MapleStory 2 Developers Vow to Work With Players to Gather Feedback and Address Issues
MapleStory 2 just launched its Skybound Expansion phase 2 earlier this month, but the game still has several serious issues and the game's developers are looking to work directly with the community to solve them. Going forward MapleStory 2 will launch a 3 month project where developers will try to better communicate with players and incorporate their feedback. The process will go something like this:
- We will share with you full details of our proposed solution to an issue and why we believe that solution is the most viable one available.
- At that time, we will gather your feedback regarding the proposed solution to see if there are any further adjustments to include with the update.
- We will share the final decision after all feedback from the community has been
reviewed, prior to the changes being released. - We will update the game with the solution that’s been reviewed by the community.
- Rinse and repeat!
The current big picture topics that will be reviewed during this 3 month project are the following:
- Enchanting Improvements
- Gemstone Upgrade Improvements
- Socket Opening System Improvements
- Addressing Meso Economy by
- Adjusting Meso Sinks
- Introducing Meso Market (with adjustments from other services)
- Introducing Gear Trade (with restrictions)
- Epic Pets Improvements
- Gemstone Related Resource Gathering Process Improvements
- And more
The timeline on implementing this new project is as follows:
Early to Mid February: Detailed discussion begins about a few of the topics from the list
End of February or Early March: The first update occurs based on the feedback from
February. This update is currently planned to focus on the Gemstone Resource
Gathering Process, Meso Economy and more.
Early March: Discussion starts for the topics which require a more thorough review,
including Enchanting, Gemstone Upgrade, Socket Opening, and Epic Pets. These
discussions will take more time because of all the system details.
Mid to End of April: The next update occurs based on the feedback from early March.
Players will have time to test out and experiment with the new progression, including all
the changes from the feedback initiative before our next major expansion comes out.
May: Host community events (either online or offline) to discuss the content coming in
the next major expansion and the feedback received.
End of May or Early June: The next update occurs, coinciding with the release of a
new major expansion.
While we won't know how this little experiment pans out, I suspect it will see positive results. Oldschool Runescape has long been soliciting player feedback before implementing big changes and it's been a huge success for them. RuneScape actually has in-game polling stations where players can vote on whether changes should be implemented to the game. If a particular update isn't popular, it simply doesn't make it into the game. To my knowledge, no other major MMORPG does anything quite like this, but other games should consider implementing similar systems. Time will tell if MapleStory 2's approach to gathering and implementing player feedback works, but I'm rooting for them.
Further reading: Official developer blog
