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MapleStory
File:MapleStory.PNG
Developer(s)	Wizet
Publisher(s)	Wizet, Nexon, Shanda, AsiaSoft, NXGames, and Gamania
Platform(s)	Windows(98/ME/2K/XP)
Release	May 2002 November 2003 December 2004 July 4, 2005 August 29, 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 Nexon. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Wizet , 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. 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 typical role-playing game. 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.

MapleStory DS is the tentative title of the Nintendo DS version of the game, which is currently under development. The Korean release date is set for late 2006 or early 2007. It is still unknown if Wizet will release a Global version of the game.

Gameplay

Like most MMORPGs, gameplay centers around 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). Though the 2D graphics don't give players the best sense of realism, it's an important part of MapleStory because it allows each game area to be larger. 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 mainly with the keyboard; the mouse is mainly used to trigger NPC's, select various menus from the UI and to interact with other players.

Characters in MapleStory advance by gaining experience points (EXP, like many other RPGs), 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" or "servers", e.g., "Scania" 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. Characters and their items cannot be transferred between worlds, although there is limited functionality in transferring items between characters of the same world. Players can use facial expressions ingame. Players may also buy additional facial expressions from the Cash Shop.

Controls

The Controls for the game are executed using the computer keyboard and mouse. Most of the controls are capable of being rearranged by the user, to adapt to their preference. As an example, the standard setting to execute an attack command is to press the "control" or "ctrl" button, although it varies depending on the players custom settings. Many of the buttons (e.g. the letter "K" opens the skills book) are shortcuts to various functions. 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.

New players

New players are sent to Maple Island, a floating island specifically designed to be beginner-friendly. Unlike many 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 allocate 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 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 avatar the player can also choose from a limited variety of faces, hair styles, hair colors and skin colors. These can be modified only through the purchase of special coupons from the Cash Shop.

Leveling up

Characters begin the game at level 1. To increase in level, the character must kill monsters or complete quests to gain experience (EXP). MapleStory has a progressively, near-exponentially difficult leveling program. During the earlier levels, only a few minutes or hours of gameplay are required to level up. The higher a character's level becomes, the more experience points one needs to level up. This means that the higher a character's level gets the more time it takes to gain a level. When a character is level 70 or higher, it may take days or weeks to level up once. At each level up, 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, DEX, INT, and LUK. at their own will.

Players can kill monsters alone, or they can form a party with up to 5 other characters (6 characters total). Each party has a leader who initially creates the party and then 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. The EXP and money gained is only shared if the party members are in the same map and channel. The higher the character's level in relation to other party members and the more damage done will increase the EXP received. When a player forms a party with other players, and then lets the other players fight and get free EXP and loot, without any effort, it is called "leeching". Leeching is generally considered rude, unless with permission from other members of the party.

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 EXP they have gained or, equivalently, their level and percentage.

The KoreaMS, JapanMS, and GlobalMS websites have ranking systems that allows anyone to view any character's ranking within the version. Rankings may be viewed in four ways: overall, world, class, and fame. 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 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 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 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. As the player can build their character to their liking, there is no such thing as a "perfect character."

• Intelligence (INT) increases magic attack, which has determines spell accuracy and spell damage. It also increases magic defence. Magicians need at least 20 AP in INT to make their first job advancement.
• Luck (LUK) increases avoidability and, to a lesser extent, accuracy. It also has a major effect on Thief's dagger attack and star attack. Some players believe that LUK increases the drop rate of items, however, this is not true.
• Health Points (HP) Adding Ability Points in it will increases the maximum HP a character has.
• Mana Points (MP) Adding Ability Points in it will increases the maximum MP a character has.

Skills

Every character class has specific skills in which to invest and their effects vary. There are 3 types of skills: Passive (activated automatically when the moment is right), Supportive (manually activated to help the player) 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 at some point or the "Dark Sight" skill the Thief gets or "Magic Guard" which a magician gets), to affecting allied members as well (The Assassin/Bandit skill "Haste" is a good example) to powering down monsters (such as the Page's "Threaten" skill). Some Supportive skills are only available depending on the equipped weapon, such as the Hunter's Bow Booster skill which cannot be used while a Crossbow is equipped. Certain monsters, such as sharks, can 'dispel' these types of skills, usually resulting in high fatilities or inconveniences. When a player is affected by a passive skill, an icon with the skill's image is shown in the top-right corner.

