Dear Sir/Madam, It has come to the attention of the Maplestory Europe forum community that lately the online

game (Maplestory Europe) which your company (NEXON) provides, has been worse maintained than before. We, the community, believe this is due to a wide variety of reasons, and it is truly sad to see this game become less and less popular with each passing day. As players who love and admire this game, we are writing this letter not just to raise our concerns about problems with this game, but also to provide a means of overcoming these problems. We believe that if these problems are addressed correctly, this game will prosper and flourish like it once did. Communication with the players forms a large part of gaining the players trust and confidence. Our current forum moderators are amazing examples of this, and it is apparent that our new European Game Masters (GMs) are both swift and helpful. We have also seen extreme improvements in the ticket support system when compared to before we had our new GMs. However, other forms of communication are lacking. One example is the notices on the homepage. Notices for upcoming patches are frequently posted a few hours before the patch maintenance. We believe that it would be ideal to post patch notices a week prior to the patch, and weekly server maintenances a day prior. By only posting related notices a few hours before a patch, we are not able to plan towards the patch, which consequently leads to confusion and frustration amongst players. Recently, a notice has been posted four days after the mentioned events had started, we think this is unprofessional and it makes the players lose their respect for you. As well as that, it is incomprehensible as to why certain notices, such as [Important] Warning for All Hackers! are taken down, as this negatively impacts the players faith in you. Furthermore, the community in general is always unsure as to what has actually been done during weekly maintenances and patches. We suggest you release a weekly report after the weekly maintenances. Added to that we have been misinformed in the past. An example of that is that we were informed in the v.91 Patch Notes that Root Abyss has been released in-game. However, when players found their selves unable enter Root Abyss, we were informed that the area wasnt due till a later date. To combat the confusion brought to the players because of issues like this, we advise that your patch notes are consistent, valid and correct, and that your notices follow suit of those from Maplestory SEA and Maplestory Global. An example of a clear, concise notice can be seen here. Events have also been continuously inaccurate and puzzling. An example would be that when a new cash shop item is released, such as royal hair coupons, not all of the available hairs are shown (in this case, lion hair is not depicted). Cash shop reward items such as magic music boxes are frequently announced, but we are never aware of the rewards from such items, and the previews of the items inside often dont work. Once again, to combat the frustration brought about by issues like these, we advise that your notices follow suit of other Maplestory versions, as seen here and here. It has been noticed that providing new content for Maplestory Europe is of extreme importance to the game developers, as we frequently get regular updates to the game content. As a community, we understand that releasing new content would help increase player satisfaction, and we are grateful for this. However, we have frequently observed bugs arising from game updates.

Bugs include Aswan becoming inaccessible since weddings returned, and the evolving chamber becoming inaccessible after a weekly maintenance, to name a few. There are a large number of bugs in Maplestory Europe which restricts player accessibility to content that has been released. Bugs are frequently forwarded to your employees through bug reports and customer support tickets, and being posted on a known bugs list. It is extremely disheartening for us to see many parts of the game, such as PvP and the Cygnus boss, being inaccessible for such a prolonged period of time due to bugs. Bugs such as these greatly impact the players patience and ability to fully enjoy the game, as well as the game market economy. We do appreciate that some bugs are fixed, but we are never made aware of when these bugs are fixed, which once again relates to an extreme lack in communication, and therefore trust. Other problems which were thought to be bugs, such as the removal of Veracent (previously said to be ingame permanently by a GM) , are only known to be intended once our forum moderators enquire about it and make us aware on the Nexon Europe forums. We do not understand how you can justify removal of Maplestory Europe exclusive content such as this, as we are once again made unaware of this by yourselves. It is of great disappointment to us all that what you called Maplestory Europes exclusive content, Veracent, is now being implemented into Maple SEA, and removed from maplestory europe. There is also a variety of minor bugs which occur in-game, such as Maple SEA being mentioned in Maplestory Europe weddings. Another example is the Unlimited shop being released, but limit coins being extremely difficult to obtain, and therefore making certain items in the shop impossible to buy. This shows sheer unprofessionalism and lowers the players faith in the developers regarding the general upkeep of Maplestory Europe. We understand that bugs arising are inevitable, but our concerns lie with how frequent these bugs arise, and how little attention is focused on rectifying the problems coming with them. To tackle this problem, we suggest an open Maplestory Europe Test server (EMS Tespia), where players are freely able to test bugs and report them. We are aware that not all bugs which occur in Kradia and Demethos will occur in Tespia, and can understand that bugs can and will occur, even after an update has been tested. To rectify current issues caused by bugs, the community as a whole would not mind if the login servers were closed for a prolonged period of time (i.e. days or a week), to allow adequate time for existing bugs to be resolved and tested. By doing this, the game content would be fully accessible to players, allowing them to freely enjoy the game as intended, and helping to restore confidence and faith in the player base. Maplestory Europe is losing its uniqueness, as there appears to be very little which makes this version of Maplestory stand out from all the other versions. Maplestory Europe used to have Veracent (which is now removed) and the Supreme server has been bugged for a prolonged period of time. It was stated to the players before in an interview that the developers would focus on producing European-themed items, ranking system by nation, international competitions and other sorts of European-exclusive content. So far, all we have received previously are Nx face paint items representing nations, but we have yet to see any groundbreaking evidence of Maplestory Europe being a version of its own. We miss events such as the beer tent event, la tomatina event and guy fawkes event, and believe that it is a genuine shame that this aspect of making Maplestory Europe distinctive as its own version is greatly undermined.

