AriesMS Transparency - Part 2
Disclaimer
I have officially retired from MapleStory and I'm now an avid player of LOSTARK. There will be some instances where the comparison of both MapleStory and LOSTARK is mentioned. The quoted instances are merely aspects of LOSTARK that I feel would be beneficial to MapleStory's progression, more so possible with a private server. These are my personal opinions, and you do not have to agree with me.
MapleStory, in its foundation to me, is a poorly designed game. Its features disregards the time and effort spent into an account. It heavily focuses on vertical growth and is incredibly rigid when it comes to ease of use, accessibility, user interface, character progression (how hard it is to retain certain aspects of progression if you're playing a different character).
While a private server can strive to be as close to the official servers as possible, it should also differentiate itself from the official servers, and provide players with what the official server cannot.
Definition
The term 'Administrator' or 'Administrators', unless their name was specified, refers to both Elyx and Nova.
Ideal World
In Aries, 99% of the features and content that differ from the official server is controlled and regulated by Nova.
He once said that he intends to keep the server as close to Global MapleStory (GMS) as possible, but at the same time, has different plans for certain features of the game; and wants them to function the way he wants them to (often times, differently from GMS itself). His idea of fun and engagement is different from most people, which explains why you have yet to acquire the potential that you want after spending thousands and thousands of cubes.
Convincing Nova to implement improvisations to the game, even for those that were self-explanatory; required an intense amount of time and energy spent on trying to have him understand the struggles of a player. If the improvisations didn't meet the standards of his 'ideal world', it's very likely that it will be rejected and thrown under the bus. However, if it was approved, there's a 50/50 chance that it would be gated behind a tedious activity (e.g. Zero Dungeon).
(Conversation archive, read from bottom to top. Orange-censored individual will be elaborated in Work Culture section below.)
I often had to get into debates with Nova to simply attempt to have him understand the perspective of the players and what they deserve. When 'Project Revelry' was first proposed to Nova, he did not take me seriously even though my intentions were to improve the game for the better.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of the items/features that either had inaccuracies or acquisition restrictions that were part of Nova's 'ideal world'; most of which involved probability one way or another:
- Innocence Scrolls
- Miraculous Chaos Scrolls
- Starforce Enhancements (15~25)
- Character Slot Coupons
- Violet Cubes
- Bonus Potential Cubes
- Rebirth Flames
'Project Revelry' was a catalyst that helped to ease most of these, however, there are still existing issues that didn't make the cut. One of them are probability rates of Potential Cube lines. While I can't verify if these probability rates affect other cubes, I can attest that Violet Cubes and Bonus Potential Cubes are severely manipulated against the player. When implementing the changes for 'Project Revelry', I specifically requested that Nova resolve all inaccuracies with probability rates that did not reflect the probability rate indicated on the item name or description. However, there's a chance that he ignored my request for some of them, and there may be existing inaccuracies still present in-game.
The last time Nexon Korea pulled this stunt, the following happened:
- "Call for transparency as gamers take issue with real odds of ‘random’ items" by Korea Herald
- LOSTARK Korea's playerbase increased by 545% due to Nexon Korea's probability scandal
For more information on the Nexon Korea incident, simply Google for "nexon korea probability".
During my time as a staff, I strove to reduce the time it takes to complete daily tasks, so that players have time to focus on other aspects of the game; whereas Nova insists to retain the daily commitment time for most activities under the reason of maximizing the time players spend in-game. This is his 'idea' of player engagement. While this is great for hardcore players, it's tedious to maintain for casual players, even if they weren't casual from the start. Maximizing the time that players spend in-game helps with the player online count, to attract new players under the guise of a 'large playerbase'.
Speaking of probability..
[Special Mention] iCOGs
Definition
The term 'iCOG' refers to 'Incredible Chaos Scroll of Goodness', an item that is the enhanced version of the regular 'Chaos Scroll of Goodness' that provided values close to what a 'Miraculous Chaos Scroll' could achieve, except that it didn't include the possibility of deducting stats.
It was rumored that in 2016~2018, a few donators had possession of iCOGs and thus created "godlike" items.
