MAPLESTORY USER RESEARCH (ONGOING)
Maplestory is a side-scrolling massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Dedicated players will put in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of gameplay (yes, me including). The role-playing experience allows users to create and train a mighty hero, conquer perilous dungeons, overcome terrifying bosses, socialize with friends, and much more.
This is a personal project that I’m doing for fun and out of passion for the user base (…which includes me, murp).
Duration: January 2021 – present (ongoing)
Research methods: Interviewing, contextual inquiries, competitive analysis
Design methods: Surveying, information architecture, rapid prototyping
Design skills: User research, design evaluation
Tools: Google Forms, MURAL, Adobe Illustrator
INITIAL RESEARCH
The first step was getting feedback from actual players. Recruitment here is difficult — there are millions of users but the audience I can reach is just a tiny portion. I went to the r/Maplestory subreddit as well as personal in-game friends and guild members to spread the word about my survey and general research.
My survey got 46 responses which, honestly, is more than I expected. I’m still parsing through the data to do some affinity clustering and analysis, but you can take a look at a general summary of the responses below.
User Server Locations
Until August 2019, there were 17 regular worlds (Scania, Bera, Windia, Broa, Khaini, Mardia, Yellonde, Bellocan, Chaos, Kradia, Nova, Galicia, Renegades, Arcania, Zenith, El Nido, Demethos), and one Reboot world. Reboot is a server specifically designed for users to e
Due to the huge population differences between the regular worlds, it was decided to merge all worlds besides Scania and Bera into two worlds: Aurora (consisted of Windia, Mardia, Yellonde, Bellocan, Chaos, Kradia, and Nova) and Elysium (consisted of Broa, Khaini, Galicia, Renegades, Arcania, Zenith, El Nido, and Demethos)
SURVEY QUESTIONS
More to come!
Roses
What do you like about MapleStory? This can include anything from graphics to gameplay to social aspects. You can write as many things as you want, but please try to separate them into bullets.
i genuinely enjoy the game and the mechanics of some of the classes
Progression (link skills, legion, equipmemt...)
One thing that comes to mind is the design of each area in MapleStory. Each area is unique, and coupled with a pleasant OST, it makes looking at and hearing MapleStory never get old.
like the artistic style, and it being 2d side scrolling is nice
Honestly just the grind. I love leaving all my problems for a little and just mindlessly grinding
- graphics
- play style
- certain story lines
- the posibility to do bosses solo
- The variety of classes available
- How updated the game is when it comes to new events or patches
- The opportunities for endless customization when it comes to your character(s)
- The ability to socialize with guilds feature
Its not easy to reach endgame and have to grind alot for it
Nostalgia
Visually it is very nice. This is even more impressive because of the fact that the game is 2D. Gameplay is generally very fluid and very fun because of this. Using skills feels fun and impactful. Mobility feels very fun to use. Progression is easy to understand and there are many ways to progress towards a goal.
•only 2d side scroller mmorpg
•visuals such as the visuals and background are wonderful
•lots of in game content
Farming
Variety of events throughout the year
Fashionstory
-progression
-graphics
-graphics: the skills are undoubtedly very pretty
-social aspect: through discord, guild chat, alliance chart, etc
-bossing with parties
- i've been playing for 14 years and still don't know the answer to this
- it's cute
The social aspect of the game makes it a pretty easy way for players to have fun even if they don't like the grind
BGM
character progression
social elements
bossing
AH
*Storylines
*Graphics
*Variety of classes to choose from
*Friendly players
*Background music
*Enjoyable leveling experience
Flashy visuals, skills have feeling and are meaningful to press. Progression is slow but feels great when you get something new that extends your damage range. Legion system is really cool and unique and promotes leveling alts. Bosses give a grindy game a skill mechanic.
Sense of progression, fashionstory
Bossing and progressing/competing with mates.
