Dear Sir/Madam,It has come to the attention of the Maplestory Europe forum community thatlately the online game (Maplestory Europe) which your company (NEXON) provides, has been worsemaintained than before. We, the community, believe this is due to a widevariety of reasons, and it is truly sad to see this game become less and less popularwith each passing day. As players who love and admire this game, we are writing thisletter not just to raise our concerns about problems with this game, but also to provide ameans of overcoming these problems. We believe that if these problems areaddressed correctly, this game will prosper and flourish like it once did.Communication with the players forms a large part of gaining the player’strust and confidence. Our current forum moderators are amazing examples of this,and it is apparent that our new European Game Masters (GMs) are both swift andhelpful. We have also seen extreme improvements in the ticket support system whencompared to before we had our new GMs. However, other forms of communicationare lacking. One example is the notices on the homepage. Notices for upcomingpatches are frequently posted a few hours before the patch maintenance. We believethat it would be ideal to post patch notices a week prior to the patch, and weeklyserver maintenances a day prior. By only posting related notices a few hours before a patch,we are not able to plan towards the patch, which consequently leads to confusion andfrustration amongst players. Recently, a notice has been posted four days after thementioned events had started, we think this is unprofessional and it makes the players lose their respect for you. As well as that, it is incomprehensible as to why certain notices, suchas “[Important] Warning for All Hackers!” are taken down, as this negatively impactsthe player’s faith in you. Furthermore, the community in general is always unsure as to what hasactually been done during weekly maintenances and patches. We suggest you release a weekly report after the weekly maintenances. Added to that we have been misinformed in the past. An example of that is that we were informed in the v.91 Patch Notes that Root Abyss has been released in-game. However, when players found their selves unable enter Root Abyss, we were informed that the area wasn’t due till a later date. To combat the confusionbrought to the players because of issues like this, we advise that your patch notes areconsistent, valid and correct, and that your notices follow suit of those from Maplestory SEAand Maplestory Global. An example of a clear, concise notice can be seen here.Events have also been continuously inaccurate and puzzling. An example would be thatwhen a new cash shop item is released, such as royal hair coupons, not all of theavailable hairs are shown (in this case, lion hair is not depicted). Cash shop rewarditems such as magic music boxes are frequently announced, but we are never awareof the rewards from such items, and the previews of the items inside often don’t work.Once again, to combat the frustration brought about by issues like these, we advise that your notices follow suit of other Maplestory versions, as seen here and here.It has been noticed that providing new content for Maplestory Europe is ofextreme importance to the game developers, as we frequently get regular updates tothe game content. As a community, we understand that releasing new content wouldhelp increase player satisfaction, and we are grateful for this. However, we havefrequently observed bugs arising from game updates.