The existence of Incredible Chaos Scrolls of Goodness (iCOG) were raised multiple times throughout years 2016~2021. While Elyx has constantly denied the fact that players ever had possession of iCOGs, there were multiple items in question that would have been impossible to create without the use of iCOGs. However, I have no evidence that it ever existed nor were there confirmations given to me by the Administrators that player(s) possessed it. Though I can't say I trust their word fully.
These items, if verified that iCOGs were used, were created in an unfair environment that only a selected number of players had their hands on. This meant that anyone that possessed the items were provided a seriously unfair advantage over other players; and only if you were able to acquire it through whatever means possible.
Here are some of the item(s) in question:
(Specimen A)
(Specimen B)
(Specimen C)
In 2020, a player who was in possession of those items attempted to sell them to other players. He made a thread in an attempt to certify that the items were created in a fair manner.
In the event that the Administrators try to remove the thread, I've ported the thread into a separate post [HERE] as back-up.
Though, whether or not his intentions were to sell them legitimately via in-game means was unclear. The only thing that was certain, was that Elyx was ready to silence anyone who raised questions about these items. These items are still circulating within the community and the Administrators have no intentions of removing them; whether or not it's due to the reason that the player in possession of it would incur a loss. As of recent, some of them are still being advertised in the relevant market channels. Resolving these are mere simple steps, but they're tedious; which is something the Administrators avoid doing.
However, suspicious and/or unintended items that weren't supposed to be in the game isn't unheard of, and the case of iCOGs isn't the only one. There are uncountable items like these in-game, and though they aren't as easily differentiated by a regular player, they make up the toxic work culture that the Administrators actively practice; sweeping things under the rug.
Work Culture & Discipline (or the lack thereof)
If you haven't read [Part 1], I suggest you do, because the entirety of it screams toxic work culture that I won't repeat in this one.
I think I speak for majority of people when I say that communication is an imperative asset when it comes to organization(s) that require different people (or groups of people) to work together to produce an overall product/service. In the age of technology, keeping each other in the loop is barely tedious nor does it take up much time. Unfortunately, this seems like a tough habit for the Administrators to adopt and a non-existent thought process that has made the role of a Community Manager a lot more difficult than it already is.
The extent of this reaches far down, to the point that on certain occasions, none of the Administrators keep each other in the loop. Since I wasn't able to efficiently work under such conditions, I had to raise serious concerns about their absolute lack of communication within the team before they decided to change the way they work. Over the years their communication has shown improvement, and while it's not far from where they've come, it's better than before.
That said, one of the reasons Aries has remained stagnant for a really long time was because the Administrators love swimming in status quo. Aside from some random project that Elyx thought would help spice up the server (a Field of Judgment-like activity called 'School Brawl'), there's not much they wanted to improvise. Their belief was that if there were things to change, it would be to add new things to the server, than reflect about what they could improve on existing systems/content in the game. This was prior to the creation of the Trello board (that was meant to track base game content), Nova becoming more active in reviewing Player Suggestions on the forums, and the introduction of Project Revelry.
Before diving into what contributes to the Administrators' passion for status quo, I wanted to elaborate a little on the 'orange-censor' former staff member which was quoted in a conversation archive above.
This specific staff member thrived from working in the absence of team communication, and alongside Nova, the duo released multiple content that still exists today. One of which is the tedious activity, known as Zero Dungeon that requires mindless grinding for a currency in order to purchase ONE 'Character Slot Coupon' that players can use to expand their account roster.
I'm unable to recall other content that he was part of, other than a slight memory of possible Hekaton tweaks that have made players' lives a little more tedious when participating in this boss activity.
His sole response when prompted why he didn't consult the team on his content ideas was that; he didn't want others to have the opportunity to disagree with his ideas and downvote it, leading to the idea being shut down. This got me speechless at that point, and I didn't see the point in arguing. The possible reason Nova mentioned him, was probably due to the fact that he had ideas that involved adopting them from other games. That of which Nova apparently disagrees with.
Game Expertise
It's not a surprise that people sitting at the top are unfamiliar with what goes on on the ground, evidently so in real-life corporations. In Aries, Nova is the only staff member aside from Elyx and our favorite Game Master, Seasons; that actually plays the game, as in MapleStory. At times, Nova has to set aside time to acquire information from the official server (Global MapleStory) on game updates and systems that he can incorporate into Aries. However, that doesn't really equate to understanding the players of Aries, since that requires a different set of engagement.
