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MapleStory (Korean:메이플 스토리) is a free, two-dimensional, side-scrolling online game developed by the Korean company Wizet. It is published by various companies, such as Nexon (NexonKorea & NexonJapan), NXGames, Shanda, AsiaSoft, and Gamania. Although gameplay is free, many player appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the "Cash Shop" with actual currency. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, each of which has its own set of worlds. MapleStory has a total of over 50 million players in all of its many versions. MapleStory Global, for players mainly outside of East Asia and Southeast Asia, has about one million players[1].
| MapleStory | |
|---|---|
| File:MapleStory1.gif | |
| Developer(s) | Wizet |
| Publisher(s) | Wizet, Nexon, Shanda, AsiaSoft, NXGames, and Gamania |
| Platform(s) | Windows (98/ME/2K/XP) |
| Release |  May 2002 November 2003 2004 July 4, 2005 August 29, 2005(Global) May 11, 2005 (SEA) June 23, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | MMO |
In the game, players defend the "Maple World" from monsters, as in a typical role-playing game (a.k.a. "RPG"). Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading and playing minigames. Groups of players can ally together in "parties" to hunt monsters and share the rewards or they can band together under a common name in a guild.
Gameplay
As in any typical MMORPG, gameplay centers around venturing into dungeons and combating monsters in real time. However, MapleStory's 2-D side-scrolling viewpoint more closely resembles a platformer than the typical 3-D or top-down view of other games. Though the 2-D graphics don't give the player a more realistic feeling, it is an important part of MapleStory, for the 2-D effect helps the game have larger levels. MapleStory characters fight monsters through a series of attacks and skills. Along with combat, jumping is an integral part of the game.
Characters in MapleStory advance by gaining experience points (EXP), leveling up, improving various skills and collecting various items and pieces of wieldable equipment. The players combat monsters, acquire play money called "Mesos" or "Meru" (depending on version) and various items, as well as completing quests.
MapleStory characters exist in domains called "worlds", e.g., "Scania" or "Juidis". 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 a maximum of twenty channels, between which characters are allowed to switch[2]. Characters and their items cannot be transferred between worlds[3], although there is limited functionality in transferring items between characters of the same world.
New players
New players are sent to Maple Island, a floating island specifically designed to be beginner-friendly. Unlike a collection of other MMORPGs, players in MapleStory can not 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 spread 25 ability points amongst four different statistics: STR, DEX, INT, and LUK (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Luck, respectively). Players can not manually choose where these points will be placed, as the distribution is randomly generated by a dice roll, to which an infinite number of rolls are possible. The minimum possible point level in a statistic is four and the maximum is thirteen.
Leveling up
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 tell the characters' changes in ranking from the previous day. This is based on Levels "Leveling up", or just simply "leveling" means a character must acquire a certain amount of EXP to which their level-enhancing requirements are assigned to advance one level. At each level up, a player receives five ability points (AP) to be distributed among the stats of HP (health points), MP (mana points), STR, DEX, INT, and LUK at their own will. After undergoing any job advancement, the character gains one SP (skill point) and three SP per level after the first advancement; SP that are remaining prior to another job advancement are invalid after such advancement, sans the newly-acquired SP. Each SP can be used on various class-specific skills. All characters in the game are ranked based on how much EXP they have gained or, equivalently, their level and percentage.
MapleStory has a progressively, near exponentially difficult leveling program. After the first few early levels, only a few minutes or hours of gameplay are required for a level. The higher a character's level gets, the higher its required experience points for a level up. This makes it so that the higher level a character gets, the more minutes, hours, or even days it might take to gain one level. When a character is level 70+, it may even take weeks to level up. However, the speed that a character gains levels is determined by how much time a player spends training or on the game.
Abilities
There are four types of abilities, to which one or more type holds more significance over others, 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 weapon. 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 specialities 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 items 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 and better accuracy and item-handling from DEX increases.
- Strength (STR) increases the maximum power of melee attacks. It increases the maximum damage for warriors. Warriors need at least 35 AP in STR to make their first job advancement.
- Dexterity (DEX) increases the accuracy, avoidability and minimum damage of all attacks, except magic. It increases the maximum damage for bowmen. Bowmen and thieves need at least 25 AP in DEX to make their first job advancement.
