MapleStory Reboot Launches Today, Adds Pay-To-Win Item, Removes Pay-To-Win Item
MapleStory's Reboot world is set to launch in just a few short hours. All players will be able to experience a more true-to-roots edition of MapleStory once again with more difficult gameplay, no trading, and no pay-to-win elements. In fact, Nexon have gone the extra mile to ensure that with the removal of a single item that the playerbase considered to be pay-to-win.
The patch notes for v.168—including the Reboot world patch notes—went up last night in preparation for today's launch. Much to the dismay of many, the patch notes included the Meso Sack, a cash shop item that would "award you with millions of mesos!" It came with the stipulation that it could only be used by players level 150 or higher. Upon reaching level 150, you were given a large amount of mesos as a reward anyways. The idea was to make play on the Reboot server as comfortable as possible for as many people as possible and this would help those who either didn't have the time to grind for money or simply didn't want to.
The players weren't happy about this. They voiced their concerns and it seems that Nexon have listened. A post from an hour ago states the following.
In creating Reboot world, our goal was to provide a hardcore RPG experience where balance impacting items can be obtained in-game through the efforts of each individual player. With this goal in mind, we want to make sure that the Reboot world is something that all of you want to be a part of – a world that meets your expectations. Over the past day, we have listened to your feedback regarding the implementation of Meso Sacks in the Reboot world Cash Shop. We have decided to remove Meso Sacks from the Reboot World Cash Shop at this time, and these items will not be in the shop when the servers go live later today.
It seems that they wanted to allow a money shortcut for those that felt they needed it, but reserved the truly powerful items for loot drops. If this is the case, then the benefit of Meso Sacks may have been negligible to begin with, even if considered to be pay-to-win. Nevertheless, they are gone for the time being and Nexon will "further review community feedback and monitor meso activity in Reboot World" to judge the inclusion of "additional ways to obtain meso" in future updates.
For more information, head to the official site. The update should be live very soon.
