Maplestory is a 2D sidescrolling Korean MMO initially released in 2003 and has stayed strong in its player numbers over the years and does not seem like it will die off anytime soon, and I think a big reason for this is the unique progression system it has in the Legion System.
What is the Legion System?
Each and every job on Maplestory has a buff which it provides to all other characters on the players account, the buffs on their own are nothing too crazy but once you add up all the incremental gains the difference between a new player and a veteran is immense. Players are able to create and gain power from 1 of every job in the game... that's a lot of power!
When levelling a character at specific level breakpoints the character will begin to provide itself and all other characters on the account with a stat increase, as long as they are slotted within the Legion Grid.
The grid itself also provides players a further amount of account wide progression as the grid is split between different stat zones. For each square the player fills they will gain the stat of the zone being filled, so levelling a character provides both the character specific stat increase along with a legion piece further enhancing the legion grids stat increase, a double whammy!
Why the Legion System is effective?
Maplestory’s combat system is simple but fun, with a large cast of classes to choose from players can usually find one class which fits their playstyle, and since its initial release in 2003, there have been plenty of new classes added which usually have unique mechanics for each class. This makes players want to level and test other characters, and thanks to this system their efforts aren't wasted since they gain power on all characters.
Since the grind in Maplestory gets fairly monotonous with the core of the game basically being in one map for countless hours killing monsters on repeat until reaching a level where you move to a new map, giving the players something to break up that monotony by playing an alternate character helps players from burning out while also engaging players to continue to play Maplestory. It also helps further that grind itch with the fact that you can essentially never hit max power through the legion system, due to the amount of hours it will take to level up all the classes.
Above is a chart showing the top 10 games played within South Korea's internet cafe's in time. Maplestory although an extremely old game has kept a hold on its players and is still a fairly popular game and I personally believe that the legion system is one of the reasons why.
The legion system causes players to gain an attachment to their accounts since players have spent countless hours grinding levels on all different characters across their accounts. This time spent will cause players less likely to quit the game and continue playing it over the years and will continue playing it for the years to come as well.
How do players interface with the system?
Like most MMO's Maplestory's core player base are obsessed with gaining power and this system is just another way for them to achieve it. Many of the top players will have levelled all the available jobs to the S rank breakpoint providing them with the most optimal account wide power.
This system provides the core player base a reason to log in and continue playing the game even if they reach walls within their main characters progression, since time spent playing alternate characters doesn't feel like a waste due to it providing their entire account stat buffs.
Due to the nature of the games grindy nature some players choose to not play any specific character, these players are known as "Legion Mains". These players generally get the enjoyment from watching their account number increase and enjoying the incremental gains they achieve.
As the system causes account wide progression it also means that every character a player has made will be stronger than the last causing a snowball effect where characters which used to struggle to kill monsters will begin killing things in one shot further snowballing into levelling faster causing more stat increases and so on.
The Legion System in Maplestory is an interesting take on account wide progression systems!
For these reasons I believe that Maplestory has built an extremely unique progression system which won't easily fit into other MMO's due to type of game Maplestory is and how inflated stats can become in the later stages of the game. It also is perfect for its own target audience as they love the combat and grind that Maplestory provides them and this system provides more content for them to do so.
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