[Full Script] Xangle Adoption 2024 Tokyo Keynote Speech

Xangle Adoption 2024 Tokyo Keynote Speech

<MapleStory Universe — The Genesis, An Ecosystem for Community>

Presented by Angela Son, Head of BD/Partnership, NEXPACE

Hello everyone, thank you so much for having me here.
Today I would like to go into detail about our project MapleStory Universe, and how we have kickstarted our venture into the blockchain space.

Moreover, I would like to go into the specifics on why and how we have structured our space as one that can grow with the community, and grow for the community.

Before we start, here is a quick introduction of who I am.

I am Angela Son, and I head BD/Partnerships here at NEXPACE.

I first started my career at Nexon in web2 games as a BD manager, ventured into investment, and also corporate strategy before joining the MapleStory Universe team.

Again, it’s a great honor to be here. Let’s dive right in.

I’m sure many of you are already familiar with the IP, but for those of you who are not yet acquainted with MapleStory, here is a quick recap.

MapleStory is a globally renowned and loved classic IP has now turned 21 years old. What is remarkable about MapleStory is that despite its age, it still grows to this very day.

As a continuously evolving game, we now have more than 190M+ cumulative global users worldwide, and more than 5B USD lifetime revenue

This is the MapleStory Universe Team. This is a team dedicated entirely to the development and service of MapleStory Universe.

We are a group that is versed both in web2 game development and service, as well as in web3 blockchain development and service.

Since our advent in 2022, we have worked hard day and night to bring the service to life.

On June 24, we have announced the very start of MapleStory Universe, called The Genesis.

As you all may well know, Genesis is a word commonly used to indicate the start of a chain — you might also have heard of the term ‘genesis block’.

This is our first campaign and reveal of what MapleStory Universe will look like, and felt the name <The Genesis> had properly signaled that significance.

In countries that we are servicing MSU to, you can access the website and our first service through msu.io.

What we wanted to show during this Genesis phase was the very foundation on which MapleStory Universe was built on.

This means that every action that we are taking during our Genesis phase is based on our core beliefs and direction of how we want to expand the Universe.

We believe in expanding the user’s experience together with the community.
To properly do that, we strongly believe that rewarding users based on their contribution is highly important in aligning the participants.

To do this, we use the concept of different user facing experiences called “synergy apps.”

I’ll next dive into what these synergy apps are, and how they in turn contribute to setting the tone for our Universe.

This is the overview of MapleStory Universe, and what users can find during our Genesis phase.

You can be assured that this universe will only expand from here on.

Right in the middle, you can see MapleStory N, which is our blockchain adaption of the beloved classic MMORPG.

MapleStory N takes the core MapleStory experience but puts some interesting twists on it to provide a more deep and strategic experience.

Applying real-world economy concepts such as limited item quantity and dynamic enhancement pricing based on supply/demand, users can enjoy a different aspect of MapleStory.

Moreso, as all items and characters in MapleStory N will be NFTs with limited quantity — this poses more potential for further expansion of utility and usage of these NFTs.

Some core concepts that you may notice in MapleStory N is that there will be no premium shops, and no NFT pre-sales.

All you need to do as a user is join the game, and play the game in order to gain NFTs and tokens that you may use within the game.

We feel that this is a great opportunity for users both versed in the classic MapleStory and people who are new to MapleStory to join the experience.

Of course, the Universe is much more than just the game. We believe that the gaming experience spans both the in-game and the out-game.

For instance, if you tell your friend that you are “playing MapleStory,” you intrinsically are referring to the overall experience of not only playing the game, but also chatting with your friends, going online to find walkthroughs, maybe even watching YouTube videos about your job or on the best way to level up. We believe that the Universe should encompass this definition and hence have placed our synergy apps so that the experience from the in-game and out-game are continuous.

One example of a Synergy App is the Marketplace. We will have a proprietary marketplace that users can trade MapleStory and its items at, using in-game utility tokens.

MapleStory items have unique stats, qualities, and attributes that a lot of other marketplaces don’t support at the moment.

We wanted to be the user-friendly version catered to the MapleStory experience, but also feel that as new marketplaces arise and users find new places to utilize MapleStory NFTs, they will not have to be confined to the marketplace inside the Universe. This is only the beginning.

