MapleStory is fairly typical of fantasy based MMORPGs. It’s is based around exploring dungeons and battling monsters, while gathering Mesos (money) and experience points as well as items in order to level up. Monsters in MapleStory are never human, which is odd for an MMORPG, instead MapleStory will have you fight the undead, animals, plants, oozes and constructs. The MapleStory world consists of 4 large continents, common to all versions of MapleStory, complete with jungles, planes, mountains, tundra and more. The world is full of towns and cities to explore and interact with other players.  You can play a number of minigames with other players and the chat system is very entertaining considering the amount of expression you can make your character display while talking. MapleStory has a huge number of quests to go on, which centre mainly on overcoming obstacle courses, gathering resources, or defeating monsters and claiming items. When you start MapleStory you customize your character, however you don’t chose a class, instead you are given a beginner job to undertake, while you familiarize yourself with the game. Once you reach level 10 your able to chose your class; Warrior, Pirate, Magician, Thief or Bowman.

Despite having only 2 dimensions, MapleStory has a very engaging graphical style, reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons. The game world is bright and colorful. MapleStory has an extremely rich 3D backdrop, which changes as you move across the screen. The towns and cities in MapleStory are well defined and memorable. The characters themselves are extremely detailed, and hugely customizable.

MapleStory in game chat.

MapleStory is not without its faults. There is a lot of grind involved in leveling, and at higher levels it can take a good few weeks level up. You should always check the reward for your quest, they can sometimes be pitiful when considering what your tasked to do. The music in MapleStory is good for a while, but it gets repetitive, but luckily there’s a mute button.

Despite its faults, MapleStory is a fun game with charming graphics, you’ll meet decent people, see them talking about the oddest things, and the character you create will really grow on you.

The online game offers 12 classes to choose from divided into four familiar groups, Soldier, Mage, Priest and Rouge, further players can chose to have a hybrid of these class that suites the taste for those who want a piece of everything. This property of the role playing game not only makes it unique among other games but also give the a lot of diversity. Once chosen a class and race of your tastes your brought to the character details where you get to create details on your character from facial details to whole body details which a lot of people like since they like to have a unique character, but this might not make much difference when equipped with armor which would eventually cover most of your body. Still having the ability to take control of details to your likes is always nice to have in these types of games.

Depending on the which race you choose you begin in one of the following areas; the three kingdoms of Tortage, Cimmeria in the mountains of the north, the sun scorched Stygia to the south, or the plains of Aquilonia in the middle. Each area has its own territory for leveling. Like level 20 and the mid to the upper level 30. In these territories a lot of quests and missions can be received from the local Non Playing Characters (NPCs) and for the most part, the quests are the same as seen in other role playing online games like World of Warcraft. Quests like delivery, bounty to kill or collecting of certain items. Missions like these are abundant in the game however the game has a unique system for quest that is not normally seen in MMORPGs in that different quest can be chosen through different interactions through the dialogues and cuts scenes with NPCs. This doesn’t give the game a 5 star rank but does give the game a unique look for modern MMORPGs.

The game’s Combat system, comparative to other MMORPGs is a lot easier. Whether you play as a melee sword fighter or a mage spell caster, they both have abilities that will have effects on an area of effect rather then a selected target, meaning you can attack multiple gangs of enemy and do damage to them all. Not only does this make the game easier to play but has a lot of advantages for both the classes, for example if your melee units slashes a sword on a gang of enemies you can chop all of their heads in a single blow just by adjusting the right time of attack so that they can cover the fully length of your blade. Similarly, if a spell caster casts a healing spell on a ally group, his spell will effect all the members which are under the area of effect of the casted spell, making the game easy for those who find gaining experience in the game hard.

Finally for the Player Versus Player (PVP) part of the game you will find guilds filled with members who are hungry to slaughter those who get in their path and will defend their guilds against those who try to attack them for resources that they took from others or collected them selves. The PVP is kind of old world warfare for resources and land but the major disappointment in the game is the PVP doesn’t contribute to any rank that would give others reason to fight against each other for greater ranks but this is promised by the developers to be added soon.

Beyond the game’s details, the environments are extremely beautiful and detailed. The music and sound effects compliment the visuals in an even greater and spectacular way, the soundtrack and ambient effects are even better, the chirps of crickets during the night and the crackle noise of fire pits in the stone traders. All in all the game really gives a good environmental distinction to its fiction.

 WoW is a game that is bought from a store and players need to pay a monthly subscription to continue playing.  This differs from most other MMORPGs that are often buy once play online for free, or even browser based free forever games.  This model has proven increadibly fruitful for Blizzard as they are taking a monthly subsidy from each and every player that is playing their game.

Players of WoW can walk around the lands of Azeroth with thousands of other MMORPG players.  The lands are divided into two factions, Alliance and Horde.  These two factions have been at war since the dawn of time, and players need to pick a team which their character will play in for the lifetime of the character.

These factions are always at war, and one of the most important choices of a WoW player is if they want to be at war constantly in a Player vs Player (PVP) server or only be at war when in the battlefields in a Player vs Environment (PVE) server.

The next big decision that a World of Warcraft player needs to make is which of the 10 Races they wish their character to be.  Each race have different characteristics and special bonuses.  For instance the Gnomes have an “Expansive Mind” and gain an extra 5% intelligence.  The races are Humans, Trolls, Tauren, Orcs, Dwarves, Blood Elves, Draenei, Undead and Night Elves.

 There are 9 playable classes in World of Warcraft.  A player can chose a class that suits their personality, or role play a class that doesn’t suit their personality at all, to see if they like it.  Classes are up front and personal Warrior, spell and totem wielding Shaman, theif and shadowy Rogue, healer and confidant Priest, holyer than though Paladin, spell casting Mage, friend of the earth Druid, or Lich King breakaway Death Knight. 

Each class has many different abilities and spells and play the game completely different to other classes.  Warriors, Paladins and Death knights are often at the front of battle hacking and slashing away at their enemies and wearing heavy armour.  Mages and Warlocks stand at the back of combat, wearing little or no armour and casting spells or controling pets to do their battling for them.  Priests, druids and shamans are also at the back of the fighting, their roles are to heal the wounded, shield the main tank (usually a Warrior or Paladin) and keep the party alive.  Priests, Shamans and Druids are also classes who can ressurect their team mates if they die, so having one or more in your group is always a bonus.

World of Warcraft has a levelling system.  You start at level 1 and as you do quests and increase your experience you gain levels.  Each new level provides more player stats (like strength, dexterity, stamina, intelligence, spirit), and also unlocks new spells and abilities to be used by the player.

Travelling around Azeroth you can play by yourself, do quests given to you by nearby NPCs (Non Playing Characters) or group with up to 5 people to do quests together.  Quests might include killing a number of nearby beats, or delivering information or an item to another NPC player.  Quests are varied and sometimes complicated and are the best way to understand your characters abilities and faults.

At the higher end of the game, you can join a guild and go and attack dugeons with up to 40 players in a group.