I Miss The Old MapleStory: Is Nexon Officially Making Us Pay-To-Progress With The New Age Update?

Nexon is in hot water right now, and I mean boiling hot. Scorching, really. Players of MapleStory, the company’s golden child MMORPG, are extremely frustrated and incredibly upset about changes coming soon to the game. Specifically, the issue is related to a cap on the amount of Sol Erda that they can obtain each day. This is material needed for upgrading Sixth Job skills, a brand new feature of the upcoming New Age update. In addition to the cap, there is also apparently a booster that can increase it for a monthly fee of $30. 

(Did I mention the Korean version of MapleStory doesn’t have either of these player-unfriendly features?)

So people are rightfully pissed. They’re feeling like the game is becoming more pay-to-win than it’s ever been before, and that’s saying something because we’re talking about a game that’s championed the free-to-play genre.

Today though, MapleStory is infamous for bleeding their players dry, in money, and time, and Maplers are tired. This game they love is so blatantly adopting a pay-to-progress model, and forcing them to spend even more hours every day/week/month on MapleStory than before…or get left behind in the dust.

Now why do I care about all this you ask, as someone who stopped playing MapleStory (for good hopefully) earlier this year? Because I still love this game, too. In fact, I’ve always kept up with MapleStory; even when I stopped playing for years at a time. There’s just something so unique and remarkably special about the game. Maybe it’s nostalgia from a simpler time, when I first started playing MapleStory in middle school. Or then again in high school for the Big Bang update. I’m not sure. All I know is that the artstyle and gameplay are uniquely enthralling; plus the music is easily my favorite from any video game ever (to this day).

It’s just sad to see where the game has gone. Almost every day I check to see if Nexon has made an announcement regarding Old School Maplestory or MapleStory Classic. When no results turn up, I go watch Korean Maplers play MapleStory Worlds on Twitch. (In the East, folks can play an unofficial official version of the MapleStory they knew back when they were younger through Nexon’s Roblox-like content creation platform.)

I just want to play this game without feeling the constant pressure MapleStory puts on you every time you log in. Either you spend time, money, or both. There’s no in between, really. You can’t casually play this game.

That’s because MapleStory is the king of FOMO. (That means fear of missing out, but you knew that already… right?) There’s no game like it out there in this department. Seriously. Don’t bother playing MapleStory if you don’t plan to treat it like a part-time job. That’s why I miss the old days, when the game allowed you to play as little or as much as you wanted. For the record, I’m well aware there were countless flaws with what is considered “Old School” or “Classic” MapleStory. It’s definitely still way easier to progress in the game today, but the magic is gone.

Hell, I’d even take the current MapleStory if it meant no more dailies and weeklies. No more pay-to-win or pay-to-progress. You can keep the Cash Shop, Nexon, but only fill it with cosmetics. No 2x EXP/Drop cards, cubes, totems, or anything like that.

Don’t tell me to play the Reboot servers, because they screwed them up too by this point in the game’s lifespan. Make me pay a subscription every month for all I care about, Nexon. $15? Sure, I can do that. Just give me my MapleStory back.