• 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 most weapons (exception can be made for the Thief's "Lucky Seven"/"Double Stab", which is the only Active Skill they'll get). From the second job however, nearly all active skills require a specific weapon. For example, the warrior's "Power Strike" can be performed with any weapon. However, in the Dragon Knight's job, its active skills can only be performed with either a Polearm or a Spear.

Magician active skills can performed with only one-handed weapons. Exceptions are Arrow-based attacks (such as Holy Arrow or Magic Composition) and skills that do not use the normal spell-casting animation.

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. 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 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%, although it has been claimed that there was no EXP loss due to high LUK) based upon the amount of LUK they have. 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. Unlike other games such as RuneScape, if a player dies they will not lose any items but will lose EXP if they have a job advancement. Also unlike RuneScape, you cannot kill another character to gain their equipment or money, however, if you have summoning sacks it is possible to kill another or many characters, but still, you cannot take their items.

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 MapleStory Global events.

A character cannot fall below zero percent EXP, rendering leveling only ascendable. Upon death the player can remain in ghost-form for an unlimited time (this may vary from version to version, as the Global version will automatically send the player to the nearest town after an allocated time), but instead of the usual speech bubbles, a "thought bubble" is substituted. A character may still use facial expressions when dead.

Character classes

All characters start the game as a "Beginner". When leveling up, beginners are given 5 AP per level, and from levels 1 to 6 are given 1 SP per level to use on any of their three skills. 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. It is not advisable not to acquire one's class when one have reached the minimum level for it and continue to level up, because then they will forever lose the SP that they would have otherwise received if they had acquired your class.

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. 3rd job advancement is currently available in all version except EuropeMS.

At level one hundred twenty (120), the character can once again change classes. However, fourth job advancements have not yet been implemented in any version of the game, except in the KoreaMS Beta server, which is currently testing the fourth job. However, Wizet has revealed the names of the fourth job classes.

Monsters

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Killing monsters gives a player experience, sometimes mesos, and sometimes items, or 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.

Some monsters are "super" monsters or "monster from another dimension". These are monsters that cannot be killed or even attack. They usually reside in jump quests. They usually have very high avoidability stats and very low weapon attack stats.

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

Some monsters have skills which they use on characters in a certain range when they are attacked. A 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, stunning, which renders a player unable to perform any action whatsoever (except use potions and talk, and only lasts for a few seconds), poison which decreases hp by a certain amount either by second or every few seconds and 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 "Fierries" can increase defense of other nearby monsters temporarily. The same priest skill that can dispel negative player status can also cancel out these skills. Monsters like "Lupins" or "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 which can be avoided. However, some magic attacks from monsters cannot be avoided unless the player is out of its maximum hit range. Some monsters will attack without provocation; until a patch reversed the action, the "Dark Nependeath" would attack anything in range, and the two bosses Thanatos and Gatekeeper are programmed to attack without provocation. More powerful monsters like the "Mushmom" and "King Slime" usually will have a very powerful 'earthquake' area attack that can damage anything in its range. This can be avoided by jumping. The main types of attack styles are radius cover attacks, single target locking attacks, projectile attacks (slang pixie style), short range single direction hit, 'ground spike' attacks (used by thanatos), thunder attacks (used by tauromacis) and 'earthquake' hit. Monsters also have different types of movement. There are stationary, moving, and flying/swimming monsters. Stationary monsters that do not move (e.g. Nependeath) from their spawning location. These monsters usually have a high attack and/or a long-ranged special attack. There are also moving monsters. This monster class is typically very different from stationary, but some of the monsters in the catogoery, like Trixter, only move up and down from the ceiling. Some moving monsters, like pigs, can jump, and others cannot. Players often take advantage of non-jumping monsters and go to ledges where they can attack the monster but it cannot attack back. Flying/Swimming monsters are monster that are not bound to the ground, but can fly or swim. The flying monsters (e.g, Crimson Balrog) are typically higher levels. Swimming monsters roam Aqua Road. Maps that are filled with these monsters are usually less crowded as players cannot safely go AFK (away from keyboard) and heal.

