Mapling 101
Hello there! Are you the sort of person who wishes to immerse themselves in a long-lived and adventurous online role-playing game? If so, then I would like to introduce you to Maplestory, a truly massive MMORPG that allows you to become a Mapler, that is, a player of this game. How many Maplers are there? There are over a staggering 92 million players, and many versions of the game have been localized in Korea (where it was born), Japan, North America (Hi there!), Taiwan, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and Europe (Brothers from Another Mother!). Originally, this game only had 4 adventurer classes and took place in a single region — Victoria, but… that’s simply not enough! First, the game expanded with a 5th Adventurer class — Pirates! Oh, why not more? Okay! The number of classes ballooned up to 29 if we take Pirates, Bowmen, Archers, Mages, and Thieves and call them Explorers. Oh, you want more places than Victoria, Okay! There are 5 other full-sized locations, which means a wide variety of characters, quests, monsters, and major bosses. Major? What does that mean? Oh, it means massive and complex bosses, sometimes with many phases… Wow! Are you feeling uneasy? Relax, you can form parties with other players to battle bosses and complete quests together. Or, take your party of close lads and lasses and form a full-sized guild! A guild is how you and other Maplers can form a large and active community to privately talk, joke, and take on hardy quests together. It’s like an online family!
Oh, and myself? Well, I haven’t played the game in years. It was around the time that I first explored the seemingly endless scope of the internet. When I began using computers with network connectivity, I was much more docile and self-contained, by which I mean I was really shy and quiet. I vaguely remember using one of my grade school’s computers in the lab and finding MapleStory installed on it. I was initially hesitant, but I later decided to take the risk and made an American account with Wizet, the video game company that made MapleStory, and I found myself falling head over heels in love with the game. Over the time that I played, I made a number of Maplers, but my main Mapler was my Buccaneer, an Explorer Pirate with a knack for throwing mean punches imbued with his mighty energy. I tried to prioritize soloing mighty bosses, and I did manage to take down some early bosses, but the only Maplers who can solo late-game bosses are those that drop a mean amount of real money into the game. This simply wasn’t the case for me, and I had to keep my cool as I grew social grace online. But that’s just me. Let me take a step back.
Alright, I’ll begin with an explanation. As you play MapleStory, you’ll see and meet many Maplers who are as invested in it as any young and curious player would be. That was the case with the last guild I was a part of. Their bubbly energy had me bouncing around, but with a smile on my face. I found that I wasn’t logging in to massacre monsters, but to chill and chat with my guildies! We would just hang out in a town without too many other Maplers in it and just have a close conversation with each other. I found that my nervous and insular personality leveled up into a far more relaxed and talkative person that others would enjoy spending time with… I miss it, to be honest. I miss it, but it would be odd for a full-grown man to continue to invest astounding amounts of time “playing” a game targeting a younger demographic. I later left the guild and all of my Mapler friends. I would uninstall the game with a slight frown, but I believed that I made the most prudent decision for me. I left them, but I hope my past guildies know that I really enjoyed the time we shared together. Now I’ll bring this paper to a close.
Let me give you the scope of it all. MapleStory was an enormous game when I left, and I know it got even larger! I know that the game has been around for at least 18 years and that there have been over 92 million players. The game didn’t end when I left, and I don’t see an expiration date on it! If you or anyone else reads this and is considering joining the Maple Community, then come on in! I’ll leave you a link, and I hope you have a wonderful time! Have fun! 😊
