Hello there! It has been awhile and you are probably wondering, what has Adrian done for the past two months?
Of course, every youngsters, especially males would not miss the opportunity to play games during their holiday, because that’s the time they can do it freely *take note that they still visit cyber cafes for games* when they are supposed to be studying in the library.
While it is a good way to finish your time quickly, its alot of fun playing the online game plus a price to pay, getting addicted. In this episode, I was a test rat putting myself into shoes of online gamers and have played the most uberly popular 2D side scrolling game, and that would be Maple Story.
My visit to the website, Maplesea.com brightens me alot. Upon entrance, i was greeted by really good and cute animations. There are always new events and updated announcements section to make you feel bad in case u did missed any of them. Clicky and here I am at the download page. The size is about 700MB for the game. I hesitated for a moment, do I really want to this? Too late. I clicked and the progress bar zoomed slowly. Okay time for some green tea while waiting.
The starting point
Installation was a breeze. The best thing about Maplestory is that since its 2D, the effects and animations would not require a high-end com to run it. Even my 4 year-old laptop can run the game, though a bit slower and laggy. This is one of MapleStory’s attraction when compared to other memory-hogging, CPU burning 3D games. It has great cute graphics and yet packed into a 700MB installer. Get yourself registered and voila, you’re now a mapler.
If you have an account already long time ago, then you can skip that boring registration part and get started with the game. I will not go in depth on creating characters. There a re 4 classes, Hunters who usese bow/crossbows , Thieves who uses daggers(melee) / stars yeah like de ninjas), Warriors (speaman/fighter/crusader) and Magician ( Firepoison/ Ice Lightning/ Clerics). The next thing i know i was clicking and rolling dices( virtually) to get the perfect stats. Since each class only require 2 types of Ability Point from ( STR-strength, INT- intelligence, LUK- luck, Dex- dexterity), its wise to get the two important stats for the class you want to play so that your character is strong! So there i was clicking for about 30 minutes or so.
Learning the game is easy. There is a whole tutorial map for you to get to lvl 8 for mages or 10 for other classes. Here comes the hours. It gets really really addictive from lvl 1-20 because leveling is not that hard yet.
After every level you get to add your AP( ability point) and SP ( your skill point). Therefore, no doubt your character gets stronger after every level. Plus, you get can get new active skills for attacking or passive skills that helps you in the game.
You never lose, or win.
The driving point ( or rather the addiction point) of this game is that each time you level, your ranking goes up. You get new skills to play with or your skilss get stonger. Then you get to kill better and stronger monsters. In maple story, you never lose. Each time you level ahead of your friends, you feel proud. But then as you walk, you see people with higher level. Then there you go walking straight to your favourite map to do some intensive training.
At lvl 1-30, you can have one level up for about 1-2 hours per level. From 30 onwards it takes 2-4 hours for one level. And from lvl 70, ahem its takes 2 hours or more for just 10% of the exp bar.
Getting myself addicted
Maple Story will never get boring. This is because of the constant addition of new maps, new items, new monsters and many other ingame events.
In a monster hitting event.
Imagine, with monster riding you can now travel around by riding boars. Its so fun! but wait, theres a catch. You will nid 20 million mesos. Which is quite impossible to obtain without playing yourself in the Free Market, or get ready to fork out some real cash to play the gachapon.
Why some parents support it?
Interesting but true, there are even some PARENTS PLAYING the game themselves. Though maple story may look like a normal average looking girl standing side by side with Paris Hilton when being compared with games such as Ragnarok Online or other online games out there which features 3D effects, Maple Story game is easy to master but never easy to be a pro.
In maple story, its pretty much the same as the real world. You have mesos(cash), and you have the free market. You sell and trade, which i believe is really not an easy task. Getting yourself pro in the market means you have to know the prices of scrolls ( the most valuble item in maple story). Get ready to do some trading as people will really bargain to squeeze out your hard earned mesos.
The addiction fun
Leveling up is fun. Once you start playing, you will realise you get more naggings and scolding from your parents. You become less productive in the real world but very productive in the game- helping to kill monsters that will just come out over and over again.
Its repetitive, but your level isnt. You keep getting stronger. The next thing you know, you are always awake in the middle of the night, trying to avoid the crowd to find some peaceful time to hit monsters or to enter party quests which is always full.
Also, take note that once you die (touch wood* i mean your character dies, they lose experience points- about 5% to 10%). meaning you have to spend another 4-5 hours of training to earn them back.
The Game Spoilers
Scammers. They scam your item/mesos straight out of your pocket.
Hackers. Once you get hacked, only your level and character stays. You had 100 million mesos? gone. Godly scrolled and expensive equipments? gone.
Ksers. Imagine you hitting a mushroom. It takes u 20 hits to kill it. Then on the 19th hit, someone came right beside you, hit it and kill it. Instead of the 100 exp you deserve, that kser probably took 30 exp away, that means he just ksed you. ><
A-cash users. Maple remains free to play but users buy maple cash or points with thier real money to buy special in game items. Although they are not necessary (because maple is free), these users tend to discriminate others who doesnt pay to play.
So much talk, so to play or not?
If you are a person with lots of patience and really, theres nothing in this real world for you, go on, create your own story in maple story. But beware because you will be losing lots of precious time that you will never gain back.
I played the Delphinus world from lvl 1 to lvl 74 in two months. A chief bandit now come to its senses. I am real but the game isnt. I once thought i could control myself by playing 1-2 hours but turned out i spent 5-8 hours a day playing it.
DO NOT TOUCH MAPLE STORY unless you really know what you are doing.
this game will no doubt take alot of your time. But which game doesnt?
Maple is not just a 2D game. when u play it you realise there is much more to it. After all, a game main point is to let you have fun. For me it was really fun getting to know new friends through the game ^^
Chief Bandit/ delphinus/ maplesea/ lvl 74. retired.