"Wow, I got this Goku's Gold Headpiece for 300k mesos! They were 650 just a few days ago, this is awesome!"
That might seem like it should be a rare statement in an MMORPG, but in recent days on MapleStory, it has rapidly been becoming the trend. And while, yes, it may be awesome for the buyer, it brings with it dangerous consequences — and heralds the crashing end to free trade and honest commerce in a fragile and ever-shifting economy powered entirely by a strong supply-and-demand mentality in its players.
Lately in MapleStory, there has come to be a growing number of players using a hack that hits (and kills) every enemy on a map, and deposits the drops of these kills at the hacker's feet. Sometimes these hackers are just after experience, and they allow other players to have the items. Regardless of whether they pick up the items or not, they are generating a glut of items and equipment that are supposed to be rare — thus devaluing the items and causing ripples across the entire Maple Market society.
One consequence of this that cannot be overlooked is the fact that it's creating both a surge in "perfect" equipment (that by its existence in large quantities, coupled with the fact that the hackers usually sell it far below cost for it's "actual" rarity, renders the regular or below-average drops that honest players struggle for days to find practically worthless), as well as a supply that's greater than the demand, therefore causing forced price-drops and reducing the resale value of the equipment drastically.
Even worse are the growing signs that the Maple Economy is moving towards certain formerly coveted items to be used as currency — and with the hacking generating multitudes of these items, all the pan lids, hard candy, and other such things are sinking in market value like a rock in a pond. After all, the more there are around, and the more people have them, the less they mean as a status symbol, and therefore the less likely you'd be able to sell them if you wanted. Most of the value attached to rare but low-level equipment in Maple Story is directly effected by the demand for the item as a status symbol, or its cosmetic properties (in my experience anyway), and seldomly for its inherent usefulness.
The saddest part about this is, of course, the devaluing of item worth. Sure, it can be looked on as a good change that blue umbrellas, red whips, gold Goku's headpieces, pan lids, etc are more readily available and affordable... but what happens when you get passed the level of needing that Dark Moonlight with perfect stats that you paid 500k mesos for? Suddenly you enter a market where everyone who wants one got it for half price from a drop hacker. So do you offer it cheaper, further undercutting market value, or just shop-sell it for 100k? Or maybe you just take your chances and perpetuate the cycle by downloading your own drop hack to try and make the money back.
Hacking in an MMORPG tends to effect all players, creating waves that shake both the player community and the accepted rules of the virtual economy therein. One person really can change the world; sometimes those changes aren't for the better. Thousands of people thinking only of themselves can cripple a society based on sharing and commerce. And if the honest people who want the community to function properly get disgusted or disheartened and leave, what's left? A selfish, self-centered society of thieves who can get anything they want by cheating. Who needs to buy anything when you can instantly kill anything and not only get exp, but also stand a good chance of finding just what you want? And when no one buys, how do you sell? What value does anything have? Why even bother to play?
My personal hope is that the GMs will start sincerely banning hackers, before MapleStory is reduced to such a pathetic state that the player-driven economy actually destroys the game itself. But the warning signs are already there.
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The RPG Realm is not affiliated with any company or product mentioned herein unless explicitly stated. The RPG Realm was created by Greg Davis on 05/03/1998 and is owned and operated by Alex Wreschnig. |