The nostalgia of the game of pre-big bang as I recently came back playing the game
The music and the fact that I played this game since 2007 and have been often quitting and coming back . Because of this, I feel very nostalgic when playing Maplestory.
The reason i like maple is that i am able see the progession on my chars be it by killing a higher boss is one-shotting the mobs i kill
-Feeling of progression
It's so cute
- Gameplay,
- The never-ending time sink,
- The madness and insanity that is Nexon
Feeling of progression
Grinding
I enjoy gambling and maplestory is a great way to not have to raid a casino and go broke irl. I just farm and sf instead like a normal person. That and its cute
Social aspect rocks. I like steady progression and not falling down to get back up. Legion system is great.
*The in-game music
*Social aspects
*Bossing
unique 2d mmo
I love how unique the gameplay is. Finding another 2d sidescrolling mmo that feels and plays like maplestory is basically impossible.
I like how addicting it is and the art/ music.
Art style
gameplay
boss mechanics
reboot
Community
-2d side scroller
-cute graphics
-fashion story
-easy gameplay
The graphics
The social aspect
All the different class options
Music
I love my friends because I can talk about maple stuff but also real life stuff cuz let's be real.. most of us are 20yrs+ LOL
gameplay wise it's very chill... all u really do is farm HAHAHAHA farm story but also fashion story (cuz y not)
The sense of achievement from upgrading gear.
- My guild is awesome and it's fun to do GPQ and bosses w/ new ppl (even if I don't really talk much)
- Really satisfying to progress over time
-Solid linear progression system
-Community is generally friendly
-Gameplay is simple and easy to understand
-Bossing aspect is fun
-Interaction with other players is easily accessed through the game and various discords set up by the community
-Nostalgia brings back older players to try out the game
-I like the feeling of progression on reboot, its rewarding once you hit that next milestone
-I like how the game is still very social and there are many types of players from casual to min max end game players or ppl who just like the cash shop items
-I like how at core maplestory is just about attacking mobs which makes gameplay simplified, although endgame bosses are difficult the 2d aspect allows for anyone to get far if they put the time into it
-I like how even though for many new players it seems the game has no direction there's actually so much content and different ways to progress
I love the game sosossososoo much
I love the progression system
cubing, starforcing, legion, links
the skills
party play
i love friends
- Good End Game bosses (HWill onwards basically, everything before was kinda meh)
- Good amount of "content" (Decent game for padding hours)
- Community aspect is fun
Thorns
What do you dislike about MapleStory? This can include any major bugs, issues, general annoyances, etc. You can write as many things as you want, but please try to separate them into bullets
s*** servers and time gated progression
Some things are outdated (classes are unbalanced), also I wish there were more bosses and equipment sets
I dislike the so called "solostory". I'm not quite sure if it's just a feeling of nostalgia, but training in a party (PQs or large maps) contributed greatly to the social aspect of the game. I'm in a great guild and do a decent amount of bossing, but training is the biggest part of the game and it's boring to do alone.
low population
The lack of customer support
- game startup time
- too much rng
- How laggy the game can become at certain timings
- The seemingly cashgrab implementation of certain cash shop items (e.g. The cost of MVP surprise box)
- Lack of further social opportunities as compared to before (e.g. PQs)
- How overcrowded reboot servers have become
Always dc
Too many micro transactions
Not enough channels. Not enough maps open. Laggy. Insane Starforce costs. Reboot is insanely reliant on hard grinding especially post 200. New players are hard shafted by nodes. Symbols take far too long to level up especially in Morass and Esfera. Time gating progression blows. This makes me never want to start sub mains. Ironically, the progression from new to CRA/Lomien is the most enjoyable to me because the progression is decently steady. Going from Lomien to Lucid feels like garbage because you go from casually progressing to having to hard grind every day for any sort of progress. There are more but these are the main ones to me.
