What if Maple Legends started over? "Hypothetically"

So in looking at some old threads in various places, I have a tricky time figuring out if people are serious or not serious when they talk about the subject of a wipe. Like most players, I would guess that not many would want to do it unless there were some incredible and amazingly good reasons to justify such an extreme action. This is not to suggest doing anything but only to go fishing for opinions in a hypothetical scenario.

In thinking about this hypothetical, there were a number of areas of interest about Maplestory and perhaps some logic in what it means to play Maplestory. The biggest downside would be everyone losing progress but then what could the upsides be? Based from information from several places, here are some of the topics that seemed to be important.

1. Gachapon: A while ago on a forum someplace there was a long discussion and debate about this. I didn't follow the topic to the end but the last time I checked, the most agreed on direction for the system was to have junk in it or none at all. The reasoning being something about voting for Nx and something about marketplace and economy reasons. I think the best way to word it is "what would a server Free market look like if Gachapon did not have much effect?" (although that is only my interpretation)

2. EXP rate: Times 2 EXP is like having a permanent event! But what if the rate went lower and there were no EXP events and (still) no EXP cards? Maplestory before Big bang was really slow. So slow in fact that a lot probably wonder how/ why people ever played it back then? To make a lot of words that another player said short, "it was about the journey and not the destination." It might sound like madness to WANT x1 EXP but if someone is legit wondering how Maplestory was back then that is what it was. You may ask, what is the point in playing a game where almost nobody can finish it except for a few like Tiger? (whom was allegedly a hacker or multiple people or something)

To answer that would be the question of what is the point in playing Maplestory in the first place? The final answer to both of those is that you would need to try it for yourself to find out.
That is the reason I would lean a little bit to going hard with x1 EXP. Think about it for a moment, if you could play with an EXP rate of like 1 million, would that make gameplay feel better or worse? I will admit that with lower rates on everything, people might not be able to get as far as they would like but whatever milestone that they do manage to reach could be that much more rewarding. According to what I saw, there might not be a big number of people who would willingly choose x1 over something higher but I think that they have the right mind set. Do people play because its easy or because parts of Maplestory can be tough? Also there does not seem to be any good servers out there that use x1 rates. As far as I know.

3. Leech/ Hp wash: I still have no opinion on these in either case but I wonder if there is such a thing as a Leech/ Hp wash culture? I'm not going to say I see them as bad but I guess its true that they could make the gap between newb players and veterans bigger than it might need to be? Could someone be rejected from a party due to no HP wash? I suppose that a new player might be fearful of that happening. Removing AP resets or making them cost more seems like a fair trade off since everyone can get Nx. If not, I can see where new players might mistakenly get an idea that the game is more about HP washing than actually Maplestory. I'm not against Leech/ Hp wash but it just seems like a loop hole that maybe should be closed?


I will bet there are more pros and cons but these 3 seemed pretty big. I cant say if it would be wise to try and chase after the "perfect" server. Maybe it would be good to only make a few adjustments here and there to keep the game fair and balanced? I know that lots of people feel different about the EXP rates but I still think the lower it is the better. If someone plans to play Maplestory for a long time anyway might as well go with the hardcore mode, even if it takes forever. What do you think about the 3 things from above? Is it possible that a wipe would not be worth it under any circumstance? Could there be other solutions that fix inequalities without starting the world over?

I repeat, this is not for a suggestion but only for getting opinions and gathering other peoples feedback on the topics of interest.
In my opinion, Legends is fine just the way it is but if we hypothetically wanted to make it better then this is the challenge I would think of.

 

In the grand scheme of things, double EXP seems like one of the better server rates. When Maple Legends was just getting started, did you consider having it be lower or higher? What was the deciding factor to keep it at x2?

 

I have heard of people that really like the AP resets but also those that would like them to disappear. As far as me, I'm kind of on the fence about the item.

I love this answer!