MapleStory is still being played and streamed in Southeast Asia by a devoted community, 19 years after its initial release
It's thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the game has brought people together in more ways than one.
I don't know about you, but it's been a long while since I've heard or played 2D Korean MMO Maplestory. I'm in my early 40s, and the last time I played MapleStory was when I was in university, in 2005, a good 19 years ago.
Back then, the game was everywhere. It was easy to play, though very, very, very grindy. It had really cutesy graphics, and everyone played it. We would talk about which facial emote was our favourite — it's F3, no contest — and why the heck were ninja stars so difficult to farm for.
So imagine my surprise when I got an invite to check out a community event organised by PlayPark, the publisher of MapleStory SEA. The event featured players who had been picked from an online campaign. They were to make mini rugs using a process called tufting, and to bake stuff.
My first reaction was: "People still play Maple?, followed by "wow, this game is still around" and "okay, I have to go see see".
As I made my way down to Hueplay Studio Kampung Bahru on a Saturday morning, I wondered. Would everyone be as old as me? Would a balding 40-ish year-old uncle feel right at home?
Happily, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Outside of the tufting studio, a bunch of zoomers and younger millennials were milling around, waiting to take attendance.
As the 50 of us marched up the stairs to the studios take our seats in front of a canvas that had an outline of familiar Maplestory monsters, a Pink Bean, a Slime, or Mushroom, we listened patiently as the instructors explained how to tuft.
Unfortunately, it turns out I'm terrible at handicraft work, and having torn massive holes in my now destroyed potential rug, I decided that maybe it would be better to actually talk to the people around me to find out more about why they decided to play the game.
She met her partner in MapleSEA
A marketer by day, and a Vtuber with cat ears by night, Kapoooof has been playing a Bishop on MapleSEA for four years, but created her account when she was in Primary 4.
While she currently streams MapleStory, she previously played Overwatch, Apex Legends, Monster Hunter Rise, and Genshin Impact.
"Back in primary school, my brother was the one who started playing MapleSEA. I had three siblings, so the three of us would share one PC. And I would watch them play," said Kapoooof
She also watched as her brother did one of the game's infamous bugs to "smuggle" tickets by plucking out the LAN cable, pressing the pickup button, and then putting the LAN cable back to pick up the tickets to keep them from vanishing normally.
"It was very funny to watch him spam the pickup button," she said. "After that, I also created my own character, I wanted to pick a Magician, but I didn't know what stats to look out for. I didn't play games normally then. I didn't know Magicians used Intelligence, so I just added Strength to make my attacks stronger."
Now in her mid-twenties, she decided to jump back into the game during the COVID pandemic.
It was then she met her partner of six months, kiimchisoup, a bank operations executive. Like Kapoooof, kiimchisoup, also in his mid-twenties, turned to MapleSEA during the pandemic, and it was through Kapoooof's streams that the two met.
"I was playing for one and a half years because my friends asked me to play, but they all quit right after. So while I was training, there's nothing to do, so I just started to watch YouTube, then someone told me that people actually stream the game, and then I started watching her," said kiimchisoup, who plays a Hero ingame.
"I'm a Twitch streamer, and he was a viewer, and he would carry me for bosses and dailies. We got interested in each other, and met up at a chalet organized by an Alliance. That was the first time we met, and subsequently, he asked me out," said Kapoooof.
"He asked me if I wanted to go to this collaboration event where they were giving out free cash items."
That outing turned out to be a date, and soon the romance blossomed. The couple would regularly meet up after work, before going to their own home to do dailies together. For now, the couple plans to keep playing MapleSEA together, and plans to do so as long as their friends stick around.
"The reason I still have the motivation to play is because of the friends that I've met that I know and are still playing the game. I also feel very motivated to clear the weekly bosses," she added.
The couple that games together
A married couple of three years, Shawn "SerMochi" Ser and his wife Melon have been playing MapleSEA since COVID.
But unlike Kapoooof and kiimchisoup, SerMochi and Melon didn't meet playing MapleSEA. They actually met on Tinder, got married, and during the pandemic, SerMochi decided to start streaming.
"COVID was the best time to get back into the game because there were way too many people working from home. Because I started streaming, she started spectating, and that's how she also got into MapleStory," he said.
And while Melon really got interested in MapleSEA watching SerMochi, she also dabbled in the game when she was in primary school, though she can't remember exactly when. On the other hand, SerMochi can vividly recall when he started playing.
"I've been playing MapleSEA on and off since I was 10. Back then, I was quite addicted to playing computer games. However, I did not have a PC, so I would go over to my cousin's place to game and play Gunbound, and when MapleSEA came out, I made the switch," said the 31-year-old software developer.
Now, SerMochi, who is a Fire-Poison mage, plays together with Melon, an Ice-Lightning mage. And they both enjoy playing the game.
"For me, MapleSEA is a timeless game. With guys, you can talk about the army for a long time, but I realise that no matter where, such as a workplace, as long as I mention MapleSEA, everyone has that memory," said SerMochi.
While most people have the impression that MapleSEA is a grindy game, SerMochi is quick to point out that the game has evolved over time, with daily quests that only take up 15 minutes of your time, and allowing you to do other things in the game that catch your fancy.
"The initial mindset of MapleSEA is that it is very grindy, and back then, when we were students, we had time to spend," he said. "But now, it just takes about 15 to 30 minutes to finish the dailies, and you can then do your own thing."
Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com
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