Hacking plays a major part in most online games. In Maplestory Europe, Tylent gear has been released in hot time events, but the specifics to exactly which type of Tylent gear has not been specified. This causes confusion amongst the Maplestory Europe community, as hackers have been killing Hard Magnus, and selling Tylent gear in the game, meaning that players are not aware which gear is legitimate and which is illegitimate. We suggest that notices are made regarding issues such as this, to make the players aware from the very beginning, and allowing them to avoid making the wrong judgement and choices in regards to in-game equipment. Doing so would promote professionalism of Nexon Europe, and showing that fair play is in your interest. It would be extremely wise to monitor Hard Magnus if GMs are not already doing so, to help ensure that hackers are not taking advantage of this boss and the drops it provides. Following suit of the empress equipment removal, we believe it would be an extremely progressive action to remove illegitimate Tylent gear. This leads on to the constantly recurring topic of removing duplicated equipment and items from the game a list of items you have already have been made aware of through customer support tickets and forum reports. Doing so would support stabilisation of the game market economy; prove your interest and support of the prevention of hackers; help restore players confidence in Nexon Europe and prevent hackers from benefiting from hacked items. Also in regards to hacking, Maplestory Europe is frequently faced with exploits which have previously been encountered by other versions of Maplestory, such as Maplestory SEA. To help tackle these cases, we strongly recommend communication with other Maplestory versions who have received the same or a similar patch, to gain a firm understanding of how to prevent potential exploits from occurring. Hacking websites greatly influence hacking in Maplestory Europe, as they not only promote items to be sold for Euros/Sterling Pounds to gain profit, but also contain tools which can be used to compromise both the game play and market of Maplestory Europe. Action against such websites has been long desired amongst the legitimate community, and any clarity on this matter is greatly sought by the community. We have been informed that the reason these matters are not publically addressed through notices is because it would make hackers aware of any action you may or may not decide to take. However, we all believe that by doing so, you would promote your image of taking hacking as a serious matter, and would therefore show the community that you are taking serious action in regards to hacking websites. It has been promised to the Maplestory Europe community before by yourselves that a rollback will be implemented in the event of any further game changing hacks or exploits. Various times since this promise, duplicating equipment and other items has occurred, and we have not received a rollback. Members of the official forums show great support towards rollbacks usually regardless of the timeframe that has passed to rectify the game economy and to reduce the attraction of duplicating items for hackers. Other instances where rollbacks should have occurred include hacking the Cygnus empress boss last year to obtain illegitimate empress equipment, and the /m exploit which resulted in hundreds of preventable bans. It is a huge shame that we have been assured of having rollbacks as a preventative measure, only to see such a large company not live up to their promises.

In summer 2012, many players of Maplestory Europe fell victim to a large hacking wave (database leak), through no fault of themselves. To this day we are still unaware as to why this hacking wave occurred, what measures you have taken to prevent it from happening again, and what your plans are on compensating affected players. Although there are no publically accessible player statistics available for us to use as reference, it is apparent that an extremely large amount of players have stopped playing due to this factor alone. The cash shop plays a huge role in Maplestory Europe, producing a source of income to support game development. In fact, the only weekly notice that informs us of changes are about the cash shop. It is extremely clear that the cash shop is of utmost importance to you from a business perspective. It is for that reason alone that the Maplestory Europe community struggles to understand the benefit of containing only a select few cash shop items for sale, whilst many others are otherwise unobtainable. Not only does this more recent cash shop system limit originality and diversity amongst players, but it also adds to the other multiple factors, which causes annoyance. This cash shop system would not be such an issue if the items were rotated every couple of weeks, as you stated to us would happen. Not holding up to this promise only evokes more frustration on our side. With server populations appearing to only be a shadow of what they once were, player-player interactions are naturally limited, leading to a less active community. We find that the game is generally more enjoyable when the experience of playing can be shared with a wide variety of different players whether it is for party quests and bosses, or just talking in game. Our current reasoning for why this has occurred has been explained throughout this letter. Maintenance of server populations is extremely viable, but does require a multitude of factors. These include (but are not limited to): smooth gameplay with infrequent or no lag; outstanding customer service; updates which may or may not be exclusive; frequent communication from the developers (such as through a blog or interviews); and excellent maintenance of the game, including swift removal of major bugs. Growth of server populations is also viable. If the above factors are seriously considered and take effect, the improvements alone will lead to a much higher level of customer satisfaction. It has been shown over and over again, through various different industries, that happy customers increase the likelihood of them recommending the product, and Maplestory Europe is no exception to this. In due course, an increase in recommendations of this game would lead to increased game popularity, with new players starting the game. The second thing that we believe would greatly enforce an increase in player populations is advertising. We are aware that you have tried advertising before, with little success, and that advertising can be extremely expensive. However, if in-depth research is conducted into advertising companies beforehand, and you are fully aware of how and where the advertising is conducted, it would greatly aid in game awareness throughout Europe. It is evident that Maplestory Europe is a game that has a great amount of support from its players. However, the general upkeep of the game is lacking, and we feel greatly let down as your loyal customers.

With this letter, we hope that the importance of these current issues are clear, as we truly love this game and want to see it flourish. Yours faithfully, Roshhh (Author) Ruthlessness Steinhoff Bazingaaa White Phillarius Ciatt xCuteGirl95x Absii Rhazi3l DrdoesNothing ThatGuyGsuss Kaisertastic Manbrutal03 Nathman1994 BramF MizuoNomu SimoneRahr Perkiles Shiroisan Phatnom KaiserShadow Eirnym TGIF Fizzy ObeyMyRod Relaited Boudewijn NoElement XHype Kreupel 2O13 XShadoRevenge Reioading Earendil PhatnomsGirl Limaska Anxifera NotoriousGH Uour MuayBoran

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