- Intelligence (INT) increases magic attack and magic defense. INT affects a magician greatly as their damage and accuracy is based on it, although INT isn't too useful for other classes. It also determines the amount of maximum MP increase upon leveling. Magicians need at least 20 AP in INT to make their first job advancement
- Luck (LUK) increases the avoidability of all characters, and decreases EXP loss when a character dies. It increases the maximum damage for thieves when using throwing stars and daggers that depend on LUK for attack.
Skills
Every character class has specific skills in which to invest and their effects vary. Skills are either passive (applicable automatically) or active skills (manually used).
- 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 specialities.
- Active skills; which can be used when necessary. They always require MP and, in some cases, HP or even special items. There are two types of active skills: attack skills and enhancement skills.
- Attack skills; which tend to do more damage and can be used as the main attacking method.
- Enhancement skills; which add temporary enhancements to the character, such as a thief's enemy-avoiding "Dark Sight", and/or the character's party, such as a cleric's "Bless". Most skills become more effective as SP is added, though some progressions require the use of more required MP; other skills cost less MP as SP is added to the skill.
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. 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.
Beginners lose no 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 they have. Dying in towns or other "safe" areas will always result in an EXP loss of 1% regardless of the character's LUK stat.
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 in the Cash Shop. Other variations of the Safety Charm are the Box of Chocolates and Easter Charm, which were both released for Global MapleStory events.
A character cannot fall below zero percent EXP, rendering leveling only ascendable. If a character dies, the character can still speak, and can stay in this stage for a limited time, but instead of the usual speech bubbles, a "thought bubble" is subsituted. A character may still use emoticons when dead.
Character classes
All characters begin the game as a "Beginner". Beginners are allowed AP, but are incapable of gaining SP when leveling up. At either level eight or ten, depending on desired class, the player can willingly choose to acquire a new class as a "Warrior" (level ten), "Magician" (level eight), "Bowman" (level ten) or "Thief" (level ten) and gain the ability to acquire SP and skills. These are only applicable if the character has the minimum amount of AP that the advancement requires.
Once a player reaches level thirty (30), they are able to complete the second job advancement according to their current job. Unlike the first job advancement, a quest is required to be completed prior to advancing. After they make the advancement, they receive a new set of applicable skills according to their respective job advancement.
At level seventy (70), characters can once again change their job at the Chief's Residence in El Nath of Ossyria. Unlike previous job advancements, the player is not given the option to choose their third job, being only able to progress their current job into a new-named one with new skill sets.
At level one hundred twenty (120), the character can once again change classes. However, fourth job advancements have not yet been implemented in any versions of the game[4].
Monsters
- List of Monsters: Monster List
Benefit
Killing monsters gives the player experience, money, and sometimes items. The experience is automatically added to the players total experience, whearas the money and items are dropped at the ___location of the monsters' death. Dropped items could be leftovers from the monsters (a piece of the monster), ores, equipment, quest items, usable drops and, during certain periods of time, "set-up" items. Stronger monsters, that is, those with a higher level than another compared monster, give more experience when killed, drop larger sums of money 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 the strongest monsters in the game, making it a prime ___location for high leveled characters to train.
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" are weak against ice-elemental attacks, yet strong against fire-elemental attacks.
Monster skills
Some monsters have skills which they use on characters in a certain range when they are attacked. A partial list of these skills include: Sealing, which locks players' skills so that they can not use them, Darkness, which decreases accuracy, Weakness, which disables jumping ability, and a curse that halves experience. However, there are potions and a Priest skill that can dispel these effects. Some monsters also have skills to raise their own attributes or of the monsters around them. For example, "Stone Golems" and "Lunar Pixies" can increase their weapon defense and "fairies" can increase defense of other nearby monsters temporarily. Monsters like "Lupins" and "Luster Pixies", when attacked, will attack back with a physical attack, like the "Lupin's Banana", or a magic attack, like the "Luster Pixies"' Magic Attack. Some monsters will attack without provocation; until a recent patch, the "Nependeath" would attack anything in range. More powerful monsters like the "Mushmom" and "King Slime" usually will have a very powerful area attack that can damage anything in its range.
Boss Monsters
There are several boss monsters which can be found throughout the MapleStory world. Each boss is located in its own respective map, and spawn less frequently than normal monsters. For example; "Mushmom" spawns at it's own map every 40 minutes to an hour. Being even the second to weakest of boss monsters, Mushmom is considerably hard to kill and is usually only attempted by level forty and above characters. The "Rombot", also called "Lombard", is the weakest of all of the bosses and spawns every 10-15 minutes. It is considerably easy to kill if one is level 40 or higher; the battle only takes about 30 seconds to a minute, on average. "Zakum", a boss monster found only in a level fifty and above accompaniment, attacks with fire, ice, lightning, and poison-based attacks. It has eight arms, each with an individual amount of life, which players must kill before attacking its main body. Although not the highest level monster, Zakum can be extremely difficult to defeat, usually requiring two or more parties of high-leveled (level 120+) characters working together for an extended period of time. The Zakum party quest has been known to last for one or more hours.