Bugs include Aswan becoming inaccessible since weddings returned, and the evolving chamber becoming inaccessible after a weekly maintenance, to name a few. There are a large number of bugs in Maplestory Europe which restricts player accessibility to content that hasbeen released. Bugs are frequently forwarded to your employees through bug reports andcustomer support tickets, and being posted on a known bugs list. It is extremelydisheartening for us to see many parts of the game, such as PvP and the Cygnus boss,being inaccessible for such a prolonged period of time due to bugs. Bugs such asthese greatly impact the player’s patience and ability to fully enjoy the game, aswell as the game market economy. We do appreciate that some bugs are fixed, but we are never made aware of when these bugs are fixed, which once again relates to an extreme lack in communication, and therefore trust. Other problems which were thought to be bugs,such as the removal of Veracent (previously said to be ingame permanently by a GM) , are only known to be intended once our forum moderators enquire about it and make us aware on the Nexon Europe forums. We do not understand how you can justify removal of Maplestory Europe exclusive content such as this, as we are once again made unaware of this by yourselves. It is of greatdisappointment to us all that what you called Maplestory Europe’s exclusive content, Veracent, is now being implemented into Maple SEA, and removed from maplestory europe. There is also a variety of minor bugs which occur in-game, such as Maple SEA being mentionedin Maplestory Europe weddings. Another example is the Unlimited shop beingreleased, but limit coins being extremely difficult to obtain, and therefore makingcertain items in the shop impossible to buy. This shows sheer unprofessionalism andlowers the player’s faith in the developers regarding the general upkeep ofMaplestory Europe. We understand that bugs arising are inevitable, but our concerns lie with howfrequent these bugs arise, and how little attention is focused on rectifying theproblems coming with them. To tackle this problem, we suggest an openMaplestory Europe Test server (EMS Tespia), where players are freely able to test bugs andreport them. We are aware that not all bugs which occur in Kradia and Demethos willoccur in Tespia, and can understand that bugs can and will occur, even after an update has been tested. To rectify current issues caused by bugs, the community as a whole would not mind if the login servers were closed for a prolonged period of time (i.e. days or a week), to allowadequate time for existing bugs to be resolved and tested. By doing this, the gamecontent would be fully accessible to players, allowing them to freely enjoy the gameas intended, and helping to restore confidence and faith in the player base. Maplestory Europe is losing its uniqueness, as there appears to be very littlewhich makes this version of Maplestory stand out from all the other versions.Maplestory Europe used to have Veracent (which is now removed) and the Supremeserver has been bugged for a prolonged period of time. It was stated to theplayers before in an interview that the developers would focus on producingEuropean-themed items, ranking system by nation, international competitions andother sorts of European-exclusive content. So far, all we have received previously areNx face paint items representing nations, but we have yet to see any groundbreakingevidence of Maplestory Europe being a version of its own. We miss events such asthe beer tent event, la tomatina event and guy fawkes event, and believe that it is agenuine shame that this aspect of making Maplestory Europe distinctive as its ownversion is greatly undermined.

Hacking plays a major part in most online games. In Maplestory Europe,Tylent gear has been released in hot time events, but the specifics to exactly which type of Tylent gear has not been specified. This causes confusion amongst theMaplestory Europe community, as hackers have been killing Hard Magnus, andselling Tylent gear in the game, meaning that players are not aware which gear islegitimate and which is illegitimate. We suggest that notices are made regardingissues such as this, to make the players aware from the very beginning, and allowingthem to avoid making the wrong judgement and choices in regards to in-gameequipment. Doing so would promote professionalism of Nexon Europe, and showingthat fair play is in your interest. It would be extremely wise to monitor Hard Magnusif GMs are not already doing so, to help ensure that hackers are not taking advantageof this boss and the drops it provides. Following suit of the empress equipmentremoval, we believe it would be an extremely progressive action to removeillegitimate Tylent gear. This leads on to the constantly recurring topic of removingduplicated equipment and items from the game – a list of items you have alreadyhave been made aware of through customer support tickets and forum reports. Doing so wouldsupport stabilisation of the game market economy; prove your interest and support of the prevention of hackers; help restore player’s confidence in Nexon Europe and preventhackers from benefiting from hacked items. Also in regards to hacking, Maplestory Europe is frequently faced with exploits which have previously been encountered by other versions of Maplestory, such as Maplestory SEA. To help tackle these cases, we strongly recommendcommunication with other Maplestory versions who have received the same or asimilar patch, to gain a firm understanding of how to prevent potential exploits fromoccurring. Hacking websites greatly influence hacking in Maplestory Europe, as theynot only promote items to be sold for Euros/Sterling Pounds to gain profit, but alsocontain tools which can be used to compromise both the game play and market ofMaplestory Europe. Action against such websites has been long desired amongst thelegitimate community, and any clarity on this matter is greatly sought by thecommunity. We have been informed that the reason these matters are not publicallyaddressed through notices is because it would make hackers aware of any action youmay or may not decide to take. However, we all believe that by doing so, you wouldpromote your image of taking hacking as a serious matter, and would therefore showthe community that you are taking serious action in regards to hacking websites.It has been promised to the Maplestory Europe community before byyourselves that a rollback will be implemented in the event of any further gamechanging hacks or exploits. Various times since this promise, duplicating equipmentand other items has occurred, and we have not received a rollback. Members of the officialforums show great support towards rollbacks – usually regardless of the timeframethat has passed – to rectify the game economy and to reduce the attraction ofduplicating items for hackers. Other instances where rollbacks should have occurredinclude hacking the Cygnus empress boss last year to obtain illegitimate empressequipment, and the /m exploit which resulted in hundreds of preventable bans. It is ahuge shame that we have been assured of having rollbacks as a preventative measure,only to see such a large company not live up to their promises.

