Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a casual gamer, chances are you’ve either played or come across one of the more popular games back then: MapleStory.
However, so much has changed since then, with the Big Bang, new classes with dragons floating over their heads, and new maps with even weirder monsters. The real essence of MapleStory is so much different now.
For the sake of nostalgia, here are some awesome memories from the old MapleStory we all knew and loved.
- The best hangout spot in the whole game
Who could forget this spot, where people just came here to chill and relax? Back then, levelling was so tough that reaching level 30 almost seemed impossible unless you had no life. Instead, we hung around and just talked or flirted while passing time. Despite being a MMORPG which emphasis on levelling, we took the social aspect more seriously, and made plenty of friends.
- Kerning PQ, autoclicking the way to victory
Levelling was so mundane back then that doing party quests was the easier and more fun way to level up. Everyone would queue up in Kerning City around the sewer area and just wait for their turn to enter the quest. I believe the instance system was relatively new at that point in time, thus disallowing parties to enter at the same time.
Let’s not forget the endless challenge of trying to jump to the 3rd sewer drain
Most players would end up downloading a software called ‘Autoclicker’, which did exactly what it’s named after, so as to increase their chances of getting in.
Probably the earliest form of boss fight you can encounter as a player was the King Slime in the Party Quest, where you had to kill it.
The damage it dealt was ridiculous and back then there wasn’t such a thing as tanks and aggro. This means that you had to jump out of reach and constantly deal damage to it at the same time.
- Grinding in the Slime caves
Speaking of these little green cute’ses, everybody at the point knew that to maximise levelling, you had to train at the slime caves, where spawn rate for these green little dudes were the highest. These caves were located around the town of Ellinia, where the mages reside. Training here and also listening to the soothing music was surprisingly de-stressing, especially after a whole day in school where you had to explain why you didn’t do your homework since you were too buy mapling!
- The best BGMs
Probably the most memorable parts of the old games were the Background Music. They had almost the perfect combination of soothing and uplifting tones and were also addictive. They change as you travel so that it was hard to get bored of them. Have a trip back to nostalgia-land by listening to these:
- Exploring Sleepywood
Sleepywood (and subsequently Ant Tunnel) was a memorable location (amongst all the other memorable locations) simply because if you reached here, chances are you already invested a lot of time into the game.
People who reached here probably already had their 2nd job advancement and were ready to tackle the next stage of their levelling process.
We used to challenge each other just to see how deep we can travel through Ant Tunnel before our entire party got wiped. Although seemingly a waste of potions, it was fun just to see who had the wit and skill to survive all the way till the end.
Sleepywood, especially in the Sauna Room, is usually where the infamous ‘Drop Game’ is played. A ‘Drop Game’ is like gambling, where each player (usually 2) would take turns to drop their items, and the other has a chance to snatch it up.
- Testing your patience during Jump Quests
These quests were probably the by-product during the creation of hell. They were the true tests of patience, where you needed to accurately jump on each platform all the way to the top. One misstep or loss of tempo resulted in a fall that either required you to restart the whole process or death where you had to restart everything all over again.
Personally, I never got around to completing these quests. I’ve never regretted it.
- Experiencing the crowd at Perion ‘Marketplace’
Channel 1 of Perion will definitely bring back fond memories of the events that take place here. Forget the night markets of Taiwan or even any shopping mall during the holiday season. THIS was where the action was.
Players from all over Victoria Island would come and sell, trade or buy stuff there, using ‘@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@’ to help bring their chat bubbles slightly higher. There really wasn’t a need to go to the Free Market, since the action is all there.
- ‘Selling Fame at 7k!’
Any MapleStory player would have at least seen someone either buying or selling ‘Fame’ in their journeys. In fact, ‘Fame’ was probably Maplestory’s first ‘service-orientated business’. A player can either give or take away another player’s ‘Fame’ once a day. People who wanted Fame (usually for some equipments or just for lulz) would end up buying them, while selling them was an easy 7,000 mesos a day.
Henesys, the town of the archer, was notorious of having all sorts of pros running around buying Fame, and all sorts of noobs running around selling Fame.
Bullying was also done using Fame as well. When there was a certain someone you wanted to bully, you would call all your friends just to go to that person to ‘De-Fame’ him. This became such a huge sensation, especially for people who went through painstaking efforts to increase their Fame.
