A semi-interesting report done by FOX News on the negative impact of MapleStory, mainly on life’s two biggest commodities: time and money.

Oh gee.  It’s not like every other MMORPG like MapleStory is better in this regard.  Takes FOX to try to make money off of a random story… or is it really that random?

In my mind, a story like this about Maple is was completely inevitable; Something a long time coming.  Casting aside the fact that this story was done by FOX, it seems that it does on to say that it’s an easy hook, (which it is) slowly taking away the player’s time, and eventually money.

Now, the addictiveness of the game is kind of something that is all too common.  They didn’t really need to make this story on MapleStory to figure out just what MMORPGs can do.  Now, I don’t know the actual details of how much each game has an effect on another person’s life, but I can tell you this: MapleStory is by far NOT the worst game as for people getting hooked on it.  They could’ve easily substituted World or Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, or the king of “MMORPG Addiction Disorder,” Everquest.  The story’s no different than any other game of its type out there, and you’re always going to find them too.

Now, because of Nexon’s different way of generating revenue, the money factor really can cause a real problem for someone.

This problem is something different from games like WoW, FF11, or Everquest mainly because of the fact that their way of generating revenue is not by a monthly subscription fee, but through their optional cash shop items.  Because of this backend model of making income, it becomes VERY easy to go broke on this game by going gung-ho on NX.  Back in the days when PayPal was the only way to charge NX it wasn’t so easy to do this. (Mainly because of monthly charge limits imposed to prevent fraud)  This is THE one thing that does need to be moderated in this game by all players; how much money they actually put into it.

The story goes on to go about how some of these kids have gotten so bad that they’ve actually stolen their parents’ credit cards, or gotten into their paypal accounts, etc… to get it.  I believe both players they interviewed here (and according to one curious person responding to this on one of the livejournal communities, one of them is an ex-hacker due to their lack of a rank) had gone and done just that, and for that reason parents do have to be more careful, and need to intervene before it gets too bad.  Adults are more likely to be able to spend wisely, whereas kids might not now exactly what they’re doing to their parents by going behind their back.  It’s something that a parent needs to keep a keen eye out for, mainly because I believe in this sort of situation it is mainly the fault of the parent.  Nexon also said themselves in this article that it’s the sort of thing that they wished not happen, but it does anyway.

And, if it’s a good enough deterrent for kids who actually want to steal their parents’ card for NX: You’ll be regretting it later when your parents find out, charge it back, and you get banned.

The one statement that FOX made regarding the money factor that I don’t agree with went something along the lines about how the game “looks” or “seems” free.  (Or at least that’s how it came off to me.)  MapleStory doesn’t look free. It IS free.  They don’t start contacting you a week later saying that your account will be terminated if you don’t start charging NX to your account.  Putting any money into this game, or any other game Nexon America offers, is completely optional.  If you want the game to be free, then you can keep it free.  You may end up maybe putting 5 bucks into your account here or there in the future, after you’ve played the game for a while, but that’s your choice.  I’m sure that there are many people who have played this game for a long time that haven’t put a single penny into this game.

So, in conclusion, FOX is right about some things, wrong about others, and for other parts of the story I don’t think this game in particular was the best to set the example.  I don’t think this gives the game or the community a bad name, but this article was probably going to happen one day, and it did.