MapleStory Chain Game Version Initial Experience
After two years of waiting, the Web3 version of “MapleStory” officially launched yesterday. This is the biggest blockchain game in history, and “Have you gone to the island?” became one of the hottest topics of the day. Once the servers went live at 6 PM last night, they were immediately filled to capacity, and some players encountered issues receiving verification codes during new user registration due to the influx of new players.
The game currency $NXPC launched simultaneously at TGE on multiple exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, Bitget, Upbit, and Bithumb, with a current price of $2.87 and a circulating market value of $483 million.
How to Start the Game? What is the Gaming Experience and Earning Potential?
Starting the Game
Visit the official website and click on “Game Start” in the top right corner; you will be prompted to connect your MetaMask wallet. Please keep your mnemonic phrase safe!
If you have not registered an account before, you will need to sign up using an email address. Then, download the launcher and wait for the game to finish installing before entering. Subsequent logins are also done by clicking the “Game Start” button on this page to bring up the launcher, without needing to log in within the game.
Game Experience
In the Web3 version, players can only choose from the early adventurer classes (i.e., Warrior, Thief, Mage, Archer, and Pirate). Veteran players may feel this is akin to the old version before the V077 update introduced the Champion class, but in reality, the game content, including skills, maps, quests, and other aspects like the UI, are no different from the current Web2 version.
However, due to the significant changes in the economic mechanisms and the GameFi characteristics of Web3, the overall gaming experience has changed in various aspects.
When creating a character, players cannot input their character names; the system randomly generates a string of letters as a temporary character name. The name cannot be changed until the character is minted as an NFT, which requires reaching level 65 (although the level requirement is technically only 60, another requirement is to defeat the “Bat Demon Balrog,” which necessitates being at least level 65).
Thus, when entering the game, a bunch of English names are chasing after the Green Snails, and it’s impossible to compete… I exhausted myself trying to drop 5 Green Snail shells and couldn’t even see other players… I managed to enter the server earlier, but the screenshots I took weren’t that impressive, so I’ll borrow some from other players’ screenshots I saw in the WeChat group:
The early leveling process has been significantly simplified. After completing the quest, players are taken directly to the classic “Pearl Port Map.”
Then, players are asked to choose a first job class. Upon selection, the system automatically raises their level to 10 and teleports them to the job change point for their first job advancement.
Next, players will go to Henesys to complete a series of simple monster-hunting quests. Once finished, regardless of their level, players will be directly raised to level 30 and teleported to the job change point for their second job advancement. After this, they will follow the guide to complete themed dungeons until the level 60 third job advancement, where they will experience a brief period of having to take quests and level up by defeating monsters.
In the game, monsters typically drop in-game currency $NESO and potions. The drop rate for NFT items is currently very low; in my over four hours of gameplay, I only received 2 raffle tickets. There are no longer in-game shops to buy potions, but players need not worry about running out of potions, as monster drops are abundant and will gradually yield more effective potions based on level.
Players can quickly check what equipment can be dropped on the current map. As seen, the current drop quantity for accessories is very low, and thus the drop rate is naturally low as well.
Another way to acquire powerful weapon equipment is by defeating bosses. In the Web3 version, defeating a boss does not directly drop equipment, but rather yields a “raffle ticket,” meaning players need to defeat bosses daily and roll for the equipment with players across the server.
I completed the defeat of the simple difficulty Zakum, but only rolled $NESO and did not obtain the Zakum Helmet. From the above image, it can also be seen that the game has made some localizations, but the completion level of this localization can be described as “crippled”…
Overall, being able to play a childhood game in my field of work is truly moving, but there are many areas for improvement in the experience, such as better multilingual support, including localization, and better onboarding for new players. Given the significant changes in the game’s drop mechanisms, I hope to see some interesting Web3-exclusive events that combine the characteristics of Web3 in the future. This is a bit far-reaching, as the game has just launched and needs time.
The mechanisms related to NFT items will also take time to develop. From a Web3 perspective, the in-game currency $NESO can be seen as a no-threshold Play to Earn, while NFT items represent Play (Hunt/Raid) to Raffle, especially with the boss rolling mechanism, which requires meeting certain conditions and hoping for good fortune.
Earning Situation
Currently, players entering the game with the mindset of earning are very dissatisfied with this aspect. Due to the nature of Web3, everyone hopes this is a game-rich gold mine, but the reality is that the current earning potential is even lower than that of the Web2 version.
Setting aside the equipment drops (NFT market), which will require time to verify the buying pressure (of course, the game has an official equipment recycling mechanism, but this aspect of earning is currently indeterminate and too reliant on luck), the most direct method is to defeat monsters to drop $NESO and then exchange it for $NXPC. The current exchange rate is 100,000 $NESO for 1 $NXPC, which is far too high given the current drop rates.
Quoting data from @ZiYu0210:
The precondition here is still to reach level 200, and to exchange the in-game $NESO on-chain, it requires a minted game character. Therefore, for the earning output from the game to be realized, users need to engage with the game to a certain depth. Currently, only players participating in early activities and tests, receiving significant airdrops, are making a profit.
This is actually a very contradictory point. If the game wants to continuously attract earning players, either the exchange rate or the drop rate needs to be modified at least one. If not changed, the game may face significant challenges, as it will then rely on players who genuinely enjoy playing the game or the NFT item output to become a good earning channel. However, to obtain the best equipment sets, players cannot avoid spending money, and for Web3 players, spending is akin to reinvesting, but how can the current near-zero earning potential persuade earning players to invest their first sum of money? (Let alone reinvest…)
For players who genuinely enjoy the game, the overall experience of the Web3 version may not currently convince them to switch from the Web2 version.
This is a game that can be both grindy and casual, where the fun lies in playing with friends. How the game develops and adjusts in the future will gradually reveal how serious NEXON is about this blockchain game project and what development strategy it possesses, so for now, I remain cautiously optimistic.
So, today, have you gone to the island?
This article is collaboratively reposted from: Deep Tide