- KS-ing
The hostile act of KS-ing, or kill-stealing, arguably started in MapleStory. This involved the act of killing the other player’s mob before they can deliver the finishing blow. By doing so, you deliberately lower the experience they can get from the monster. Once again, there was a thing where you could call all your friends and simply go out to mass KS a person’s mobs, slowing his entire levelling process. You may get sharp ‘CC!’ requests (which is a request to change the channel which you were playing in) or him just attempting to run away. However, MapleStory had a ‘Find’ function where nobody could escape from anyone’s target.
- Taking a plane to Orbis
Probably the highest point of the Maplestory timeline was the opening of Orbis, where you had to pay for ticket to get there. After almost 2-3 years exploring the old Victoria Island, the opening of a new island was definitely appealing for all.
One particular instance then was the occasional appearance of the Crimson Balrog, which was the most powerful monster back then. It was probably the thing that would piss anyone off the most, after paying the money to get to the new island and ended up in a gravestone back in where you came from.
- Exploring
Overall, the general feeling of playing MapleStory wasn’t grinding for levels. Sure, there were people who set out to do that to reach the maximum level of 200. But realistically, 200 was a level so difficult to achieve that people don’t really bother.
Instead, we ended up partying and just exploring Victoria Island together. We could spend all day simply travelling from Lith Harbour to Henesys, Perion, etc. Or maybe visit new spots like Florina Beach or going deep into Ellinia forest. There was plenty to do and see, and we had fun every second along the way. Present players wouldn’t understand the feeling, since this isn’t an economical use of time (even WoW tries to promote map exploration somewhat by granting experience if you uncover new locations).
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Other than MapleStory, MMOs in general has placed much more emphasis on the levelling, rather than the social aspect. However, emphasising too much on the social aspect of a game stagnates it (think Habbo Hotel, Second Life) MapleStory back then had a good balance of both to cater to all players alike. No matter the reason why you played the game, there is always a way to fulfil it, be it to be the highest level or just to hang out with friends.
So, what do YOU miss most when you were playing MapleStory? Comment below!
Gaming - I've lived my life doing that 
Today I was reminded of maplestory because I wanted to find a game which me and my friends could play and I instantly though of this game. You guys have brought back so many great memories. I remember one time on the ship to Orbis I went outside when a crimson balrog came and i got killed by it. A priest on the ship revived me and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world to me. I miss the old maplestory before big bang and
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My brothers and I used to play MS a lot. I remember when i’d finally gotten my second job and they took me to one of their “high level grinding sites” when i was at level 55. They said my blaze mage attacks were op so they needed me, but I was just so mezmorized by the amount of damage they did. When we first went to orbis I had no clue what to do either, I just went there with my brother and he went outside. I was just like “what are you doing?” and followed him…then I died…
Good times…i miss my blaze mage and the excitement of pirates being a new class..
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Blaze Mage(is this a fancy name for Fire mage?) & Pirates?!
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SO ON POINT. i miss the old maple
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Try maplelegends ❤
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>After almost 2-3 years exploring the old Victoria Island
It did not take them 3 years to release Orbis/Nath, the game launched with it. The longest anyone had to play without Ossy was a year if you were an early Beta player.
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Man…although I liked Big bang of how easier leveling and utilizing your character in general was much better, prior to big bang memories will not be forgotten. Nothing was the same since!
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I miss when bandits used to be the only ones to be able to hit several times at once 😥
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I miss old maple. I had a priest and used to sell my services as a holy symbol bot. i got free exp and money (and sometimes loots with bad stats) and basically got to do other things while healing/buffing every few minutes for hours on end.
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nostalgy… :’)
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I remember having to constantly use hidden-street.net just to see what monster dropped what and how to do quest. DONT FORGET ABOUT LUDI PQ that was dope!!!
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man grinding at hene brings back good memories ToT
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I loved having Maplers that became my Maple family or guild members,helping each other with quests, attending weddings, doing party quests together, taking family shots at various spots etc. We were so close, that I will miss them when they are unable to online!! Goodness me!! Miss those maple days!