In summer 2012, many players of Maplestory Europe fell victim to a largehacking wave (database leak), through no fault of themselves. To this day we are still unaware as towhy this hacking wave occurred, what measures you have taken to prevent it fromhappening again, and what your plans are on compensating affected players. Although there are no publically accessible player statistics available for us to use asreference, it is apparent that an extremely large amount of players have stoppedplaying due to this factor alone. The cash shop plays a huge role in Maplestory Europe, producing a source of income to support game development. In fact, the only weekly notice that informs usof changes are about the cash shop. It is extremely clear that the cash shop is of utmostimportance to you from a business perspective. It is for that reason alonethat the Maplestory Europe community struggles to understand the benefit ofcontaining only a select few cash shop items for sale, whilst many others areotherwise unobtainable. Not only does this more recent cash shop system limitoriginality and diversity amongst players, but it also adds to the other multiplefactors, which causes annoyance. This cash shop system would not be such an issue ifthe items were rotated every couple of weeks, as you stated to us would happen. Notholding up to this promise only evokes more frustration on our side.With server populations appearing to only be a shadow of what they oncewere, player-player interactions are naturally limited, leading to a less activecommunity. We find that the game is generally more enjoyable when the experienceof playing can be shared with a wide variety of different players – whether it is forparty quests and bosses, or just talking in game. Our current reasoning for why thishas occurred has been explained throughout this letter. Maintenance of server populations is extremely viable, but does require amultitude of factors. These include (but are not limited to): smooth gameplay withinfrequent or no lag; outstanding customer service; updates which may or may notbe exclusive; frequent communication from the developers (such as through a blogor interviews); and excellent maintenance of the game, including swift removal ofmajor bugs. Growth of server populations is also viable. If the above factors are seriouslyconsidered and take effect, the improvements alone will lead to a much higher levelof customer satisfaction. It has been shown over and over again, through variousdifferent industries, that happy customers increase the likelihood of themrecommending the product, and Maplestory Europe is no exception to this. In duecourse, an increase in recommendations of this game would lead to increased gamepopularity, with new players starting the game. The second thing that we believewould greatly enforce an increase in player populations is advertising. We are awarethat you have tried advertising before, with little success, and that advertising can beextremely expensive. However, if in-depth research is conducted into advertisingcompanies beforehand, and you are fully aware of how and where the advertising isconducted, it would greatly aid in game awareness throughout Europe. It is evident that Maplestory Europe is a game that has a great amount ofsupport from its players. However, the general upkeep of the game is lacking, and wefeel greatly let down as your loyal customers.

With this letter, we hope that the importance of these current issues are clear, as we truly love this game and want to see it flourish.

Yours faithfully,Roshhh (Author)RuthlessnessSteinhoffBazingaaaWhitePhillariusCiattxCuteGirl95xAbsiiRhazi3lDrdoesNothingThatGuyGsussKaisertasticManbrutal03Nathman1994BramFMizuoNomuSimoneRahrPerkilesShiroisanPhatnomKaiserShadowEirnymTGIFFizzyObeyMyRodRelaitedBoudewijnNoElementXHypeKreupel2O13XShadoRevengeReioadingEarendilPhatnomsGirlLimaskaAnxiferaNotoriousGHUourMuayBoran

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