Quests
- List of Quests: Quests
Quests are varying tasks that players may perform for NPCs in return for experience and possible rewards. There are over a hundred possible quests[6], 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[6]. 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", another 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[6]. Some quests can be repeated, although the reward(s) and given EXP will differentiate from those attained during its first completion. Unlike some MMORPGs, it's not possible to escape the grind by completing quests.
Accompaniments/Party Quests
- List of Party Quests: Party Quests
Accompaniments are a special type of quest where a party of players work together to beat several challenges. Although officially called "Accompaniments", they are commonly referred to as "Party Quests" interchangeably. Each accompaniment has its own level limits which every character in the party must be within to enter the accompaniment.
The first accompaniment is in Kerning City. A party of four, ranging from levels 21 to 30, progresses through five stages in under thirty minutes by solving puzzles and killing monsters. At the end, a prize is given to each participant; these range from ores, equipment, scrolls, or potions. Only one party can be inside the accompaniment at any given time on one channel.
The second accompaniment is located in Ludibrium. A party of six, ranging from levels 35 to 50, progresses through nine stages in under one hour by solving puzzles and killing monsters. The skills specific character classes possess, such as Haste, Heal, Dark Sight, and Teleport, are eminently used to help pass some of the stages. The skills Dark Sight and Teleport are required to complete the accompaniment. Prizes consist of potions, ores, equipment, or summoning bags.
Another party quest, the Zakum Party Quest, is for characters level fifty and above. Multiple parties can enter this quest at the same time and multiple parties can finish it together. There are three stages that can be completed before ultimating in a boss battle with Zakum. Overall, more experience is gained from this accompaniment than others.
Jump quests
Jump quests are a unique type of quest in which a character starts at one part of a map and uses timed jumps to get from one to another specific platform. The player attempts to avoid enemies and obstacles that can knock them off of the platform. Jump quests typically require precision timing and steady patience, although the reaped rewards are reattainable and monetarily valuable. There are 3 sets of jump quests, which are given by the same NPC for each set. John in Lith Harbor gives three jump quests of increasing difficulty, as does Shumi in Kerning City. Sabitrama of Sleepywood gives two quests. Assistant Cheng in the Ludibrium Toy Factory also gives one quest.
MapleStory world
There are three main continents common to all versions in the MapleStory World: Maple Island, Victoria Island and Ossyria. There are also two subcontinents common to all versions in the MapleStory world: Florina Island and Ludibrium. Although Ludibrium is a subcontinent of Ossyria, some players consider Ludibrium to be a continent as well.
Solely in the JapanMS version, there is an additional continent called Jipang, based on Japanese culture; similarly, Fairy Tale Village in KoreaMS is based on the Korean culture. Peach Blossom Island is available only in ChinaMS, TaiwanMS, and MapleSEA, where couples take part in traditional Chinese marriages (by purchasing an amount of Cash Shop items).
In addition, there are also event towns. Happyville is only available during the Christmas period. Premium Road has been made available to KoreaMS, JapanMS, and ThailandMS; it can be accessed only if the player is connected from a real-life Internet Cafe which has previously made contracts with the programming staff of its local MapleStory version.
- Main Continents: Maple Island, Victoria Island, Ossyria Island, Jipang (JapanMS exclusive), Dongfang (ChinaMS exclusive), and Formosa (TaiwanMS exclusive).
- Sub-Continents: Florina Island, Ludibrium, Fairy Tale Village, Peach Blossom Island and Aqua Road.
- Event Towns: Happyville.
- Internet Cafe: Premium Road.
Free Market
The Free Market is a place set aside for people who wish to sell their items without clogging up a certain town. They can either use regular chat to advertise their item, or they can set up their own miniature shop where a maximum of 3 people are allowed in at once. In order to do the latter, players will have to purchase a special permit available only through the Cash Shop. The regular store permit can hold 16 items while the special limited edition that has recently come out can hold twice as much.
