Why was the monster book ring the best solution to the infamous HP washing problem

Hi guys, before I get to the meat of things I wanted to first say that I have been playing this game for about a year and a half, and I have enjoyed every bit of it. This post is all about my personal view on how I think the game could get better, from the point of view of players who jumped on the HP washing train way too late.

It's no big secret that although there isn't any strict HP requirement for the enjoyment of the game, we can all agree that one of the most popular discussion topics in this forum is HP washing(or generally, the ability to gain more HP than normally acquired by leveling). It was the subject of so many posts and numerous debates, opinions for and against were written(some even very passionately against), semi-baked solutions and crazy ideas were offered, but weirdly enough everyone seemed to fall in love with the very simple, and yet genius, idea of the monster book ring. I think that the main reason for the existence of these heated debates, all while having vast acceptance of the monster book ring, is that no one took the time to really analyze the core attributes of challenging game mechanics in general, and HP washing in particular. Therefore, in this post I would like to address a few key aspects of any good challenging mechanic. Namely exclusivity, time consumption, dedication, the feeling of accomplishment, fun, and the connection to the game.

As you can probably guess, any good challenge should fit most of the above mentioned criteria in order to be appealing enough to be worth the player's time. Let's take getting to level 200 for example, it has every single element of a good and worthy challenge. It is exclusive, takes a lot of time and dedication, you get the feeling of accomplishment if you can make it, and best of all, you get to have fun while playing the game(assuming of course you even enjoy the game in the first place). These challenges are what drives us to log on and continue improving each time, they help us get connected to others who try to accomplish the same goal in hope for mutual help, they drive us to explore new areas, try new training methods, farming techniques, bossing tactics etc. It is that sensation of accomplishment that made me shout at the top of my lungs when I beat my first Zakum with my old guild back last summer, and it is that satisfaction that made us rush to Neo Tokyo to fight the hardest bosses released, and clear the near impossible PQ.

That is why in my opinion, the monster book ring was the single best solution for HP gaining ever created. It is truly a perfect challenge. It has every ingredient listed above, and most of all it forces you to actually play the game(barring leeching but hey, what can you do leechstory Kappa). That is why the whole community was hooked from the very first second, it offered something for everyone, even people who already reached level 200 and saw everything there is to see and done everything there is to do. And that bring me to the less fun topic, HP washing.

Now, if you see where I'm going with this and think "Oh, another butthurt unwashed NL here to bash HP washing git gud nib" let me first say this: Ouch, that was mean. Also, let me reassure you that I have no problem what so ever with HP washing as a game mechanic. Not only is it a core feature of v0.62 MS, thus inseparable from the old school maplestory experience, not only is it the single strongest driving force of the economy in our server(just take a look at INT scroll and gear prices), while also acting as the single best NX sink available to date, it's also a pretty hard and interesting challenge. This challenge almost has it all, it's hard, takes time and dedication, planning a while ahead, theory-crafting, and most of all gives a great sense of accomplishment while opening the door to a great bossing experience. Being independent of HB, having greater survivability, and access to bosses even the most greedy people of Neckson wouldn't believe a ranged class could attend. HP washing is here to stay, it will always be a part of MapleLegends, players will continue to vote and wash, but let's face the music, it's not fun. Not only that, it actually incentivizes you NOT to play the game with the character of your choosing. Seeing as you first need to build up a bank, gather INT equipment, apply AP to INT instead of your main stat, leeching or getting carried in PQs because of your low damage, waiting for insanely long periods of time for voting NX to reach the highest of goals. Also, if you didn't start washing in time, or if you wanted to actually play the game the first time with the ranged character you always wished you had, I have some bad news, you and I both missed the HP washing train.

As I said before, is HP washing a must? Hell no. Is it easy? Hell no. Should it be made easy? Hell no. Is it nice to have extra HP? Hell yeah. Do you see where I'm going with this? I think we shouldn't reward or punish players who didn't wash from the beginning, no that would make no sense. If you want to be washed, you need to go through the trouble of all the people that did it before you, you are not special just because you decided to voice your opinion and cry now. This challenge should remain in the game, even if only for the purpose of not de-valuing the efforts of past players (exclusivity remember?). But what i'm saying is that maybe, just like in the case of the amazing monster book ring, the MapleLegends staff could consider adding more interesting challenges that award HP upon completion. And those challenges should be hard, harder than the monster book ring, while having similar or even lesser rewards. I recently saw a post written by Bear that suggested a quest that rewards a time limited HP buff, great idea in my opinion. I'm sure that you all can think of way better ideas than I can, I'm just here to point out what makes a good challenge for me.

I hope you enjoyed this read, or at least didn't hate the experience. Even if none of this gets through to anyone, and you all end up disagreeing with me, I at least enjoyed the writing process.

<3 Labyrinth <3