boomp3.comTo be honest this article is going to have very little to do with Maple but will use that particular game to illustrate a point. So let me begin by saying the following: Most gamers who have played a lot of games and well in general have played the field know what they want in a game and strive to find that one game that may satisfy their desire and needs in their gaming community, game play, or whatever it is that they are looking for. As such once they tap into a game that comes close to what they are looking for most of the time that game misses the mark by just a little bit. Now mind you I did say most of the time, because I am sure there are some of you out there who have found that one game just for you that you have played for a while and still play now. For me that game is Lunia as the majority of you know.

Now as for those games that miss the mark generally speaking they have games that come out that are so similar to their own system that the majority of the gaming population believe them to be copying the first. This is mostly seen in 2D sidescrollers. However the major underlining reason behind games that are so close in likeness is to have that one trait or even more than one to capture the audience of the original appearing game and bring in more.

The very classic example below between maple story and La Tale

Maple story:


La Tale:

Now as you can clearly see the graphics image is very close to being the exact same. However where Maple Story leaves more to the imagination La Tale comes in and picks up the slack. Filling in more of the body and making the character look more adult and less chibified. Which in turn simply means that the proportions are set in place a whole lot better.

While that may not be a big deal to some people it is to others, because they could be madly in love with Maple Story but want to have a little bit of a better engine on the graphics side. Now small things like this can draw in a lot more people than most of you out there really think. In fact it's the small changes in the games we play that pull us in, and then there are the big changes that grip us and drag us back to a game.

Which in result is why many games have a lot of patches for them: to compete with the other games out there and to over all have a better product. Some people prefer being able to customize their characters while others really don't like to deal with that finding it to be a hassle. So there is a game out there for everyone. An example of these two types of games would be Trickster where you can't really change much about your character at all (without the use of the cash shop and even then it's not that big of a change) and Asda, a game where you can customize your character a great deal from the very start.

Although the graphics between the two games are completely different that is not the aspect I am asking everyone to take into consideration right now because i am in no way comparing the games to show which one is better just the differences that are made when certain things are changed, because in all honesty both of these games are great.


Trickster:


Asda:

Now this is only my personal insight on how small changes can also influence the big production or draw of gamers to play a game. Also it is a little bit of a jumble and pitter patter about why patches are created. Though that one is slightly obvious which is why I did not go into great detail about it. I may another time though.