Even while on another island, such as Ossyria, one may still make contact with people in Victoria Island through the Free Market. One can communicate and trade with someone entering the Free Market from any town. However, one cannot use the free market to travel between towns. There are entrances to the Free Market in Henesys, Perion, El Nath, Aquarium, Ludibrium, Omega Sector, Aqua Road, and Shouwa Town.
Items
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 defence, 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 defence increase, items can also provide stat bonuses. Normally, only Magician items and the all-class earrings provide Magic Defense; equipment for Warriors, Rogues, and Archers usually provide Weapon Defense only. Some equipments also give 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 crafted by an NPC or bought from a store. When equipments are dropped by monsters, the stats have a chance to differ from the average. Items with stats closer to the average are more common than ones with much more or less of a certain stat.
Equipment can be upgraded by using item upgrade scrolls. These scrolls give stat bonuses to equipment. The scrolls have a certain percentage of success, and the lower the success percentage, the higher the stat gains provided by the scrolls are. Each item initially has a number of empty slots. Every attempt to upgrade an item will use one slot, whether or not the scroll succeeded. Most equipment have seven slots. Earrings and most shoes have five slots. Overalls have ten slots.
Use items consist of consumable items, such as potions, pills, food (which serves the same purpose as potions), upgrade scrolls, town scrolls (teleports the user back to the nearest town or a specified town), arrows (only usable with bows/crossbows), and throwing stars (only usable 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 mainly 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. However, most items do not give actual gameplay bonuses to the character. The items sold in the Cash Shop include clothing items, haircut coupons, pets and much more.
For the most part, Cash Shop items are useless functionally and exist only for their aesthetic appeal. 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.
In MapleSEA, Gachapon tickets can be purchased in the Cash Shop. When used at designated Gachapon machines located around the Maple world, players can receive random items. This is a controversial item, since it seems to violate Wizet's philosophy to not allow Cash Shop items to significantly affect the gameplay of players who do not wish to purchase cash shop items. Opponents say this unbalances the game.
Pets, such as dogs can also be purchased from the Cash Shop. They can be equipped to pick up loose mesos and items that they pass. Pets - like most Cash Shop items - expire after a period of 90 days.
The Global Cash Shop markets items for two virtual currencies. One is Nexon Cash, or NX Cash. MapleStory Points are the other currency used in the Cash Shop. NX Cash is purchased outside of MapleStory through the MapleStory web site. MapleStory Points, however, can be earned through special events. PayPal is the only accepted payment method for MapleStory Global, although Wizet has stated that they will soon implement direct credit card transactions. Additionally eChecks are currently not being accepted.
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 [Tax inclusive](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 MOLePoints (which can be used to purchase 10,000 A-Cash).
Unique gameplay features
Although a purely two-dimensional game lacking certain features found in other MMORPGs, MapleStory has many features which set it apart from other 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.
Fame
Fame is one of the statistics on a character's character sheet and is sometimes claimed to be an indicator of a player's popularity among others in the game. Once characters are at least level fifteen, they are able to raise or lower the fame of any character excluding themselves by one point per day. A character's fame can not be raised or lowered by the same person more than once every thirty days. Fame has no significant effect in MapleStory, except for certain quest prerequisites and a select amount of high level pieces of equipment. Some players claim that it increases the probability of a monster dropping a rare item, but there is nothing to back that up.
Minigames
There are three minigames that can be played with up to three MapleStory characters. They are called Omok, Match Cards, and Pachinko. Playing minigames costs 100 mesos per game.
Omok is a remake of a Japanese game named "Gomoku". Omok and Gomuku are akin to tic-tac-toe, except players must instead get five "stones" in a row, rather than only three. Players can not make two unblocked rows of three stones in one move.
Match Cards is also known as the game "Concentration". Match cards games can be opened in grids of 3x4, 4x5, and 5x6 cards. The flip side of the cards contain images of MapleStory monsters, which players take turn matching.
Pachinko is a mini-game exclusive to jMS. Cash Shop-purchased Pachinko balls (coins) are required in order to play. The player must be in a Pachinko store (located in Kerning City, Shouwa Town, and Ludibrium) to play the game. In order to win, one needs to try to get the Pachinko balls in a mushroom hole below a slot. Once it is in, the slot will start. Sometimes an angel or a lady will try to help the player move the monsters in the slot. There are also winnable prizes if the player obtained a set amount of balls.
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. Participants are rewarded with items such as an Event Trophy and a Scroll of Secrets (which requires the player to decode it through an NPC (Non-Playable Character) to get a Magic Box and then open it at another NPC to receive a random prize).
