Maple Story

I don't know why, but I was thinking about Maple Story today. I haven't played in a long time, but I still look back fondly (mostly) on the time I spent there. I started in January 2005, after one of my friends on livejournal mentioned it, and since it was free, I signed up. I created a character that was a mage, and I had a good time. I remember doing a lot of the reading for my classes while I waited for my HP and MP to go up. I teamed up with other users on quests, and tried so hard to get a potlid shield (which I did get after fighting a ton of mushrooms).

One thing that puzzled me was the utter dislike other players had for my character.  Oh, not everyone, of course, but really, I got it from both sides.  Characters that weren't mages would yell at me for killing enemies with magic, whether I did that or not, and characters that were mages would yell at me because I put more points into my Magic Bolt than my Magic Claw.  That was what really got me.  I mean, what did it matter to them how I chose to distribute my stats?  I didn't tell anyone else how to play, so why should they?

I played for a little over a year, but when they released the new version and I had to start over, I lost interest. I didn't really have the time, either, so it was probably for the best.