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Ah, Sleepy Wood and the Anthill area… I would go there quite often by my lonesome as a level 40+ Sin, just to explore the land. Managed to get all the way to the very end, past the Evil Eyes, Cold Eyes, Drakes and reach the Fire Drakes. Sometimes I even manage to survive those and reach the Taurospear/Taurolance area, Hah! Those were the times. Slowly grinding in the Evil Eye Cave, or going into the hidden street like Zombie Mushmom’s nest and watching level 100+ players kill it or die attempting to do that. Welp, Big Bang made levelling really, really easy I guess? I miss those long winding paths you have to take, like from the Six-path-crossroads to Kerning City, you had to get through what is practically death trap forest before you can reach it. Or holding down your up arrow key button hoping to find a hidden street and then accidentally dropping into Pig Beach. And then regretting it almost instantly when you have to fight(aka get to the bottom of the ledge and hold down to avoid the pigs/hogs) your way to the exit. And hopefully not fall down to repeat the process again. Man I feel old now.
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Noob zone was never the best hangout place…
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My cousin(warrior) and I (archer) were farming in the any cave with the green mushrooms and we stubbled upon the very rare and most expensive all job shield, panlid. But as both of us were new and our character jobs did not utilise it. We sold it to the npc for 2000 till we figured out it was worth a few millions.
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HS please.
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when i 1st play the game i was invited by a girl friend. To impress her, i started playing like crazy. i was the highest level among some of my friend that as me play before even that girl play. Felt so damn proud of myself.
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I miss when Hermits were the only one who had the coolest movement ability: Flash Jump.
Now pretty much every class has a similar ability from 1st job onwards, with certain classes having one right from the start.
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That grinding for Panlid which cost 150k and was probably the hardest thing to get is the reason why we were all in ellinia forest xD
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First of all, I miss my old guilds (SnowBrigade, Helloworld and Labyrinth), but as far as the game goes, climbing the slippery slopes of El Nath, roaming through the L forest and doing Zakum’s JQ (I was a pro at that stuff!).
After grinding there all the way to 76 on 2nd job as a defense page, things sped up a lot with the next job advancement and a few new areas to explore; I made it my personal goal to raise my defense until Cpt. Latanica deals 1 dmg on hit (which I managed, eventually) and after 4th job to solo Papulatus, the Ludibrium time boss.
A few years later, the game’s damage formula changed, my defense of 900+ turned worthless, as STR started to contribute towards DEF for insane amounts (6000+). This, combined with a hacker infestation in Europe and a massive number of people quitting left me alone in the game…and then, there was just no point in playing anymore, even with new jobs and places to see (especially when the places needed items from the cash shop to enter OR a super rare boss drop).
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Your article brings back many fond memories! I loved this game back then. What i miss most, though, are the friendships forged, with some continuing to this day.
– VoltesV – L200 Hero from Scania, quit soon after the Big Bang update (late 2011)
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not to forget the vicious cycle of getting hacked by “trusted friends” every now and then.
However, it doesn’t take long for one to recover and sometimes surpasses beyond the previous stat.
Reminiscing the past brings back so many bittersweet memories.
Maple story indeed a great social vicissitudes of life 🙂
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https://mapleroyals.com/forum/threads/what-did-you-miss-in-the-old-maplestory.40910/
Shoudlve credited your source?
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Who remembers Tiger?!?! he was like the ronaldo of maplestory xD
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I remember all the pqs, hpq with the rice cake hats was probably the funniest. My first character was a shadowed and when I first made him I got bored so he was level 27 for about 2 months. Never made it to 200 because all my guild and I did was either boss, fail at jq or run around on our hog mounts for a race (I just took cabs lol)
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I remember playing as a 12-year-old in ’05, when I was being homeschooled due to surgery I’d had… never did I find a more honest, fun community.
I’ll never forget how my friends and I came to meet by hunting together in the same spot, then teaming up in parties to pool EXP, taking turns buying potions, me dumping thousands of randomly-obtained arrows for my archer friends to pick up…Waiting for everyone to level up for Sleepywood… and then going on to do things like pool money to buy tickets to Orbis or wherever and form a guild together.
Those were the days. Nowadays I see a player hunting in the field, they immediately CC. It’s so antisocial, and the social aspect is what made me a fan. It made me feel less alone as a medically shut-in kid with back problems.
I stopped and started back up in 09 and the community was just as strong. I managed to get to Ludi PQ and had so much fun marathoning those…
This game is just not what it used to be. Oddly enough, GTA Online has a better community more akin to oldschool MS. KS’ing, player harassment, yup, but also that sense of needing each other.
I hate how OP I got to be after just a week. I actually liked grinding. And getting to Sleepywood was a feat. Now it’s a stop on that idiotic 6-crossway path.
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We all miss this! maplestory was part of our childhood, what an amazing game brings tears to my eyes !
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