- Coconut Harvest
Participants are divided into two teams, Team Maple and Team Story. The team which harvests the most coconuts by knocking them off coconut trees in the set amount of time wins.
- Find the Jewel
The goal of this event is to find maps hidden in various rooms to find a map. Players return the map to Vikan to complete it.
- MapleStory Physical Fitness Challenge (a.k.a. Hyperdash)
A jump quest with four levels; players must finish the quest within 15 minutes to complete the event without using haste or teleport.
- OX Quiz and Minigame Challenge
The OX Quiz consists of correctly answering question asked by a GM. Once players answers 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 in (presumably) steadily increasing skill.
- Ola Ola
Ola Ola takes place in a maze set in a forest with three maps. The goal of this event is to reach the end within 4 minutes. At the top of each map there are a series of portals which may bring players to the next map, bring them back to the beginning of the current map, or fail to do anything whatsoever. In Ola Ola, the player is not able to jump, haste, teleport, et cetera.
- Snowball
Players are divided into two teams, Team Maple and Team Story. The goal is to push a giant snowball to the end of the stage before the other team by attacking it. The players can also attack a snowman which prevents the other team from pushing the snowball.
Other 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.
Servers and registration
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 Korean MapleStory. The players are often reffered 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. 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. [7].
Though the Korean, Thai, and Global versions share the same world names, they are different and independent of each other, defined by;
- Language
- Publisher
- Server Location
- Specialized Worlds (See Main Article: MapleStory World)
Controls
The Controls for the game are operated using a computer keyboard and mouse or similar. Some of the controls are capable of being rearranged by the user, to adapt to their preference. As an example, the standard setting to use the attack command is with the "control" or "ctrl" button, although it differentiates for the users that rearranged that setting. However, certain controls are fixed, and cannot be modified by the player. For example, the movement keys are fixed as the directional arrows. This has led to some complaint from players who are used to the more traditional, or at least comfortable, WASD configuration for movement.
In some versions of MapleStory, a joypad may be used to control the game as well.
Game issues
As with most MMORPGs, there are bugs in the game, and people who exploit them. There are also many third party programs created to simplify gameplay for players, which the GMs believe to make the game unfair for other players. Thus, the use of third party programs is against the rules, and users who take advantage of them are frequently banned from the game. To combat these programs, various security measures have been implemented such as GameGuard and a PIN requirement.
Scamming is also common. Scammers use a variety of methods to mislead other players into giving them mesos, items, or NX Cash. Such methods range from using hacking programs to simply preying upon newer users. Note that the use, promoting, or selling of hacking programs results in an almost immediate ban in most cases.
One may find an occasional misspelled word in the game's text.
Nintendo DS version
The Nintendo DS version of the game is currently under development, with the Korean release date set for late 2006 or early 2007. MapleStory DS will be the second Nintendo DS game developed by a Korean company. [8] [9]
Notes
- Most information obtained from those given during the course of gameplay.
- ^ MapleStory statistics
- ^ MapleSea's "How to Play" introduction See "About the World and Character" section for MapleStory's general channel information.
- ^ MapleStory Global's official answer to interworld transfer questions
- ^ MapleStory Global's answer to fourth job advancement inquiries Note that the third job advancement has been implented since this page was last updated.
- ^ Monster List Monster sum derived from applied arithmetic using the list.
- ^ a b c MapleStory SEA Info - Quests retrieved May 14, 2006
- ^ MapleStory Global's reason for IP blocking
- ^ http://www.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=200605110210 MapleStory on the Nintendo DS
- ^ http://english.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=200605120008 English Version of MapleStory on Nintendo DS
External links
- Official 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
- Official MapleStory Developer site - Wizet Corp., Ltd. Korean
- Official MapleStory Developer site - Wizet Corp., Ltd. Japanese
- MapleStory fansites
- Sleepywood - Message board with an extensive trading forum [GlobalMS].
- Happy Mapling - Library of game information and a helpful community [GlobalMS].
- Sauna - Library of information taken directly from game client [GlobalMS].
- Hidden Street - Library of game information [GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
- BasilMarket - Item auctioning website and forums [GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
- Mapletip - Library of information with unique featues such as a MapleWiki[GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
- A Drop of Maple - Library of game information [JapanMS].
- Omega Sector - Library of information taken directly from the game client [JapanMS].
- Extreme - Library of game information & MS background music [JapanMS].
- Toontowncentral Forums - MS Section - Active MapleStory community with guides.