Rantings of a jMSer

By Cookie Tamodachi

Idea from "Ranger's Treatise " by Kal Ancalas

Begin RANT 001: A History Lesson

I'm Cookie/Yukai/whatever-name-you-know-me-by... I've been playing MapleStory for a good 3 years of my life, about to become 4 years if I keep this up.

Okay... So yeah, I'm a jMSer and I'm anti-gMS. Ironically, I started out on gMS. Now isn't that strange? When I think about how this all started, it really makes me laugh.

One day in the middle of July or something - I can't remember, I'll check the dates of my old screenies later when I'm actually not bored - I'm talking to one of my friend's, I'll just name him as Toffee since I call him Toffee, who was the best friend (now ex-best friend) of the cousin of one of my friends and who I still think is my cousin...

I know. Weird connection. That'd be freaky if Toffee really does have relatives in Australia... ANYWHO!

...and we're talking about games and stuff to play when we're bored. RuneScape seriously got boring (and now I hate it! Go me...) and the Neopets community I was in (the GSC) had deteriorated and was in chaos. So we look up some MMORPGs and whadda ya know, MapleStory JUST got out of Beta.

The requirements were fairly low for it and the animations on the site were fun (when will they ever continue that series. I liked it.). The graphics really drove me away initially but I was convinced to try it. I did, I liked it. The system really appealed to me. Huzzah for having a no "point and click" system MapleStory!

My first job was a thief named Yukai, of course, the game was new so I had messed up stats... I mean, come on, 10 INT! That's not good for a thief. At this time, Bera had opened with a screwed up Character Creation glitch and nobody was allowed to create new characters, so of course, I resided in Scania.

Eventually, once the Bera Creation glitch ended, Toffee and I migrated there and I remade my thief, Yukai, with improved stats, etc. All was well (with the occasional break or two)... Till another server was released...

Broa... I tried my hand at a bowmen if I can recall correctly... Aizuki, I think... I really don't want to think much at all right now. So of course, we resume our lives on MapleStory.

The details from back then are actually quite fuzzy or my MapleStory timeline has gotten so long that I can't remember it all clearly anymore.

All I know is that whenever a new server came out, we kept migrating and creating new characters. I even joined mSEA at one point, after Windia... I don't remember.

I also remember joining jMS Kaede, although, I wasn't enthusiastic about playing a version I couldn't understand so I gave that up easily, ditching my bandit-to-be at level 17... or 18... (I still stalk people in Kaede with that noob-bandit)

Yes, the age of TheSimpsons. That was good... jMSers were completely worshiped for having 3rd job.

Thinking about that makes me think of the old days when Perion was the Free Market, we didn't have mini-games, the Free Market was always deserted, and Korean Fans were all the rage! Not to mention that anyone above 30 was pro, anyone above 50 was god and no one thought that the level 70 level cap could ever be reached.

Those were the good days... Oh, who cares about that stuff!

If I can recall correctly (as stated before, my memory is failing), I had quit Windia because of my character being stripped while I was on one of my infamous MapleStory breaks. Courtesy of Toffee, thank you very much. We always shared accounts... It was completely normal.

So I probably went to Bera for like... 3 days then quit again. I was in this whole "Kingdom Hearts" craze then I went on vacation for 6 weeks in a country I hated. I came back and Toffee says that a new jMS server came out...

Keyaki... I was eventually convinced to join again... And just when I thought I was never going to get sucked into MapleStory again, I was sucked into MapleStory again. I loved it... I was Co-Leader of the Keyaki branch of AuRevoir - owned by Toffee (the original was established in Bera, courtesy of that cousin of my friend), I was playing on a class I never played as - the Axe Warrior Kaxiyu (the name branching off my Kingdom Hearts craze), made moderately entertaining but sucky videos, got updates that were WAY better the gMS' and I made a ton of friends whom I treated as family. I also knew EVERYONE THAT SPOKE ENGLISH ON THAT SERVER! There were only 2 (and 1 branch) main English speaking guilds, RoyalFlush and our very own AuRevoir. It wasn't hard to get acquainted with everyone. During that time, I developed an anti-gMS mindset and now hate gMS... Don't try to talk me out of it either. It won't be easy.

Did I mention that I played every class BUT a warrior till jMS? (/random)

Yes... Again, all was well! Then it happened... The Age of Hackers... To most of us, we didn't care (we supported English speakers, we didn't care about anything else).

Okay, it wasn't really an age but I need some dramatic effect here...

