The “Nexon Hype”

The 3rd content update of MapleStory RED named “Critias” was released yesterday. I’m not entirely sure now if it is the last patch because there is content missing. That bit of content is Boss Arena (boss monster PvP). It might be the case where Nexon will add a surprise update à la Legend update. Nexon surprised players with an extra content update in the Legend update.

But, I don’t want to talk about the content update of yesterday. What I want to discuss with you is what I would like to call the “Nexon Hype“. What exactly is hype? FreeDictionary.com gives me the following answer:
hype ¹  (hp) Slang

n.
1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion: the hype surrounding the murder trial.
2. Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material: “It is pure hype, a gigantic PR job” (Saturday Review).
3. An advertising or promotional ploy: “Some restaurant owners in town are cooking up a $75,000 hype to promote New York as ‘Restaurant City, U.S.A.'” (New York).
4. Something deliberately misleading; a deception: “[He] says that there isn’t any energy crisis at all, that it’s all a hype, to maintain outrageous profits for the oil companies” (Joel Oppenheimer).

In this blog entry, I will be giving my honest opinion on the RED update.

Choo choo~ The Nexon Hype Train is coming through!

I’d like to introduce you to the Nexon Hype Train starring Oh Han Byul, Go Se Jun and Owen Mahoney. Oh, and I forgot, the rest of the people who are all aboard on the hype train are Maplers.
Oh Han Byul and Go Se Jun are with the team of Nexon Korea while Owen Mahoney is from the North American team. I chose for Owen Mahoney because someone needs to be the scapegoat. And if you pronounce Mahoney really quick and weird, you actually hear money. *gasp*

Let’s get straight to the point. When Nexon first announced the Big Bang update, everyone was ecstatic. This was the beginning of a new MapleStory with revamps to existing classes, three new classes and an overhaul of the game. After Big Bang, the second major update was Chaos. This update refined the skills of the Hero characters, added the Profession Skills system, PvP and a new ultimate boss in a new area. Ultimately, the PvP failed to live up to our expectations.

After Chaos came Jump, but Jump wasn’t really considered a major update. Big Bang and Chaos were really great additions to the game and Nexon did a good job promoting these updates.
They didn’t fail to deliver their promises and the game was still enjoyable. However, after that there was the Legends update. This update was considered a major update only for the fact that there were at least three new classes to be released. Nexon added a surprise update which released Cross Hunter (Silent Crusade in other versions).  I’d say the only content I thoroughly enjoyed was Cross Hunter.

Then Justice came around the corner in 2011. This update was terribly hyped by Nexon in my opinion. The first patch of Justice added a complete revamp of the Pirate and Thief classes. However, they teased the players with saying that with the changes made to these classes, you’d not even remember them. Oh, yes I did. The revamp could’ve turned out better and especially the Pirate class.
Furthermore, a new Hero character was released, the Phantom class which was a really great addition to the game. It had a great story line and the character was fun to play. And then there was Aswan. A new area with a new boss of the Black Mage’s army.

In 2012, Nexon really made a mistake with their hype. Why? Because the summer update was Tempest and it was the biggest update ever according to Nexon.
You bunch of fools. This update reminded me a bit of Legends. In Tempest, the Luminous, Angelic Buster and Kaiser classes were added. One great change about Tempest was the requirement change of 3rd and 4th Job, indicating that a possible 5th Job might be around the corner. The latter was confirmed in an interview during the RED promotion.
I wouldn’t call the “biggest update ever” a bunch of new classes and their hometowns. At this point I just got sick of all the new classes. It was more like ClassStory to me.

Don’t get me even started on Unlimited… “The winter of 2012 will be beyond your limitation”. This update was dubbed “the first historical update“. Nexon, wasn’t that Big Bang? You’re too late…
Sigh, another two classes added to the game. Nexon did a bad job with this update because it made them lose a lot of players.
This update was TERRIBLE just because of the boss changes which created a bigger gap between funded and unfunded players. What is the solution of a playerbase you’re losing but wanting to come back? That’s right, a major update!

That’s where the RED update come in. Now that I have experienced all three updates of the game, I can tell you with confidence that Nexon has, once again, hyped this update too much.
Of course I fell for it, because some of the things they’ve said were really appealing to me and made me come back to the game.

RED stands for Revolution, Evolution and Delight. These are the keywords for the RED update.
Revolution: balancing updates to all classes and a complete overhaul to the Adventurer classes + Free Advancement system + better security and customer support
Evolution: equal fun for non-paying users and paying users (basically you can have fun if you don’t have cash) + Auction House + Mobile Link (application for mobile phone)
Delight: variety of fun and fast progression in the game + new continent and hunting grounds + a giant boss that requires 100 people to defeat + better rewards from boss monsters + Commander Invasion + Professions revamp

THE 1ST IMPACT (1st update)

Finally, Adventurers got what they wanted and got a complete overhaul of their classes. But I was ultimately flabbergasted at what Nexon did to the Thief and Pirate classes.
I’m not playing my Viper anymore. Balancing is still an issue. Balancing is and will always be part of a game’s life cycle. What do you think what’s going to happen when 5th Job is going to be released? Balancing.
Cannon Shooter and Dual Blade got the “special treatment” they got and are now considered Adventurers.

