A last reprise by Retalion

Some of you might think I have way too much time on my hands and perhaps you’re right. I havent been training much lately so why not write this? And I will start my article with this:

 For the last 6 years I have followed baseball with the Red Sox as my favorite team and for the last 3 years, I have played this game called Maple Story (almost 3 years, a few more months and we’re there). Over the years, I have noticed a similarity between these two as they share a somewhat similar problem. One may ask, what can be in common between the two? One requires those to stand and swing a bat at a ball while the other involves the constant mashing of keys for hours upon hours. One is known internationally and watched by tens of millions of fans on television while the other is played by a few million users on computers. One is a national, historic American past time while the other one is “a simple game” played by youth for the last few years. These two are indeed contrasting and different but they do have one thing in common and over the time Ive followed both, I have noticed one event/area that is relative to each other and one can say have followed down a similar path.

In baseball today, one of the biggest issues is that of steroids. Who’s been on it, who’s not on it? Those that are caught, should they be in the hall of fame? Should asteriks be placed beside those names? Should they be kicked out? What can we do about this issue? Many contraversial questions surround this topic. And in maple story, what topic do we have that is similar? Why hackers of course! Who hacks who doesnt? How do we know if someone used to hack? How should hackers be treated? Should hackers be allowed 4th job? What can we do about them?

Looking at these two things, many similarities can be seen in their characteristics. Both are illegal and against the rules and both left “black eyes” on their respective games. As well, there was no way of knowing who did it. Sure in Maple you can catch screenshots of hackers and know they hack, but you dont have a list of all hackers. You can meet anyone and you would have no way of knowing if they had a hacking past. Sure in baseball you’d have players who injected each other and whatnot, but to the public, no one would know who’s on them and who’s not. Both steroids and hacking gave the game’s players an unfair advantage. In baseball, steroids allowed you to hit the ball further and HGH (Human growth hormones) allowed you to heal faster while in Maple Story, hacks allowed you to gain experience and level up faster. The progression of what authorities did regarding these problems were similar. In both, there was initially no action taken and the audience and public were outraged at the respective authorities. Eventually, both did things to start preventing these problems. Baseball started drug testing, Nexon started updating game guard and banning hackers. People still used these things but they were now caught and punished. Some still got away with it but steps were being taken.

However, this is where the two start straying. Baseball has recently come up with the “Mitchell report”, stating ways to fix baseball and naming many of the abusers of steroids and HGH. This has caused contraversy and some like Roger Clemens, a famous pitcher who was named on this report have denied it vehemently and taken the issue to court.

Meanwhile, Maple Story has started settling back into the old habit. Game Guard, the program that detects hacks and disables them has been bypassed again and hackers are able to hack at will again. Yes, some hackers are being banned but there are still many who arent and Nexon has done nothing to update Game Guard to prevent hackers from continuing their deeds. The best method of stopping hackers is to prevent them from being able to hack by disabling their hacks. Yet for whatever reason, nothing has been done.

Whereas baseball has shown efforts and attempt at cleaning up their game, Maple Story has done none of that and have just been doing all the “easy stuff”. Whereas baseball is pulling out the roots, Maple Story is merely clearing away the weeds above the ground, leaving in the soil the roots.

Though baseball’s methods are not foolproof, they’re giving an attempt at fixing it. Drug tests are regular occurances now and congress has stepped in (of course we wouldnt expect congress to step in to deal with the hacker problem) and helped to mediate and supervise the recovery of the game. Perhaps that is what Nexon needs, someone to hold them accountable. Hackers take away from the game and make it less enjoyable for those who play it fairly. Additionally, whereas steroids are harmful to the body, there is no serious penalty for hacking. Sure you might get banned, but when that happens, one can start over and hack again up to a decent level in no time. If they truly wanted to stop hackers, they would disallow them to make the 4th job advancement or something. Though they say that hackers are punished, instances show they dont keep their word. Off rankers (who are called hackers) were said to be unable to change their name yet guys in Scania like xuanloveyu, a known hacker and off rank 180 priest now walks with the name iyul. If you say you’ll do something about hackers, then do it. Dont say you’ll do it to make us satisfied, then fail to deliver on your promise. In the end, I personally feel Nexon should take a page from Baseball and follow suit in the steps they’re taking in the right direction. However, that wont happen as Nexon gains nothing from it. No one holds them accountable. They’ll still make money as people will spend and buy nx regardless of what happens. Hell, they make more money cause hackers are around and the legits have to buy smegaphones to yell at GMs about them. Why fix it and lose money? Nexon needs someone to hold them accountable and the only ones capable of doing that are the players themselves. The question is, are they willing to stop spending money on this game to do so, just like are baseball fans willing to not buy tickets to purge their game of steroids?