When you reminisce about your past, what pops up in your mind? For many teenagers and young adults like myself, it is Maplestory. It is an MMORPG, short for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game,” in which users develop their characters’ abilities and defeat monsters. When I was young, the goodbye I said to my friends after school was not an actual goodbye — we rushed to our homes, turned on our computers, logged into Maplestory, and met again online. At school, all the small talk was related to Maplestory: somebody would ask how I leveled up so fast, or how I earned certain equipment. For us, Maplestory is not just a form of entertainment, but also a nostalgic memory.

On February 18, when the Maplestory patch notes were released, thousands of users were enraged all because of a single line out of the lengthy text: “the probability of obtaining additional options for all the items are fixed to be equal.” The problem revolved around "Rebirth Flame", and the definition of “randomness”. Before touching upon the scandal, it is noteworthy to briefly introduce how Maplestory works in order to understand the severity of this scandal. Equipment enhancement is an extremely crucial part of the game, which lots of people have spent millions of won on. People can make their characters stronger by “randomly” reconfiguring either the potential or additional options of equipment that grant bonus stats. To do so, they need certain items called “Rebirth Flame” and “Cube.” These can be obtained from the in-game “Cash Shop” by purchasing with real money or with the game’s own currency, “Meso.” 

The description of “Rebirth Flame” is that three additional options out of 19, such as “Damage” or “Strength”, are randomly combined. The word “randomly” suggested that the options would all have an equal chance of being shown. However, it turned out that the useful options that increase bonus stats had a significantly lower chance of appearing compared to relatively unnecessary options. In other words, Nexon, Maplestory’s publisher, manipulated the probability so that they could maximize their profits. Additionally, the situation worsened  when Maplestory attempted to cover up the “Rebirth Flame” problem by disclosing the probability chart of “Cube” and “Rebirth Flame.” 

Users felt resentful, as the “Cube” probability was manipulated as well. The probability of getting the same options thrice, such as “Damage on Boss Monsters” and “Ignore Monster Defense” was set as zero. Furthermore, even though some valid options, such as “attack damage,” could be obtained thrice, its expected value was 40,000 “Red Cubes,” equivalent to 48 million KRW — for just one piece of equipment. Without knowing about this limitation, hardcore users had been constantly spending money to enhance their equipment until they got the three valid options. According to Yoonho Cha, a Korean YouTuber whose major video content is related to Maplestory, he spent more than 2 billion KRW in Maplestory to make his character the most powerful — he now regrets it, feeling betrayed. Many users also expressed that if they were aware of the probability chart beforehand, they would not have even attempted to obtain the three valid options. Such outrage and disappointment are not solely about monetary reasons: our “good old days” have now been ruined, wasted.   

After this scandal, one question prevails: are games with easily manipulated random loot boxes, such as Maplestory and FIFA, any different from slot machines at a casino? Although the purposes are different — one supposedly for entertainment and the other for profit —  it seems like now there is not much distinction. If such scandals and systems continue, these games, which are easily accessed by children, could cause them to become addicted to gambling from an early age. Therefore, certain actions must be taken, such as government measures that prevent predatory monetization schemes but at the same time, reimburse the company’s profit loss through incentives or tax reduction. An alternative could be creating a game environment that people do not necessarily have to spend money to play games. Such change would not lead to a sharp decrease in revenue, for there have always been gamers who spend money regardless of the need to do so. The ultimate goal of video game publishers is undeniably to make profits; nonetheless, they should keep in mind that users play games to relieve stress, not to simply spend money. If not, they owe users their “good old days” back.