•irrelevant potential lines
•laggy servers
•exclusive items for veteran players
•star force booms
•timegating content
LAG and no maps to farm in
Servers aren't the greatest
Game ends up turning towards p2w when attempting to reach endgame
-craaaazy amount of grinding for late game content
-unstable servers
-kannas and everything kishin does to the game
-item upgrades are rng-gated, from star forcing to cubing
-party play is nonexistent unless for endgame bossing
-time gated: Gollux equips, arcane symbols, etc
-nexon doesn’t listen to the players ;-;
-mob multipliers (totems, kanna, etc)
-buggy client
-lack of proper season events
-familiars
-lack of party play
The game is pretty poorly coded with tons of bugs (*storage keeper/legion grid being down) as well as being an unforgiving grind towards arcanes
RNG
SF
Laggy Servers
Bots
*Some events are impossible to achieve
*It can be hard to reach certain goals when a character is unfunded
*BGM continues playing when an embedded video begins to play (ruins the experience, imo)
*Cash items aren't perm
*It is event-driven, but it is impossible for me to be active on MapleStory often so I cannot complete events usually
*May be confusing or overwhelming for new or returning players due to the amount of content it has
Constant lag during peak hours is my biggest complaint. Crashes happen too often and losing all buffs to something you cannot control feels awful. Progression in reboot almost requires a kanna for kishin. Wild totems are too gated. Carries are too prevalent, it’s too difficult to solo progress. PIC is a good idea but should have the option to toggle off for storage/nodes. Way too many buffs for most classes and not enough keys on keyboard, most of these could be turned into passives and virtually nothing would change beyond the annoyance of rebuffing.
Lack of reason to progress
Lotus P1 not being client sided.
Dailystory getting overbearing
Non perm pets/ difficult to obtain perm pets as f2p
Damien
Progression feels abysmal past normal lucid.
Damien
Server lag, even if they add more channels its still going to lag like hell... that's just one of the main issues... the other issues, I'm not much of a hard core to know about bugs, but... just the server lag makes it annoying to play...
It’s very grindy and repetitive. Dailies and weeklies.
The grinding =)
-Being left out as a new player
-To many things to keep track of
The quest lines are set in a way that you out level the area before completing them
The community leaves a lot to be desired in terms of intelligence and knowledge. To them, I am nothing but a myth and a long-forgotten memory. Most don't even know I exist or who I am.
All the little freezes
Bosses have like 3 rooms you have to run through before you can enter
Oh no you're not in a party guess you can't enter this until you make a 1 man party which you have to leave in 1 min to do something else
Server issues and laggy channels ruining my rates. That and botters (which contributes to the server issue) stealing my maps by botting in them. I dont really think the free botting gains are a good cultural thing either for the game as a whole.
Lagging/DC/cubing price
*How far explorer classes lag behind newly created classes as far as graphics/gameplay mechanics
*So very many disconnect issues
*Development changes aimed towards dealing with hacking that only seems to harm the playerbase instead
*Development changes aimed at normal servers that cause harm to the reboot servers
crashing, talking with their support, slow update notice
Progression. I think it's ridiculous that it can take an actual year of consistent gameplay to progress into midgame without being carried.
Everything else and the fact that it is addicting.
Huge disparity in boss difficulty, bosses are either one hit KO or insane health
Super RNG gear progression
server lag on reboot is the biggest one though
-bad customer service
-p2w
-too many issues
Too many buffs for characters
Performance issues
outdated character skills
Poor character balance
Kannas
Major bugs - LAGGY servers. Disconnecting from changing channels 199999x.
Wheres my 64bit CLIENT???? lolol
Annoying - botters (ik its tedious to just farm and they want the ez way out but like PLEASE they need to do smth for ppl who active farm :()
Potential bad CODING because half the server and events dont even work as intended.... smh nexon
The path to upgrading in reboot keeps getting narrower with every major update. This is really bad for new players.
