much spare time. Because the Japanese are known for being hard workers, they get 25% more EXP than we do. Great, huh?

Unfortunately, like all MMOs, it's frequented by the most idiotic portion of the population, so it makes it infinitely dull if you can't share the experience with people you know right from the get-go. Finding people worth interacting with is difficult.

Don't blame you for hating it though. MMOs aren't everyone's cup of tea.

But MMO's waste so much TIIIIIME. They are in fact, specifically designed around the idea of wasting time, since you pay a monthly fee to play them. The longer you spend grinding and gold farming the more money you give the game developers.

There's alos the matter of the "click the bad guy and watch an animation of your dude wacking the enemy over an over" battle system most MMO's have. That's thrilling, right there.

That TIME that you waste on those games that lack any goal beyond making your avatar stronger so that you can click on an watch your avatar bludgeon stronger enemys! You could be using it to LIVE LIFE.

DISCLAIMER: I've never actually played a MMO I had to pay for, but I imagine that beyond some streamlines systmes and friendlier interfaces, it's largely the same.

I used to play Maple Story... it was back before I started Spriting o.o

i remember this game... well an old version!

I play it all the time. I'm new to it though. Level 15 theif by the name of Augenstein. I'm on the Windia server. I am fairly weak though.

(P.S. I got Tater's joke immediately. I thought it was hillarious.)

Ugck, Maplestory.

My experience with that was so very, very dull. I only managed to level up to around Lv11 before I got bored and left. Usually, I'm a fan of MMO's and MUD's, just for the point that you can fart around in this humongous world. But Maplestory? The prettiest 2d graphics in the world couldn't save how mind-numbingly dull I found it. Even though I usually love wasting time on games, on Maplestory it actually felt liek I was WASTING time, instead of enjoying myself with a game.

I repeat, ugck.

oh I just love fighting the same monsters over and over again with absolute no change in combat or change in monsters! oh! look! That one has an axe in it! And that guy over there has a black hat! awwww, isn't this the cutest little chibi you ever saw? Hey look! I'm dead! And now I'm a little ghost, isn't that cute? And now all my hours of repetitive training have gone to waste, how wonderful!

Fuck this, I'm just gonna let Josh train my character to level fifty and THEN I may give a shit.

too sissie-themed and girlie-looking for me. Just watchin other people play it for 5 minutes made me feel like uugh... I wouldnt get that 5 minutes of my life back!!! AAGH!!!