Another one of those free micropayment based MMORPGs that came out of Korea. But this baby not only has some funding, they even have some crazy television ads. How do I know? I saw one on Cartoon Network not long ago. And that should give you all the reason to see how the micropayment world works. Sony? Microsoft? Nintendo? Take note.
Note that the Japanese ad shown here is just as nutty as the US one that I saw. SD character 2D fighting along with your usual Pows, bops, and Bams. With 4 million plus players and counting in he U.S. alone, there’s something to be said about this game where there’s hardly any cursing, and no PVP (player versus player) fighting.Of course, with all fads, come the detractors. FOX 11 out of the Los Angeles area did this investigative reporting, making it sound like Nexon (the developers of Maple Story) should have some sort of say in the players when they lie, cheat, and steal to upgrade their avatars. What’s amusing about this “investigation” was that the end result was already decided. The kids that steal from their parents PayPal and credit cards to play Maple Story? Total responsibility issue on behalf of the parents and not the game developer. This goes back to how game violence somehow effects how children but yet television and violent movies do not? Sounds like a parenting issue.
All in all, this goes to show that even a 2D world with SD characters can gain many many players that are willing to pay the micropayment amounts. Small dollar figures is key to in a society where people might not have fifty dollars to throw here and there, but add up all the onesies and twosies, and you can make millions.
All I can think is that it’s yet another game that pretends everyone has the same version of Microsoft Windows installed, and that’s just not the case. There’s more than one version for, say, Japanese, alone - and in the US you might or might not meet their directX requirements or even administrator rights on your machine.
And yet, none of this is said on their websites - though Maple Story has one of the better support sections and does answer patching and directx questions, assuming you get that far.
Why do games or services pretend that everyone can play them when they require some offshoot or patch to Windows that everyone may not have?
The craze behind Maple Story 
October 25th, 2007 • 
Darius Sartre • 
comment | October 25, 2007 at 14:46 | individual comment-link
All I can think is that it’s yet another game that pretends everyone has the same version of Microsoft Windows installed, and that’s just not the case. There’s more than one version for, say, Japanese, alone - and in the US you might or might not meet their directX requirements or even administrator rights on your machine.
And yet, none of this is said on their websites - though Maple Story has one of the better support sections and does answer patching and directx questions, assuming you get that far.
Why do games or services pretend that everyone can play them when they require some offshoot or patch to Windows that everyone may not have?
comment | October 25, 2007 at 16:21 | individual comment-link
That’s a great point, Crissa, I’m not sure what’s the deal there.
comment | November 2, 2007 at 15:43 | individual comment-link
Parenting issue, and what kind of fucktard would steal for a game…