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Opinion - $1000 for a Maple Story character!?
I just read the most unsettling thing on The Sunday Times today.
1 million mesos for S$2 [US$1.30].
Level 70 Hunter for S$1000 [US$648]. In hard cash.
I used to play Maple Story, and of course I can't forget those irritating super megaphone pink messages that always said "SELLING THIS SELLING THAT". Of course, once in a short while, you had one or two bots shouting about Mesosland - BEST PRICES FOR MESOS ZOMG.
I wasn't so shocked when I read about the $2 for a million mesos. I've seen that before. [I've even seen people looking for real-life girlfriends in the game.] But the Level-70--for-$1000 deal made my jaw drop.
Seller: 17 [or 19, I can't remember]
Buyer: 14. And he paid in cold hard cash
Which in turn makes me ponder. How much of that $1000 was his own money? It could be possible that he was saving for something, and then decided to use his savings to buy a virtual character instead. But you can't rule out the possibility of him asking the money from his parents too. =\
To him, it probably seemed reasonable at that time. I've been there, done that too. Not really in the form of buying characters/mesos, just something closer. Cash shop items. 10,000 A-cash for S$10.50. A pet package would have cost you at least S$28+. Expensive eh? But I believed that it wasn't that bad, and went to spend most of my savings on it.
Of course, now that I don't play the game, I regret it. Because the cash shop items expire after a mere 90 days [therefore wasting whatever money you have spent], and also because I haven't touched the game in months and now the items serve no purpose to me.
I don't believe that anyone will play Maple Story for a prolonged period of time, even if you have a whole bevy of friends who keep pulling you back no matter what. One of these days, the 14-year-old is going to realise that it's way too tough training a Maple Story character, never mind if he's level 70 or level 199. It's going to take anyone ages to train, even if you buy those x2 experience cards from the cash shop.
Let's look at things this way. I haven't tried playing the official Ragnarok Online, but according to someone who did, it's a LOT faster to train a RO character than a Maple Story character to level 70. He claimed he just took a day to level the RO character up [I have no idea whether that's true], compared to weeks for the Maple Story character. And we're not even talking about those private servers with super-boosted experience rates.
That's just how slow it is to train a Maple Story character. The 14-year-old kid said in the article that it's only fun to play Maple when your characters are high-levelled. To this, I guess I can assume that the kid didn't have patience to train a character to Level 70, or even at least level 30. And you know the saying: The grass is greener on the other side. So, not giving a thought to how hard it actually is to train a hunter at level 70, the kid went and willingly paid $1000 for the character. ._. I wonder how much fun he's having now, grinding and killing.
Besides, one part of the joy in playing Maple is levelling a character from start to end, by yourself [or even in some people's case, by their friends AND themselves]. What's the point of buying a high-levelled character and then levelling all the way to the end?
And know what's even more laughable? Someone interviewed for the article even says that "No one is hurt and the deal benefits both parties. What's wrong with that? I hope you enjoy forking out money [twice the level of the strongest character in the account] to unban your account and retraining your character to get back all the items that have been requisited due to the ban. =\
It was long, but I had to get it out. xD *goes off to play XileRO*
Ja
Tari
1 million mesos for S$2 [US$1.30].
Level 70 Hunter for S$1000 [US$648]. In hard cash.
I used to play Maple Story, and of course I can't forget those irritating super megaphone pink messages that always said "SELLING THIS SELLING THAT". Of course, once in a short while, you had one or two bots shouting about Mesosland - BEST PRICES FOR MESOS ZOMG.
I wasn't so shocked when I read about the $2 for a million mesos. I've seen that before. [I've even seen people looking for real-life girlfriends in the game.] But the Level-70--for-$1000 deal made my jaw drop.
Seller: 17 [or 19, I can't remember]
Buyer: 14. And he paid in cold hard cash
Which in turn makes me ponder. How much of that $1000 was his own money? It could be possible that he was saving for something, and then decided to use his savings to buy a virtual character instead. But you can't rule out the possibility of him asking the money from his parents too. =\
To him, it probably seemed reasonable at that time. I've been there, done that too. Not really in the form of buying characters/mesos, just something closer. Cash shop items. 10,000 A-cash for S$10.50. A pet package would have cost you at least S$28+. Expensive eh? But I believed that it wasn't that bad, and went to spend most of my savings on it.
Of course, now that I don't play the game, I regret it. Because the cash shop items expire after a mere 90 days [therefore wasting whatever money you have spent], and also because I haven't touched the game in months and now the items serve no purpose to me.
I don't believe that anyone will play Maple Story for a prolonged period of time, even if you have a whole bevy of friends who keep pulling you back no matter what. One of these days, the 14-year-old is going to realise that it's way too tough training a Maple Story character, never mind if he's level 70 or level 199. It's going to take anyone ages to train, even if you buy those x2 experience cards from the cash shop.
Let's look at things this way. I haven't tried playing the official Ragnarok Online, but according to someone who did, it's a LOT faster to train a RO character than a Maple Story character to level 70. He claimed he just took a day to level the RO character up [I have no idea whether that's true], compared to weeks for the Maple Story character. And we're not even talking about those private servers with super-boosted experience rates.
That's just how slow it is to train a Maple Story character. The 14-year-old kid said in the article that it's only fun to play Maple when your characters are high-levelled. To this, I guess I can assume that the kid didn't have patience to train a character to Level 70, or even at least level 30. And you know the saying: The grass is greener on the other side. So, not giving a thought to how hard it actually is to train a hunter at level 70, the kid went and willingly paid $1000 for the character. ._. I wonder how much fun he's having now, grinding and killing.
Besides, one part of the joy in playing Maple is levelling a character from start to end, by yourself [or even in some people's case, by their friends AND themselves]. What's the point of buying a high-levelled character and then levelling all the way to the end?
And know what's even more laughable? Someone interviewed for the article even says that "No one is hurt and the deal benefits both parties. What's wrong with that? I hope you enjoy forking out money [twice the level of the strongest character in the account] to unban your account and retraining your character to get back all the items that have been requisited due to the ban. =\
It was long, but I had to get it out. xD *goes off to play XileRO*
Ja
Tari
no subject
I bet the kid probably came from a loaded family though.
no subject
Loaded parents who pamper him to no end I bet. =\ I wouldn't dare ask my parents for even $50 really, unless it's for school uses. And I seriously wonder how much he had to ask for from his parents.