Complaint Review: Nexon America Inc.

On Dec. 7th, 2010, Nexon released a revamp of their game MapleStory. It came with promises of change for the better, but many players felt betrayed that many promises of the Big Bang where not kept. To compound the issues of the Big Bang, with it came a change to some of the equipment that people had to pay Nexon real money to obtain. The Elemental Weapons where changed to have their Elemental Bonuses that players had paid for removed. Afterwards, players politely requested information on the issue and requested that the bonuses be reinstated. Nexon soon decided to deny the players their request, and began a bitter battle to convince the players that being defrauded of the bonuses they paid for was for the common good.

One week later, on Dec 14th, Nexon's representative, Hime, posted a notice that the changes to these sought after weapons was intentional and for the sake of balance in the game. However, many players disagree with the claims of balance and even call Nexon out on the claim that the changes where even intentional. In terms of balance, there are several weapons in the game that give special advantages to other classes. Some of these weapons are faster than normal, increase critical rates, etc. However, Elemental Weapons where singled out for their bonuses. Nexon also neglected the fact that the Elemental Staves' speed favored the brand new class, Battle Mages. These mages where special in that the weapons speed affect this mages attacking speed, and the Elemental Weapons 4 degrees faster than a standard staff. This translates to aprox. a 33% increase in damage. The original bonuses where 25% and 10%. So now, Elemental Weapons enhance the power of the new class far more than the original bonuses. As a result, players have called the excuse of balance a complete lie. Hime also called the change intentional, but as players have pointed out it was not mentioned in the original official announcements. Almost all obvious changes to the game, like removals of areas, changes to skills, etc. are almost always hinted towards. However, this change was only mentioned after countless complaints.

It is also important to notice that Hime promised compensation, but to this date no compensation has been given. Keep in mind that Nexon's precedent for compensation of intentional changes is the day that a change has occurred. It has been 6 weeks since the patch.

After Hime posted the topic, Players instantly criticized the change almost completely unchallenged for 38 pages. Players also criticized Hime for ignoring the topic and providing no information. When she finally returned to post after 22 days, she simply said that Nexon was "working on it" and gave no real information. Players instantly criticized her for the lack of progress and lack of information. In an attempt to let the topic die, Nexon unpinned the topic. Instantly the players became enraged and swore to keep the topic alive. Some players went as far as to call Hime out on past lies she has made and criticized Nexon on almost completely ignoring them for 6 weeks. A different representative of Nexon, xgrantwallx, attempted to put out the fire and claimed that the unpinning of this topic was automatic (an obvious lie as topics remain pinned longer than this topic) and claimed the players where conspiracy theorist. When that did not work (players are far smarter than Nexon believes), Hime decided to post once more. She locked the topic, realizing that her continued lies wont put out the fire Nexon started, and she once again claimed "Nexon is working on it." Afterwards, many players that criticized Nexon where banned from the forums for demanding that they receive their rightful bonuses that they paid for.

In the end, the players lost, while Nexon continues to attempt to justify scamming its players. However, only time will tell whether the players have their bonuses returned (or any compensation at all), or if Nexon gets away with fraud.