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. One characteristic of bosses are that their spoils are typically dominant over other similar items in the boss' level group; supporting this generality, the Zakum can drop one of three similar "Zakum Helmets" of which one has statistics that are superior to all other level fifty helmets. Having this in mind, the boss monsters also have a much higher health to other monsters of its level range eg. the average health of the monsters in the 31-40 level range is 1500. The "King Slime" (level 40) has 8000 health. Another feature of bosses are that they spawn less frequently than normal monsters; for example, "Mushmom" spawns at its own map every forty minutes to an hour.

Select bosses may include "King Slime", "Alishar", "Zakum" and "Pianus" which are found at the last stage of their respective accompaniments, "Chief Gray", an alien boss found at Omega Sector, "Rombot" at Eos Tower or "Crimson Balrog", which appears during a random trip from the Ellinia-Orbis stations.

Most boss monsters have special privileges such as being unaffected by some spells, higher than normal attack, defence and special attack power and summoning powers.

Quests

Template:Wikibookspage Quests are varying tasks that players may perform for NPCs in return for experience and possible rewards. There are over a hundred possible 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", 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. 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.

Accompaniments/Party Quests

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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" and "PQ" interchangeably. Each party quest has its own level limits which every character in the party must be within to enter the party quest.

The first party quest is in Kerning City. A party of four, ranging from levels 21 to 30, progresses through five stages in fewer than 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 party quest at any given time on one channel.

The second party quest is located in Ludibrium. A party of six, ranging from levels 35 to 50, progresses through nine stages (not including the bonus stage) in less than 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 scrolls. In some rare cases, some have been known to have been rewarded summoning sacks. After the boss monster (Alishar) is defeated, there is a bonus stage. In this stage players have one minute to break as many boxes as possible which drop a variety of items and equipments.

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 playing in a boss battle with Zakum. Overall, more experience is gained from this party quest than others. One known reward from this party quest is the "Zakum Hat" that users can wear on their head to show they have completed the quest.

A fourth party quest is in Orbis. Details are unknown, however it is only in KoreaMS. Also, there's a Guild Quest in the Perion Castle area, but it's only available in JapanMS and KoreaMS.

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 re-attainable and monetarily valuable. John in Lith Harbor and Shumi in Kerning City each gives three jump quests of increasing difficulty, Sabitrama of Sleepywood gives two quests and assistant Cheng in the Ludibrium Toy Factory also gives one quest. Mobility skills (Teleport, Flash Jump) are disabled in Jump Quests, as with speed and jump boosts (This means while Haste can be cast in the area, it will have no effect).

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 not able 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 between 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 world of Aqua Road with an aquarium. Ludibrium is a toy village accessible via a flying train from Orbis. At the bottom of West Eos Tower, one will come across Omega Sector, an area where players resist an alien invasion and the legendary Korean Folk Town at the bottom of East Eos Tower where players travel back in time also another portal to east end of Aqua Road. Riprey, an island with an egg theme with strong monsters and where a huge blue bird is used as transportation to travel between Orbis.

Solely in the JapanMS version, there is an additional continent called Jipang, based on Japanese culture; similarly, Korean Folk Town (available in KoreaMS, JapanMS, ChinaMS and TaiwanMS) is based on the Korean culture. Dong Fang Shen Zhou and Formosa are continents exclusive to ChinaMS and TaiwanMS versions respectively. 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). Night City is a new area in TaiwanMS that is also part of Formosa it is going to be released on August 23, 2006. While China released Yu Yuan Garden also part of Dong Fang Shen Zhou at the same time.

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 previously made contracts with the programming staff of its local MapleStory version. In addition, there is also an event town Happyville which is only available during the Christmas period.

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. The regular store permit can hold 16 different items; Spring Store Permits and Summer Store Permits can hold 24 different items, although they cost twice as much Cash and are only available seasonally.

A lot of trades occur in the Free Market since one can still 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), Riprey (KoreaMS), and Shouwa Town (JapanMS).