Amusingly, Elyx and Seasons has about the same level of inexperience in the game. If I had to gauge, I would say Elyx is right about 80% out of sync with the game; and only understands the basic systems, features and operations of the game. Seasons on the other hand, is 95% out of sync, and barely knows how the game works.
In cases where it involves discussing improvisations of the game, it would usually involve Nova and other staff members to gather their opinions. Elyx is only there to acknowledge that changes are being made. His opinion is often only required when the changes directly or indirectly involve Aries Points and the usage of Aries Points, as well as any major structural changes.
This means that the Administrators heavily rely on their Game Masters to feed them information on player matters, opinions on the ground, player requests and/or suggestions, glitches, and more. While this is part of the Community Manager's role to convey information upwards, not only were there multiple game improvisations made by the Administrators that were not consulted with the rest of the team; Community Managers are usually swamped with work and barely have time to be a regular player.
With the lack of manpower and time, there is only so much the Community Managers can do. The only saving grace is that most of the staff were regular players before they joined the team, and some still are. This is why constructive information is important, but seems to be incredibly rare when it comes to Aries.
Manpower
When Elyx first came to me and spoke of a new server, I was less than pleased, mainly because we were already strapped on manpower. He wanted MapleLumiere to cater to to players outside of what Aries provides, even though both servers were of the same game version and had similar systems. With the same management, the staff culture of MapleLumiere isn't that much different, and suffers from the same set of problems much like Aries does.
As far as I'm aware, Elyx is mostly incapable of assisting Nova with coding and Nova remains the sole developer of both servers. Even though MapleLumiere has a different set of Community Managers, the lack of manpower remains. Therefore, why they decided to squeeze the already non-existent manpower is beyond my understanding.
(Conversation archive on MapleLumiere's Beta Launch, Seasons' involvement and Aiur's promotion to GM. Read from bottom to top.)
Considering the amount of time Seasons was nowhere to be found, I was curious if he had a part to play in MapleLumiere's beta launch. However, it seems like he was supposed to dedicate his time only to Aries. But still, wasn't able to deliver. What's most amusing is that Elyx is more than aware of the lack of manpower in Aries, but proceeds with MapleLumiere anyway.
From what I've heard, MapleLumiere seems to be plagued with a multitude glitches that adds onto Nova's already packed schedule. The server however, was built on what Aries failed to establish, and included many of my suggestions that were no longer possible to implement in Aries. One of which is the in-game to forum account integration, existing as a single account for both platforms.
Compensation
It seems like many players are curious if staff members are compensated. While I can't speak for other private servers, server administration generally do not compensate their staff members (e.g. Community Managers), only a select few do at their own discretion.
The one major reason why the Game Masters who have remained are continuing to push out updates are because they're compensated for their time. This wouldn't have been possible without me raising the topic of compensation with the Administrators for both of them. However, I no longer possess the relevant conversation archives to verify this claim.
(Conversation archive of Bread receiving compensation. Read from bottom to top.)
(Conversation archive on Bread and Aiur's compensation. Read from bottom to top.)
According to Elyx, the 'Compensation System' in Aries was established because of my performance as a Head Game Master, and clearly not because of the extensive amount of time I was spending on the server and if they wished to retain me as a staff member. If I hadn't requested that I be compensated back then, existing staff members wouldn't be compensated either.
Some veteran players may recall me single-handedly managing the server in almost every aspect for an extended period of time as the sole Game Master prior to new additions to the team. Each of these aspects come with their own set of challenges, and are listed as follows:
- Player Reports
- Appeals
- Surprise Style Boxes
- Seasonal Content
- Seasonal Events
- Maintaining of Royal Hair/Face (for Royal Hair Salon & Random Beauty Coupons) List (ensuring they're up-to-date)
- Forum & Discord Moderation
- Game Moderation (inclusive of daily scans and resolving player disputes; if any)
- Technical & Game Support
- Reviewing Player Suggestions
- Reviewing Staff Applications
- General CM work, ad-hoc and/or brainstorming for new content ideas
Before I end, I have a final gift for the players.