Boomer game that's not even close to optimized
-Linear progression meaning there is less flexibility in how we progress, too much of a grind
-Gameplay is too simple/easy not as competitive especially PvE
-Server stability and lag issues
-GMS content gets deleted because of no support from KMS
-Nexon's lack of transparency with certain changes
-crashes
-laggy servers
-publisher doesn't care about any other region besides kms
-there are equal amounts of toxic and very nice players
-people complain the game is broken but will spend hundreds on the newest cash shop update
-crowded channels
I wish that partying with other people gave more exp
I wish boss crystals didnt reduce so much in party play
i dont like channel lag
i dont like having to change channel multiple times
I dont like how expensive star forcing is
i dont like how difficult getting drops like kaiserium, pap mark, and pitched set is
i hate server
- GPQ. Too restrictive. Make it a 24 hour thing where people can enter at their own leisure to contribute to points (similar to legion raid but for everyone instead)
- Too New-Player unfriendly. With just how much grinding the game requires, it makes no sense that new players are hamstrung over and over again due to changes that don't actually affect older players.
- Not enough incentive and/or extremely high barriers to entry. Reinforces the top point but mainly to do with Abso vs Arcane. Abso's perfected currently are significantly more time efficient and are on par with sub-completed (almost completed) Arcanes. This doesn't reflect the effort and time it takes to perfect the next step in evolution for gear (Arcanes to Genesis eventually). IMO, arcane's should be significantly stronger than what they are currently, or at least 17* should be equivalent to about 20-21 star to make booming an arcane not so devastating.
Buds
What opportunities or suggestions do you have for the game "perfect?" This can include feature suggestions, changes in gameplay, good things that could happen with some sort of action, etc.
fix the servers and bring back pottable badges
Balance classes, also add new questlines, bosses and equipment
- Fixing the plethora of bugs and technical issues would obviously be amazing, but this would require the game to be rebuilt from the ground up.
- Making the p2w advantage of normal servers less severe would be nice, but that is Nexon's M.O. Trading in Reboot servers could also be nice.
less grinding required
I'm happy the way it is
- add old hairs/faces back. haven't seen a single new hair/face that I like in over half a decade or so.
- make cool items more accessible, i. e. direct purchase instead of rng boxes
- skill skins would be nice, such as recoloring a class skills or changing appearance of skills. I can't stand playing any class with majority spells being blue.
- Proper reviewing and updating of servers
- Increase the number of channels in Reboot server
- Implementing of guaranteed mechanic for cash items that follow the chance aspect (e.g. Buy 30 boxes for one guaranteed cash item of your choice)
Like just the lag problem
First, just fix bugs and the servers. When the game is fluid and playable, it greatly increases everyone's enjoyment. Next, add more channels so people aren't shafted for grinding decent maps. Adjust the game for the insane population of Reboot. Next, provide more ways to "catch-up" so that starting alts/sub mains doesn't feel like garbage. Increase the rate/amount of symbols you gain by a lot so that the new characters don't need to be a year behind in symbol progression. As for nodes, at least make them self-sufficient instead of having to chuck over 300+ nodes for a decent starting point for damage. Finally, adjust starforce costs to be closer to KMS at least. With kishin and totems being consistently nerfed, our insane meso costs just doesn't make sense. Make the game FAIR.
•more feedback and communication from the developers
Starforcing is annoying and needs to be fixed.
ability to not have to put in the pic every single time for every single thinng
Removing kishin or making spawn enhancing accessible to all
-implement some sort of dungeon for party training, especially at the higher levels (200+)
-more transparency between game developers and players
-either remove mob multipliers entirely (excluding haste events) or bring totems back
-fix the fucking client
-revamp party quests
-allow reward points to be picked up from bosses, not from quests
-nerf starforce prices
-create something similar to the old LHC where you needed a party in order to deal damage (you can do this by putting in a 3-member requirement and putting in a custom damage cap)
Lower SF costs
fewer grindy events
Much better new player communication (there's so much depth that is really hard to explain/ isn't explained unless another player tells you)
Badges with potential
Better ban system(too many bots and too many innocent players getting banned)
More character buffs
Better maintenance compensation
A way to turn off other players annoying nx, especially during flag race
Less time gated progression(arcane dailies especially)
Side Note: please claim reward points immediately on boss clear
*Bug fixing in general
*Remove the anti-AFK mobs in Arcane River
*Make Cash items perm
Fix servers/reduce lag/reduce disconnections. Give solo progression a more meaningful method to move forward without carries. Simplify gearing: flames, potential, bonus potential, item level, set bonuses, there is too much going on and it is near impossible for new players to understand it without intense studying for a long period of time. More transparency about game mechanics: no clear way to know when Ursus 2x is, when Yu Garden vendors are there (why are they not always?)