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, or sold/traded to other characters. 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. This usually only applies to dark armors only. 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 crafted by an NPC or bought from a store. When equipments are dropped by monsters, the stats typically 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 which lessens after each attempt to upgrade it, whether it works or not. Most equipment have seven slots. Earrings, most gloves and most shoes have five slots. Overalls outfits 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 and more recently a 2X meso 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 monkeys, dogs, cats, bunnies, pandas, huskies, pigs, dinosaurs and Yeti(Korean Version only.). can also be purchased from the Cash Shop. They can be equipped to pick up the Mesos and items that drop from the monsters their owner defeats. They can also level up and learn new tricks. Pets ― like most Cash Shop items ― expire after a period of 90 days. However, once expired, they can be revived while keeping their level (prior to expiring) by using the Water of Life (another Cash Shop item), and finishing a short quest, which is less expensive than buying a new Pet.

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. PayPal is the only accepted payment method for MapleStory Global, although Wizet has stated that they will soon implement direct credit card transactions.

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).

Sometimes event quest items will appear in random parts of the Cash Shop, which players can buy for 1 Meso (Not NX Cash, Maple Points, etc).

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, and to bond with other players. 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.

Guilds have a customizable hierarchy. The "Guild Master", who initially created the guild, can invite or expel other players to or from the guild. He can also appoint other guild members to the rank of "Jr. Master" with the same privilege. Other privileges that the Guild Master possess are changing the ranks and rank title of the guild members and the right to disband the guild.

In the Korean and Japanese versions there is a special quest for guilds called "Sharanian". It is much like a party quest but more difficult. It is most likely designed for high-leveled guild members (level 70+).

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 Maplers 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 distinguishes 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.

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' armour type such as the "Dark Anakamoon" for mages. Though some players suggested that fame increases ones chances of gaining rare items from monster drops, it is only a rumor.

Minigames

There are two minigames that 2 players may play together called Omok and Match Cards, both of which require a certain amount of Mesos to play. There are also three solo minigames called Pachinko, Ga-cha-pon, and Rock Paper Scissors, the first two requiring the purchase of certain Cash Shop items to be able to play them.

• Omok is the Korean cognate of a Japanese game named "Gomoku". Omok and Gomuku are akin to tic-tac-toe. To win, a player needs to place 5 of his/her pieces in horizontal, vertical or diagonal line.

• Match Cards is also known as the game "Concentration". Match cards games can be opened in grids of 3x4, 4x5, and 5x6 cards. The other side of the cards contains images of MapleStory monsters, which players take turn matching.

• Pachinko is a mini-game exclusive to JapanMS. Pachinko balls (coins) may be purchased in the Cash Shop and are required in order to play. The player must be in a Pachinko store (located in certain towns) to play the game. In order to win, one needs to try to get the Pachinko balls in a mushroom hole below a slot; they are sometimes aided by NPCs. Once it is in, the slot will start. If the player obtains a certain amount of balls, he or she may win in-game prizes.

• Ga-cha-pon (also known as Ga-ca-pon) is a mini-game available in JapanMS, MapleSEA, and ThailandMS. To play Ga-cha-pon, one must first purchase a Ga-cha-pon Ticket from the Cash Shop. The game is basically a slot game where the player inserts one ticket and a random, rare prize comes out. The ticket prices vary depending on the amount one purchases. The Ga-cha-pon Slot Machines are located in Ellinia, Henesys, Perion, Kerning City, Sleepywood, Jipang, Aquarium and Ludibrium.

• Rock Paper Scissors is the newest minigame released. While KoreaMS has this minigame, it's uncertain if other versions will receive this minigame. Similar to Pachinko, it is a one-player minigame, as one plays against the Maple Administrator NPC. Since this minigame is new, it's uncertain if this minigame will become a human-versus-human minigame.

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, and summer.

Versions and registration

Template:MapleStory Versions Template:MapleStory Versions content

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 closed beta testing as of 28 July 2006.

Criticism

Some people believe MapleStory's level system is too heavily based on grinding (ex. higher levels (level 70+) may have to kill several thousands of monsters, so they can earn the several million exp points needed to level up). 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+.

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, more often than not, can only be obtained by killing monsters) to gain a reward.

Game Master (GM) appearances are rare, and therefore, the number of hackers and scammers in MapleStory is high. Hacking is common in ChinaMS, it is becoming increasingly common in GlobalMS and is starting to bring many hackers to MapleSEA, sparking much anger with its players who claim that the Game Masters are not doing enough to stop hacking.