One of our guild members was a known hacker, of course, we didn't care. He taught other members how to hack and poof! The leaders of the guild (excluding me, I was anti-hacker and still am) hacked and we didn't care! They aren't like those jerk hackers you find in gMS... Eww... I hate those people. Sorry. No offense but you gMS hacker people are seriously obnoxious. Don't deny it either...

Thing is, eventually people found out and our reputation turned from good to bad, to worse... Members left, not wanting to get banned and we were left with people who botted half the time. Do you know what it's like to talk to a bot in your guild?! It's the worst thing ever! You try talking to them when you login but they aren't there but you know they are there because you just chatted with them on MSN but they are watching anime on Youtube! It's no fun talking to a bot half the time!

Yeah, so... We didn't like the negative attention that our nice guild had gotten and we disbanded it. (Gosh I miss that guild. I still have the donation log for it saved on this computer)

We made a new guild named Pudding, the name, I'll probably discuss later in another rant since this is already long enough. Pudding didn't last for 2 weeks though since Toffee disbanded it on accident.

So we made ANOTHER guild, which is the current and probably only known English guild in Keyaki, Kuraimizu. I like the turtle icon for this guild by the way...

Once everything sort of settled down, we get mass scammed thanks to my stupid personality disorder that is trusting everyone I meet! I really don't want to go through all the details of that incident again so I'm leaving it out... It ended with a large amount of mules getting stolen and Toffee's account - the leader account of Kuraimizu - getting taken. From all that, I regained control of my MAPLESTORY ID, not my NEXON ID.

Yeah! I'm forced to delete the character I spent hours and hours on getting it to a measly level 57... The level didn't matter though, the sentimental value did. That character was probably the one I had the most fun on, lost because I'm a naturally born idiot. More importantly though, I lost the trust of my friends.

It was really hard to regain the once prestigious status that Keyaki had after that since the community practically crumbled. I don't blame it, practically the entire community revolved around our guild.

I felt bad so I quit... And once again, I get convinced to rejoin again because, you guessed it, Toffee convinced me. However, I got discouraged by the Maple Island quest glitch that jMS was experiencing and I still ended up quitting.

Really, it's really stupid when you're on the LAST quest and an error comes up saying that there is an invalid pointer error.

At this point, I probably tried so many games and watched Youtube videos, caught up on my anime just to pass the time while keeping in contact with my buddies from Keyaki and Toffee. I stopped going on MapleTip as well but continued to read some topics on aijMS. They were interesting once in awhile.

Fast forward to 2 months ago (at this point, Americans are IP banned from playing jMS but it was lifted), Toffee says he's going back to Keyaki after failed attempts on Popura and Plum. I thought, "Eh, what the heck, glitch must be fixed by now". I rejoin and revived Kaxiyu, my axe warrior. About 2 weeks later I get Toffee's old account and regained SOME of Toffee's trust... Oh well... I know he'll never completely forgive me no matter how many times I apologize.

It was cool. Everything was just fine... Since there was no IP Ban, people joined the little server that was our "Home" server. Of course, there were only about 5 people on at a time but who cared? It was fun.

Then there was the current, and still up, IP Ban, blocking us Americans and it became a hassle to login using laggy programs. The population dwindled to about 4 people... Yep, Me, Toffee, archer Tama-chan and our good Crossbow buddy - James and his dad (his dad hardly talks though)!

Then you skip to now. Since Keyaki became a lonely server, we migrated (as if that's new) to Kaede, base of all American jMS players and home of Japanese people that we're afraid of[Seriously! People say they're hostile! We're now awaiting the IP Ban to be lifted so that people would come accompany us in our little server called Keyaki.

So you see, this is a very elaborate history. Now, since I share accounts with Toffee, I often switch and play multiple characters. In Keyaki, I played as 5 classes simultaneously. I practically had NO MAIN CHARACTER. There is no consistency. I never got to level 70. Why? I migrated a lot. The highest character I had was level 57. I'M PATHETIC AT LEVELING! The 2nd highest was SenshiMakino of Windia at a "whooping" level 37 then Yukai of Bera at level 31.

I've played over 20 characters over a span of 4 years. Again! There is no consistency.

There is ONLY ONE thing that's consistent is one thing in this entire thing!

Toffee shows me MapleStory, Toffee plays MS with me, Toffee is guild leader, Toffee migrates, Toffee is still my friend (I still believe he may be a distant relative of mine), Toffee shares accounts with me all the time and Toffee is my MapleStory buddy to this day.

Toffee is the only thing that is consistent! Toffee is the ONLY thing that ties everything together in my 4 years of playing MapleStory!

Funny isn't it? Doesn't it make you laugh?

- Makino Yukai/Tamodachi Cookie

P.S. Flames don't do well with me.

end Rant: 001