Party quests were pretty fun, should bring those back
With the recent 300 max level and uncapped damage, I'd like to see a new form of progression. Cernium symbols just means another form of symbol story.
I suggest some sort of factions like WoW that players can change at will (perhaps at a cost) instead of a possible 6th job in the future.
These factions may allow us to buff ourselves or give party buffs which serves to either mitigate our job weaknesses (classes without binds, lack of iframes, low IED, low crit rates etc) or further buff job strengths ( tankyness, buff durations, damage, mobility, mobbing etc)
Would it be game breaking? Maybe. But it's better than a sixth job and this faction may even be introduced at a lower level than what 6th job may be at (250?). Perhaps at 235 or 220. It would serve as something for players to strive for, unlocking the levels through questing or killing certain bosses or completing insane challenges (kill czak with 4th job skills only?). I'm really hoping for this to be introduced. It would give a better sense of community with different factions having different classes involved. Maybe even have these faction related events like a faction war.
Fix the server issues, not just by adding more channels, but the netcode of it... may also need to get volunteer mods or something to check servers/bugs during holiday....
Honestly less laggy servers and maybe less days to max out arcane symbols.
I dont really know its ok at where its at
-Removing some of the old useless quests that act only as clutter
-Re adding good benefits for training together
Nexon should stop penalizing players for issues Nexon caused by making changes. For example, I have -7 character slots currently because they combined servers and crammed all of my characters into one server; previously my main was rendered unplayable because they changed the stat system so now mages don't require Luk.
- No more MSEA vs GMS dub differences. It's a pain to keep track of all of that. The MSEA naming is far more faithful to KMS/JMS/CMS/TMS. I really dislike the GMS dub.
- Every equip allows for 25 Star Force, everything receives good Additional Options, Potential stats are the same tier regardless of equip level. Equipment choice has become very boring and stale. Everyone equips the same stuff, there is no more sense of individuality. There are no more smart equipment layouts like we used to see.
- HP should matter again against bosses. Nothing stinks more than having so much HP as a warrior but seeing a thief or archer outheal you. So much for "% HP is more fair".
- Return Nebulites. They provide much better stats and consistency than Additional Options. Be glad we didn't include the Platinum SoK tax on every equip, the trade limitations on flamed equips and the Equipment Trace brick for anything that's flamed and is boomed through Star Force.
- Forced skill + damage skin transparency during boss runs needs to be removed or become an option, as I want to see the skills/damage contribution that party members are performing. The same applies to the forced change regarding crossbows/swords that are placed behind your back: I want to hold the weapon in my hands like I used to.
- Items that use Fusion Anvils should show their true item name when you view other people's Character Info. I hate it when people think I use an anvilled Stonetooth Sword.
- Being able to play EMS in Japan. I want to do my dailies but I can't go on holiday because of that. So much for "Global MapleStory".
- People should stop calling it "GMS Luna". EMS is still EMS. Heck, the current producer Anna is who ran EMS between 2006 and 2013. Her current decision making is exactly the same as she was back then. The removal of bots, the familiar change, the Gollux set nerf, all of that are things you could've seen from a mile away as that's just how Anna works. But it's not like the current community is open to listen from someone who's been around since forever.
