MapleStory

MapleStory (Korean: 메이플스토리) is an MMO video game developed by Wizet and published by Nexon. It was released in 2003 in Korea and Japan, and released in other countries from 2004-2007. Later on, Nexon acquired Wizet and focused primarily on the game. In 2015, Nexon announced a short-lived sequel MapleStory 2, which was released to the public in October 2018 and closed in March 27, 2020 due to various factors.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) MapleStory is often credited as the first known game in the world to implement the loot box system. The "gachapon" system (as it was called) were originated from the Japanese version of the game where player can purchase a "gachapon ticket" for 100 yen (1 US dollar) to open a gachapon for random items.
 * 2) Latency problem. Depending on what computer you use, you may get ranges from little to no lag (mostly gaming laptops) to the point where you crash. (Older computers, notably Pentium 4, Pentium D and Athlon 64)
 * 3) *You can also get disconnected from the client for "hacking" for no reason, mostly by lagging horribly or having another program running, usually Discord or other games. However, this is usually uncommon depending on your computer.
 * 4) The game became a huge grindfest as of 2010 (the Big Bang patch). You will see many people with millions (or even billions) of mesos (the game's currency) due to the side effects of level grinding.
 * 5) *Before the 2010 patch, the game was even more grindy; it would take you one year just to get to level 50.
 * 6) If you have an accented username (i.e. the username has at least a Unicode character), you cannot change it. This is because MapleStory was coded in C++, or more specifically, an older revision of the C++ standard. Older revisions before C++11 could not recognize Unicode characters.
 * 7) The cash shop is a problem to F2P users. Thankfully, there are sometimes "sugar days" in which you stay on MapleStory for 120 minutes (2 hours) and you can mostly get reward points. However, they are extremely rare.
 * 8) * Speaking of reward points, they are considered somewhat an alternative to NX Prepaid/Credit, but you can only buy essential items and not cosmetics.
 * 9) Some classes can range from downright confusing or difficult as they level up (Blaster, due to their 4th job relying more on animation cancelling, and Zero (not the one from Mega Man), due to their gender-swapping mechanic) to just plain weak (Jett/Zen, due to their very low damage scalings).
 * 10) *Not to mention some classes can also get boring over time, like Mechanic, which was one of the classes drastically nerfed back in the 2015 Resistance revamp.
 * 11) *Plus, Zen is basically the same as Jett, although both can be fun to play.
 * 12) For some reason, Wizet did not allow players to play the game in 1080p or in 720p, (it was added for beta and there was another way, but they patched it).
 * 13) Their filters are so strict that it can compete with Roblox. You can not say "participate" without "cipa" getting censored. Unlike Roblox, bypassing the filter is much easier since you can add brackets to a letter that is part of a censored term, like 'cash [i]tem' or "particip[ate]." However, you can still say some inappropriate words like "cum," "ass," etc.
 * 14) Previously, Nexon did not do much to stop scam/kill-stealing bots, mostly the ones that are Kanna, Blaze Wizard, Kaiser, and Jett. This lead to Nexon banning legitimate Kanna users as well. Back in 2018-2019, Ark bots would pop up in several locations, mostly in Mu Lung and the level 190-only place Haven. Thankfully, the bots have died down drastically.
 * 15) * Because of this, as of April 2020, you would have to put in your PIC if you want to create a character (or a mule) or even store some items via storage NPCs. This has been removed as of 2021.
 * 16) * There was also the extremely short-lived Safe Mode hotkey (from early 2018), in which you would have to put in your PIC in order to "unpause" the game. However, it was taken out quickly, likely due to backlash and the fact that it was useless. It also temporarily replaced the Crusader Codex hotkey.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Artstyle that ranges from cute to downright awesome. It helps the fact that it improved over the years, just like Touhou.
 * 2) Nostalgic soundtrack, notably the Pre-Big Bang (or pre-2010) BGMs (e.g. Henesys, Ellinia, Lith Harbor, etc.). The newer BGMs are also great to listen to.
 * 3) Passible voice acting. The voice acting is even better in certain storylines, like Glory.
 * 4) Decent, albeit extremely convoluted, lore which consisted of many memorable moments, such as the level 120 blockbuster Black Heaven.
 * 5) Most of the classes are usually fun to play, notably the most overpowered ones like the Explorer Thief, Kaiser, etc.
 * 6) Nexon did take drastic measures to stop and reduce bots, such as having mandatory 2FA and captcha whenever you create a character.
 * 7) Recently, the game is slowly improving thanks to newer major patches, such as NEO and Destiny.