Regarding two month patches.

Making Up for Lost Time

Those players who have been with Global MapleStory for the last few years are quite familiar with the basic shape of our development plan. We would usually put out a patch (or a “Version Up,”) about once a month. On paper this always seemed like a good plan. It was supposed to keep the game fresh by bringing out new content frequently and fixing bugs that require a patch quickly.

The problem was that when we evaluated the process against reality, there were a number of glaring weaknesses that outweighed the strengths. The process of implementing that patch itself takes a lot of time. It takes days to prepare the files, test all the auto-patchers, and prepare the servers. Then it takes many hours to perform the maintenance. This was all time we had to budget for in our schedules every month.

The monthly update schedule also prevented us from creating the kind of large-scale content for Global MapleStory we know you enjoy. There was simply never enough development time! Since everything had to fit into that month-long patch cycle, creating exclusive content became prohibitively difficult.

Then there’s the issue of bugs. All those maintenances meant lost time we could have been using to fix bugs before they are released. The result has been some less-than-stable patches and unfortunate game glitches. If we’re really going to take MapleStory into a new era in 2011, we were going to have create a “Big Bang” for our internal processes. The good news is, we did it.


Our New Year’s Resolution – Patch Less!

We’ve decided that in 2011 you’re going to see a lot less Version Ups. In fact, after the Mechanic update, you won’t see another until Spring (unless of course, there is a serious bug that needs to be fixed urgently.) The regular events that you know and love will still happen, but we’ve prepared them ahead of time. Events such as Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, and the return of Golden Temple will all happen in the next few months, but the assets and code to make them happen are already in the game waiting for the right date to start.

Instead, we’re now spending two or three months doing nothing but preparing a lot of content and putting them all together into one, large update. This removes at least two maintenance/patch cycles. That gives us the us the breathing room to create larger pieces of content for you to enjoy.

The big benefit for you is we’ll know a lot sooner what’s coming in the next update. That gives other departments here at Nexon more time to prepare programs and events designed to get the word out to the community. Sometimes we’ll have an idea for an event or a contest or a sale that just can’t be done because we don’t have the time to properly implement it. Expect bigger, better and more community interaction with this new schedule!