Western fans of MapleStory have some understandable concerns about the future of their favorite cutesy MMO following news from the Korean version, specifically Nexon’s manipulation of gear-boosting cubes and attempts to limit meso earnings. Hopefully those worries can be eased with help from Head of Western Development Hanbyeol Oh, who wrote a letter to western fans about the future of Global MapleStory (or GMS) and its move away from the Korean version’s recent decisions.
In the address, Hanbyeol confirms that GMS will not make any changes to meso earnings from hunting monsters, availability of cubes or how potentials are obtained and adjusted, the cost of intense power crystals in heroic worlds, or the availability of the raid boss Ursus; GMS will not stop getting content from Korea, but the devs will ensure that content will better reflect the feedback of western players.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen great changes in the markets where MapleStory is serviced. If we’re going to create the MapleStory that our fans are dreaming of, then simply localizing content created for [Korean MapleStory] is no longer enough. […] I believe that GMS must follow its own direction, separate from KMS.”
Hanbyeol does point out that these adjustments will take some time and likely won’t be noticed by players initially, and he also admits that the western version’s devs may sometimes miss the mark, but he promises that the team will work hard to make improvements.
