Fair Fight System In MapleStory 2: It Brings The Fairness To Whom Actually?

Fair Fight System/Mechanism might not sound strange and newfangled to most of gamers who have been spending so much time in a variety of video games. It is a design that specifically applies for nerfing the "strongest gang" in certain scenarios in some games - that those people admittedly have more powerful gear and equipment than the rest, especially most of newcomers. Mostly, The original intention of establishing a system like this is not to cater to new gamers or deliberately being a disincentive for those high-level players to stealing the show. For most game publishers, what they want to do with this system is trying to bring into athletics genes to games, which will resemble competitive sports more than fashion shows after implanting that. We are here not to argue about how this system works or features in a variety of games. Instead, this system seems not such a hit as it showed up in all publicity - at least in some games, it becomes quite controversial and disturbing.

Nexon, for instance, has decided to introduce a Fair Fight System into MapleStory 2 and got it done a few days ago. Way beyond its expectation, more and more Maplers are standing up against this system since its Day One. All sorts of explanations and reasons remarked on, the debate still heats up and shows no sign of cooling down a little bit. Here are some typical denouncements towards the new system in MapleStory 2 from a few participants.

Unlike most of the other MMORPGs, MapleStory 2 features "fast leveling-up" and "do as many dungeons/raids run as possible" and "more resources more contents-to-be-touched". Although PvP is still optional and part of this game, for most of the players, they won't even attempt to look into it unless their characters are strength-qualified and well-equipped. PvE, in another word, is the top choice and hot property for most Maplers in most time. Now., as the Fair Fight System implemented in the game, what kind of influences it has laid upon anyone?

One Thread member wrote:

"Fair Fight definitely has a negative impact on the game. It spits on gear progression and disincentives people from engaging with certain content. The only upside is that high-level players can't one shot low-level world bosses so that low-level players can at least tag the thing but a proper gear downscaling system for open world maps would be a much better solution."

Another one member hopped in and added on:

"Majority of the bosses in this game has wonky and questionable hitboxes. Added on top is the issue of latency and dashing not letting you phase through attacks skillfully to mitigate damage (like with many other MMOs) AS WELL AS jacking up HP of bosses who don't have interesting OR meaningful mechanics (i.e all world bosses, normal dungeon bosses and elite bosses to even some hard bosses even) adds up to make this game has a sad joke of a fighting system who treats us as like little kids who can't think beyond holding down a single macro key. (Sorry fellow thieves and SB being an exception to this rule)

World bosses do little to no damage to you once you're epic geared so you're never in danger of dying. 

Hard dungeon bosses purposefully deals a lot of damage forcing you to need priests or burn through potions which is fine to make you think about party composition if not for the fact that much of their damaging moves/player debuffs aren't telegraphed but comes out instantly, which you can't see to react accordingly (Rog is one of many offenders with his hook swing and shout) 

The player is never required to engage in boss mechanics as long as they have a priest or knight in the party and just face tank everything while holding down their attack keys. This just indicates a poorly designed boss across the board. 

All in all I feel much of the game mechanics AND the game itself needs reworking but otherwise, removing Fairfight would be better for our unimpressively minuscule community that's still dipping in numbers."

As thing got a little out of hand and blames put on Nexon's misjudgment were piling on, one of Nexon staff, the forum moderator, started to fidget and decided to strike back the slash. He attempted to defend the Fair Fight System by emphasizing its importance on newcomers' experiences and frustrating ridiculousness with its assumed absence in the game. However, this comment rapidly made a bigger splash instead of soothing the whining heat.

"I understand why world bosses have this system, but it's unacceptable to have it enforced in dungeons too as it avoids any progression made gear wise.
Dungeon wise, it should be an optional mentoring system, maybe rewarding those who enter with it enabled: not only this would ease off the frustration and boredom of those running 200+ dungeons per week, but it would give a reason for higher geared players to help new/undergeared players."

"Please explain how 'slowing down' your ability to kill something makes it more enjoyable? The world bosses, in general, are not hard to kill from a mechanics standpoint, so the speed at which you can kill it doesn't really add to the experience. Hard mode dungeons bosses currently do have certain mechanics that can cause a wipe if you don't play properly, and after you have figured out the boss fight and have the proper gear you can clear the dungeons quite quickly. That being said, I still don't see a reason why fair fight needs to be in the game, it doesn't add anything to the experience in my opinion and I am sure a very small percentage of the population likes the idea of gearing up only to still kill things relatively slow.

You also brought up chaos raids, of course, there is no need for a fair fight mechanic there, as the bosses have an enormous HP pool which in its own way 'balances' out the amount of damage players are dealing. Combine that with the mechanics and the damage the boss deals, having a fair fight system on top of it would be overkill. Which brings me back to my point that there isn't a reason to nerf players damage in the first place if the base mechanics of a dungeon, boss or monster are difficult enough that it requires you to have some level of concentration. You say with legendary weapons the raids become a joke, but I would disagree, I would actually say the raids or content becomes exactly what it should be, 'easier' in proportion to your gear, which in my opinion is exactly what should happen when you get stronger gear.

Also seeing as this an MMO and not a single player game, you basically have to anticipate farming the same dungeons over and over again, which gets boring and tiring. So when you really think about it, how is fair fight actually benefiting this game? It's not really bringing anything to the table that is heavily beneficial to the overall player base. I can go into more depth if you like, but every time I try and rationalize why the fair fight is a good thing, I have not found that the pros outweigh the cons. The only area in the game where a fair fight is 'nice' to have is world boss, but even then that is still pushing it in my eyes. There are enough channels and world bosses respawn frequently enough compared to other MMO's that even if you missed the kill once, you more than likely will get it again."

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