Recently, MapleGlobal is having troubles processing verification emails for users of Hotmail and Yahoo accounts. Due to the high volume of emails sent by Wizet, MSN Hotmail and Yahoo! email providers are blocking the emails considering them E-mail spam. New users are recommended to use their ISP's email or Gmail. Meanwhile, people who had once signed up using a Hotmail or Yahoo email address are the unable to receive emails, especially following a password change.

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

Game issues

As with most 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, making them invincible, increasing their speed or even enabling them to fly. One of the most used hacks is known in-game as "vac hack." This hack will drag monsters toward a specified location, creating a faster training as travel time is reduced to nothing and splash damage is used. This makes the game unfair for other players. Thus, the use of third party programs is forbidden, and users who take advantage of them are usually banned from the game. Another issue is account scamming, when people are phished to give their own personal information, or even keylogging their information. To combat these programs, various security measures have been implemented such as GameGuard and a PIN requirement. The PIN requirement is not as beneficial as Wizet made it to be, as it can be used against the rightful owner and can be logged with complex keyloggers. People who use hacks ultimately gets banned in time, wasting their own time and energy. If they are lucky, they get penalised during their cheating. Otherwise, they can get banned for their offence months or even years later even if they have stopped cheating. The saying 'honestly is the best policy' is never more true. Once one has cheated, one forever faces the possibility of losing their account overnight.

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. For example, a common scam is the "item duplication" scam, in which a higher level player requests a trade from a lower level player, telling them that by pressing the keys "Tab, Tab, Spacebar, Enter" in succession they can duplicate the items they have placed in the trade. Doing so causes an immediate trade to the other player, in which case the player that was scammed loses their item. Note that the use, promoting, or selling of hacking programs results in an almost immediate ban in most cases.

Another issue is the sharing of accounts (account sharing). This means that 2 or more people use the same user ID and password to play on the same account in the game. Doing this usually allows the player to level up faster and appear to always be online.

Rarely, one may find a small glitch in the game, such as falling through a normally solid platform or disappearing people/monsters/items. 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.

One may also find an occasional misspelled word, as well as various grammatical mistakes, in the game's text, especially when talking to an NPC.

References

1. ^ Jun Sok Huhh (06-04-21). "Some facts on MapleStory". Retrieved 2006-06-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "MapleStory on the Nintendo DS" (in Korean). Retrieved 2006-06-29.
3. Lee Jin-ho (2006-05-12). "Nexon ties up with Nintendo". Retrieved 2006-06-29.
4. "MapleStory - Intro - How to play". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
5. "FAQ | Gameplay - Can I transfer my account between gateways? Between worlds?". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
6. "MapleFriends' ". Hidden-Street.net "EXP Table". Hidden-Street.net. Retrieved 2006-06-29. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
7. ^ "Guide - User Interface". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-07-01.
8. "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)
9. "FAQ | Game Play - Are 3rd and 4th job advancements available?". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29. (Outdated Web page) The third job advancement has since been implemented in GlobalMS.
10. ^ "MapleStory - Info - Quests". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-05-04.
11. "Night City released on August 23, 2006 Taiwan MapleStory". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
12. "Dong Fang Shen Zhou released on China MapleStory". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
13. "Dong Fang Shen Zhou released on China MapleStory". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
14. "Various Features - Pet". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for mapleglobal.com.
15. "Notice - NX Cash Fraud: Gifting Disabled". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-07-04. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for MapleGlobal.com.
16. "Notice - Report Gift Fraud". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-07-04. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for mapleglobal.com.
17. "MapleStory - Cash Shop - Prepaid Cards". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-07-04.
18. "Various Features - Guild". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29. Requires Internet Explorer or disabled Javascript for mapleglobal.com.
19. "Intro - Game Events". Asiasoft. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
20. "FAQ | General - Why is my country blocked from MapleGlobal?". NX Games. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
21. "HOTMAIL & YAHOO Verification Alert". Retrieved 2006-09-4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

External links

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 Maple Story.
• - A Maple Story hack site dedicated to hacking MapleStory. Any help or tips are provided.
• 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. .

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