The Free Advancement system. I have no idea why Nexon wasted their development time on this system. In my opinion it is useless. You will probably use it maybe once or twice just out of curiosity.
I doubt many people even make use of this system. One thing Nexon said during their RED press conference was: no more skill books and mastery books for Adventurers.
Well, Nexon didn’t do that. It was only skill books even though they clearly said mastery books as well. However, you can now buy any 20 and 30 mastery book for 7 mil and 10 mil meso respectively.

Professions revamp. According to Nexon’s hype, it was going to be a complete revamp. WRONG. All they did was add two new levels, a bunch of new Meister equipment to craft and the ability to craft cubes, scrolls and flames of reincarnation. If you’re going to expect that this is going to be easy, you’re dead wrong. The materials are a pain in the ass to collect. Besides that, you get a special effect (from JMS’ personality trait effects) when you achieve the new levels. Did I tell you that you need to keep crafting items every day to maintain your level.
If you don’t, you lose your new level and your special effect. So yeah, this is the great revamp for the professions system.

When info on RED was released, many users thought Mileage was going to be free cash. Nope. Do you honestly think Nexon is THAT generous to give free cash? They’re a corporation aiming to make revenue out of the wallets of the players. Mileage is just a Cash Shop currency that gives you 30% discount on cash items. However, if you want the discount to apply, you need to have enough cash to buy the item without the discount. e.g: You want to buy a 9000 cash Shadow Trail effect. If you have only 8500 cash, you cannot use Mileage. You need to already have 9000 cash for the 30% discount to work.
Therefore Mileage is just an advantage only to users who have Nexon Cash. 

CHILD OF GOD (2nd update)

ASDFGH, this was the holy grail of RED. I mean…. A new playable character consisting of the dual character system (THAT’S DOUBLE THE FUN, YO!) that starts at Lv. 100, a new world (ONLY for Zero. Hooray for no ksing anymore?), amazing story line and a BUGGED auction house. What else can you wish for?

Auction House was bugged in the beginning because people’s items mysteriously disappeared. It’s all cool now. Nexon has recovered the lost items and made Duey do all the hard work. I expected more of the Auction House. It’s limited and not many people even use it compared to other online games in Korea. I see more hired merchant shops than items in Auction House.

Seriously, this is the only update I enjoyed very much. My Zero character is now my main character class and I love everything about it.
I am positive that you will also enjoy this particular update.

CRITIAS (3rd update)

When Nexon said they would be releasing a high-leveled content for high-leveled players, I was thinking of something like +180 and one that is particularly useful for users beyond level 200.
Nexon has even said they acknowledge the lack of high-leveled content and are working on it. Ladies and gentlemen, they were working on Critias.
When it was first released in the test server, the EXP of the monsters were high, but they nerfed it. Armory 2 in Stronghold is still the place to go if you want to level up quickly.
For your information: KMS does not have party play in Twilight Perion. 

Critias, a shitty but beautiful area with lots of pain-in-the-ass quests that requires you to collect 150 of that, go kill 200 of that, obtain 300 of that bla bla bla.
Boss rewards were supposed to become better. NOPE. Still crap from most bosses. Then there is this giant Hekaton Lagton boss monster. Lagton is a new boss monster that introduces new mechanics and is fun for low-leveled and high-leveled players.

Oh, don’t get me started on Lagton. It is a challenge. 1 vs 100 (users from all servers can participate). However, you cannot use potions, use your android or auto hp/mp from pets. A REAL CHALLENGE. OH YEAH. I participated in a Lagton battle and I died many times. What happened when I died? It brought me to this map where tons of players are waiting and those idiots are spamming their ultimate skills. My PC is custom made and is beyond good when it comes to gaming, but my MapleStory client still crashed. That is something…

I think Nexon is suffering from dementia lately. They said they would deliver Boss Arena (boss PvP) in the 3rd update. It was even described on the webpage of Critias, but they’ve removed it now.

The last bit of content that was added in the last update is Bamon League. Okay, this was fun. It reminds me of Pokemon. But WHERE THE HELL IS MY MONSTER BOOK, NEXON?!
Bamon League is fun in the beginning, but it gets really repetitive and eventually it became a waste of my time.

I won a battle. It says I won, yet I lose points while my defeated opponent gets MY deserved points. Yeah, this makes a lot of sense Nexon.
Bamon League works like this: you get a capture skill in your beginner skillbook. It has 3 levels. You have to kill monsters and the more you kill, the level will increase. Level 3 means the probability is very high to capture a monster. If you use the capture skill, the monster receives a mark above its head. This mark means it can be captured. To capture it you need to kill it.

But, you cannot just capture a strong boss monster because monsters are grouped in tiers. There is tier 1 till 8. You can advance to the next tier by winning 100 ladder points. But you can also lose ladder points and from what I’ve heard down rank to the previous tier. I’m not entirely sure about this. For every tier you can get 1% allstat. So that is 8% allstats in total.

I just want Monster Book back with no restrictions like this stupid Bamon League. Korea has shown they can improve content, because they have done that to JMS’ Soul Weapon system. The Korean Soul Weapon system is far better than the Japanese version.

A very accurate graph created by iamflip

My point is that Nexon likes to hype their shit. When you see an exciting update, please control your excitement level as you might become disappointed later on.
This very accurate graph created by iamflip represents my thoughts and impressions on the RED update. Thank you very much for creating this, you’ve done a really good job.