Project Revelry
I have a strong suspicion (and for good reason) that the staff has made a duplicate of my Project Revelry document (despite my previous assumption) and will continue to release the rest of what they have acquired from my original copy. While I'm not asking to be credited, I wanted to remind players that the remainder of Project Revelry Phase 3 releases are from the original framework that I established. The rest of the credits should go to the Game Masters who have persisted to relentlessly deliver the rest of the updates to the players.
Considering there is no longer a need to maintain the secrecy of the remaining of Project Revelry, my plans for the server and its entirety will be detailed below. Please note that only unreleased content will be elaborated; for phases that were already released, feel free to refer to their respective threads on the Elluel Network forums.
Phase 1 - Economy & Activities
- Revisions to Mesos & NX Acquisition
- Safe Cracker Revamp
- Spell Trace Acquisition
- Daily PQ Revisions
- Boss Entry Revisions
- Addition of Safeguard Option
- Tempest Coin Acquisition & Usage
Phase 2 - Merchants
- Vote Point Shop Revision
- Aries Point Shop Revision
- Party Quest Point Shop Revision
- Dojo Shop Revision
- Monster Park Revision
- Removal of Achievements Shop
- Phantom Forest Shop Addition (inclusive of Phantom Forest questline)
- Addition of Revelry Shop
Phase 3 - Progression (3.1)
- Paragon Revisions
- Hard Boss Drops Instancing (inclusive of Elite Chaos Bosses)
- Dojo System Revision + Permanent Pet Equips
- Dojo Points will function differently from what they are now
- Permanent Pet Equips will be acquirable from Boxes in Dojo Shop
- Source of Pet Scrolls is up to staff to decide
- Adjustments to Starforce Enhancement (16~25)
- A gist of it can be found in my response HERE under 'Starforce Rates'
- How this will work is that there will be 2 conditions:
- Condition A: Enhance an equipment (without a Starforce Protection Scroll) with Base X success rate with a chance of item destruction and/or degradation
- Condition B: Enhance an equipment (with a Starforce Protection Scroll) with reduced success rates from Base X rate, without the chances of item destruction and/or degradation
- Both conditions will still cost mesos, but one of them will cost more than the other.
- Adjustments to Elite Chaos Boss
- Adjusting the time required in order to achieve a certain Grade tier
- Addition of Item Guards
- For better account security (took us long enough)
- (NOTE: There's a chance it will clash with the existing long-term glitch with Android/Heart locks)
- Hekaton Revisions
- Adding more incentives to participate
- Achievement System Revision
- To provide better engagement and rewards with existing activities in the game
- Announcement of Pitched Boss Item Drops
- TL;DR: This was added to prevent stingy players from trying to scam their own party members (you know who you are)
- How this will work is that a game notice will be shown if a Pitched Boss item drops for that specific clear, all party members should be able to see it
Phase 4 - Beyond (Approved by Nova)
- Endgame Totem Set (better than RLH)
- It will utilize the fragments (that were removed in P3.1) that originally dropped from Elite Chaos Bosses to exchange for a list of totems
- Fragments will only drop from Endgame and Elite Chaos Bosses
- Totems will be permanent and will only be tradable within the account
I cannot for the love of my life remember which totems we decided on, but I believe it were these:
(Honorable Mention)
- Pity System (Pitched Boss Equipment)
- This was apparently lost in the midst of communicating updates to Nova, and was never officially released for the server until I recently found out that Nova had no idea what this was about
- It was scheduled to release sometime before P3.1, along with the addition of Pitched Boss items into the game
- This will basically work similar to Genshin Impact's Wish Pity System
- Since the drop rate for Pitched Boss equipment is unaffected by the player's drop rate, it was supposed to increase the base drop rate of a Pitched Boss equipment after every subsequent clear that it does not drop
- However, this may complicate things when it comes to party clears with multiple members (possibility of multiple players' pity clashing with one another)
- Feel free to use this information as a Player Suggestion and/or request for better drop guarantees on Pitched Boss equipment; crediting isn't necessary
Once again, feel free to use this information however you like as long as the original context remains intact and they're not twisted for personal advantages.
With this, I conclude Part 2 of the AriesMS Transparency series. As I have nothing else I'd like to say, the QnA will be moved to Part 3, and there will not be a Part 4.
WAAMS QnA (Updated on Nov 7, 2022 12:57PM GMT +8)
Please submit your questions to this page HERE by Nov 30, 2022.
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Stay frosty and have a lovely Christmas.