- Can we undo the deletion of 2.7m out of the 3m characters that happened with the migration of 2016? I want my friend's deleted characters back. I miss them.
Latter 2 points of thorns
Banning or disabling all botters and fixing server issues. Other than that I think the game is in a pretty good place right now.
Listening to the community about things would be great
Have the development team keep the major differences between normal and reboot servers in mind when making changes
fix the amount of times you crash, get a better support-center team
Server stability improvement, streamlined progression system, and a bot check during gameplay similar to every other MS server (see: KMS for good examples).
64bit, attempt to rebalance some classes like jett, to atleast be more viable for the meta. Increase starforce limit and create a secondary threshold (boom at 20*, you can keep rolling at 15 instead of 10* for example.) while increasing rates (23->25% chance, 24->20%chance, 25->15% chance; but 25 star is the next boom threshold.)
Make more equipment also pottable/ flamables to help lower leveled players and to allow for higher content completability.
Biggest one is just fix server lag. I'd legit pay a subscription fee if they upgraded servers for reboot.
-fix issues from players feedback
Better class balancing. Most classes all have similar skill sets (i.e. Bind, iframes, damage) making them feel the same even if its a "warrior" and "archer" class. If all classes are good at everything, makes those that are not stand out as much worse.
Better bossing experience (too much visual noise in boss battles, HP is essentially meaningless, entrance restrictions).
Less luck-based progression/better star forcing system.
Fixing progression from Absolab to Arcane. Can get to 250 without a single arcane equip
More DUNGEONS for levels 140 to 185 ... (similar to the newer maps like reverse city/ yumyum and sellas)
Practice mode for gollux/ other bosses that u can only run 1x A DAY( BECUZ IT SUX HOW U CANT PRACTICE)
More options for Free to play players (more bosses that give pets)
More reward pts rewards (like pet autohp/mp)
Having the capacity to SERIOUSLY integrate player feedback.
Maybe totems that aren't just 2 hours long? I'd like some more flexibility
-Nexon should be more transparent with changes
-Server stability and lag issues should be minimal
-Do not allow what KMS does dictate what GMS should do
-Diversify progression (making it meaningful) aside from grinding, utilize other game mechanics such as PQ, Quests, events, bosses, jump quests, mini games
-Bring back regular 2x events, DMT, cash shop sales
-Quality of life changes potentially towards things that are needed to start a new character but is tedious because you have already finished it on your main, account wide prequests, arcane symbols potentially, certain quest gears
-Reboot vs Reg server treatment, balance it out sometimes reboot gets shafted as it is a different game with no market/trade
-Kishin Kanna increasing mob spawn skill, ideally increase all mob spawn in the game and remove the skill or give this ability to all classes as a generic skill node, wild totems is limiting to the game's progression, frenzy totem is a cash grab pay 2 win unhealthy for the game
Honestly I hate how the player base plays the game as an event based game. What I mean by this is that everyone always saves for the next starforce event or dmt. It makes the game time gated as many early and mid game players are forced to save for these events in fear of trying to upgrade off event and wasting money with no gains. I suggest that starforce events like 30% off or 5/10/15 be very common and happen at the same times every year. Same for dmt. If that isn't doable I think just removing those events would help players progress faster since they aren't waiting to upgrade gear. I.e. A player cant 1 shot a mob so they wait 2 months to upgrade then they 1 shot and they never train in those 2 months. If there was no event and they'd just upgrade they could've already made their money back training and or made more gains with that money since they spent their time playing the game.
i would like for there to be shards to get all boss drops, similar to root abyss and empress
no dc on boss fite please
- Opportunity to bring back party hunting/farming. With how party oriented end game bosses are becoming, bringing back party hunting/farming maps might be a good suggestion. These maps should provide actual benefits while farming in a party and not a deficit. For example, a map could have a party and the main killer/farmer doesn't lose EXP and Meso rates for having party members. While not directly affecting the main killer, it could also act as a way for a group of friends/bossing party to progress together.