MapleStory: The Game That Defined my Childhood

The game was the only source of stability in my life in a time I had none

If there was one game that marked me as a video game addict, it is MapleStory, a 2D MMORPG developed by Wizet in South Korea (they were then purchased by a company called Nexon). I played this game as a child and teenager, and could find myself glued to it for 12 hours straight at times.

When I first started playing, I remember that there were two jobs that were the most popular in MapleStory: the assassin and cleric. A lot of people liked being a lightning mage, and some people would try to “tank” and be HP mages, but it was the assassin and cleric that dominated party quests (PQs) in Maple cities like Kerning City and Ludibrium.

It took me a while to watch YouTube videos and get a grasp of how to most efficiently distribute skill points, but inspirational videos by Dray86 showing MapleStory’s most accomplished players facing MapleStory’s most difficult bosses. To this day, I remember those names, from Tiger, Suuushi, and VietxHuE. After their reign at the top of MapleStory’s supreme, I remember FangBlade, the first person in Maple to reach level 200.