Here you can find in-development footage of our marketplace.

Users who participate in our Pioneer Test should be able to get a first-hand experience of how this works.

We are very excited to keep improving the marketplace with user feedback.

Of course, one key feature of blockchain is that all transactions that happen on-chain are transparent and open.

We also plan to showcase our explorer during our Genesis phase for curious explorers that want to learn more.

We hope that this will only be the start of our promise to transparency in providing MapleStory Universe experiences.

If the Explorer was a service catered towards on-chain activities, we have the Navigator that focuses more on the MapleStory experience itself.

This is a product that showcases the various properties of items and NFTs available on MapleStory Universe. We envision that this, as well as the Explorer will be foundations for further strategic gameplay and understanding.

Last but not least, there are Quests available currently in the Genesis phase.

For us, Quests are not just about pushing users to do menial tasks for small rewards.

We view Quests as a core function to our belief in contribution and reward, and are using this system to encourage users to become an active participant of MapleStory Universe.

I have mentioned contribution and reward quite a few times during this presentation — what does this actually mean?

For us, contribution is defined as all kinds of activity that benefits ecosystem members and enhances the utility of MapleStory Universe NFTs.

During our 21 years of servicing MapleStory, what we have sincerely felt to our hears was that MapleStory may have been an IP created by the game devs but expanded by the users.

With MapleStory Universe and the blockchain, we wanted to use this technology to further enable user contribution and to be able to shape the IP Universe landscape that ultimately follows the community.

Contribution and community input can be a lot of things. Whether it be web/app service and development, creating content like walkthroughs or fanart, or whether it be social media activity engaging on our posts, we feel that these are all different layers of interaction and contribution to expanding the Universe.

Ultimately, the Quest system is made to encourage these interactions and provide a guideline for how users can participate first-hand in MapleStory Universe.

Users helping polish the game through participation in our Pioneer test is also contribution — we can provide Quests that guide users on what content they need to go through.

Users spreading information on MapleStory Universe or creating content related to MapleStory Universe is also contribution. The Quest system is here to nudge users in the right direction, and to measure and reward these contributions accordingly.

Furthermore, the Quest system is currently two folds. We have an automatic system in place that checks contribution that we have pre-defined. This covers simpler interaction such as engaging with our social media posts, joining the MapleStory Universe web, the Dressroom, or even participation on our Pioneer tests.

However, we believe not all contribution can be measured systematically — to enable further creativity and participation, we have the MapleSpread Legion (a fun wordplay on our Legion system) that provides further interaction and user engagement in our communities.

Here are some examples of automatic quests and community programs.

The Dressroom is a core function provided on the MapleStory Universe web.

Character customization has always been a key point of entertainment for MapleStory users, as well as a good way to express oneself.

We have combined this experience with gamification — rather than providing Quests as an individual function, we provided a system where users could unlock further items in the Dressroom as they progress in the Quest.

Experiencing more, should be based on user contribution and we feel that this is an excellent example in which we try to prove this point of contribution and reward.

Next is our MapleSpread Legion, which is the main community content quest program currently in progress.

This is a program where community members recognize, agree upon, and create content valuable to the ecosystem.

We believe this enables the community to self-regulate and maintain a healthy environment without moderator intervention.

While this is still in our beta phase, we are excited to be able to further polish this system and use the MapleSpread Legion to encourage community participation in MapleStory Universe.

Today, I walked through some components that we offer during the Genesis campaign of MapleStory Universe.

We have recently announced that we will be holding the first user-facing test of MapleStory N on July 24, the Pioneer Test.

We have received significantly more signups from users than expected, and are excited to be able to finally showcase the game.

However, this is not the end. We have more announcements coming soon, all the way to the end of the year.

Like we said, we are only going through the Genesis phase of MapleStory Universe.

There is so much more that we are excited to show you, and what we can say is that we are really excited for this project and the upcoming test.

Thank you very much, and don’t forget to stay tuned for more info.

MapleStory Universe Official Links

Official Website ✔️msu.io

Official X ✔️ x.com/MaplestoryU

Official Medium ✔️medium.com/@MaplestoryU

Official Discord ✔️ discord.gg/MaplestoryUniverse

Official Facebook ✔️ www.facebook.com/MapleStoryU.Official/