Maple Story

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Maple Story

• By Nick Martineau

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General Game Information

• Title Maple Story
• Company Wizet\NX Games
• Type Side Scrolling 2D MMORPG
• Price Free

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General Game Information

• Hardware Specs

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Quick Overview

• Maple Story is the worlds first 2D side scrolling
  MMORPG
• Original target audience was for kids between the
  ages of 7-15 but the average age of a player is
  24
• Over 1.5 Million people registered to play

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Quick Overview Cont.

• Four different flavors of the game
• MapleGlobal United States
• MapleSea China
• MapleKorea Korea
• MapleEurope Europe
• With anywhere from 5-10 servers per flavor
• 20 channels per server

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Story Line

• No real continuity to the game, do what you want,
  when you want

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Player Roles

• Four different roles to play
• Thief
• Bowmen
• Magician
• Warrior

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Instillation

• Go to http//www.mapleglobal.com/ click on the
  download button and download the game.
• NOTE The web page must be opened in Internet
  Explorer
• About 200MB
• Run the downloaded file to install

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User Interface
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User Interface Cont.
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User Interface Cont.
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User Interface Cont.

• Fairly functional game play without to many
  problems
• Controls can be tricky, there are about 45 keys
  that are bound to various functions
• Better to use a gamepad with keyboard bindings

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Game Play
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Game Play Cont.
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Game Play Cont.
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Game Play Cont.
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Game Play Cont.
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Game Play Cont.

• Playing the game is quite simple
• Run around
• Kill stuff
• Do missions
• Gain expirence
• Level up
• Dont die

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Scoring

• There is no scoring in this game however you do
  receive drops and money (mesos) from monsters
  that are either traded in or used to buy various
  items
• Experience

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Artwork

• Visually stunning for a 2D game
• Not a lot of animation
• Lots of monster artwork (about 2000 monsters in
  the game)
• Lots of item artwork (about 1000 items in the
  game)

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Monster Artwork
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Sound and Music

• Not the best midi files ever
• Some sound effects are cool others are annoying
• Ability to shut the music/sound effects off

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Special Features

• Cash Shop
• The way the game makes money
• Can buy different items, pets, gear, safety
  charms, etc

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Manual

• Not an official game manual but there are several
  web sites that will help you
• www.hidden-street.net
• www.basilmarket.com

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Bugs

• Hacking!!!

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Game Review

• What is good/fun about the game?
• Its eclectic
• Easy to learn, easy to play
• Great artwork for monsters, skills and worlds
• Social interaction, play against the world
• Play for free, character never expires
• Unlimited character levels

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Game Review Cont.

• What is bad about the game?
• At level 60 it takes about 10 hours to level your
  character and grows every level
• Quests dont give enough experience at high
  levels (level 65 quest gives 10k exp when you
  need 1.9 Million to level)
• Hackers VacHack, map hack, destroys the game
  and the economy

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End of Class Presentation

• Question?
• Comments?

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How does it compare to similar games in the same
genre?

• Character types are similar (warrior, thief,
  mage, bowmen, etc)
• 2D graphics makes the game easier to explore but
  doesn't give it any depth like 3D games
• Free to play, no monthly fees, no cost to buy the
  game, only pay if you want to buy something from
  the cash shop

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Better or worse then similar game?

• Better
• Free to play, easy to learn
• Lots of things to do, lots of areas to explore
• Worse
• No depth to the game
• While 2D is cool it gets old after a while, you
  cant run around monsters

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Appropriate Age

• As it was mentioned before, the target audience
  was for 7-15 year olds but the average player is
  24

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Design Mistakes

• Allow hackers to hack
• Not a full proof system to stop hackers
• GMs dont respond quick enough to players
  requests

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Summary

• Strengths
• 2D art work is amazing
• Lots of areas to explore
• Lots of game content (missions) to do
• Tons of monsters
• Lots of skills
• Unlimited levels
• Free to play and own
• Eclectic and fun

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Summary Cont

• Weaknesses
• 2D gets old after a while
• Takes forever to level as the character
  progresses
• Hacking destroys the game economy
• Music and sound effects get annoying after a
  while (thankfully you can shut them off)

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Worth Purchasing?

• Yes and no I suppose
• Its worth getting and playing but you dont have
  to pay for it

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How could it be improved?

• Get rid of the hackers
• Cut down on the amount of experience needed to
  level in the latter levels
• Have more quests that reward the player more
  frequently