Tovya supports my countdown, so yay. I shall continue counting down to our doom! Mwahahahaha. =D
A friend's MSN personal message got me thinking. 'MapleSEA is a good analogy of today's society. Have you ever seen anyone giving fame f.o.c?' Hmm... How true how true. I would, if I could find someone worthy of it. However, Victoria Island is full of people kill-stealing (KSing; what the Maplers call the situation when Person A is in the process of killing a monster when Person B comes over and whacks it a few times thus killing it and stealing part of the experience) and picking up stuff dropped by monsters killed by other people.
I myself have been guilty of these two actions. After all, as an archer, the computer does the aiming for you, and you arrow might end up hitting a monster already engaged with battle with someone else. Sometimes, I accidentally fire an excess arrow after killing my enemy and end up KSing someone else's monster. It's such times when the word 'sorry' is ideally put to use.
KSing and stealing other's treasure can be tempting when a newbie whacking a monster is blocking your path or when someone else's monster drops something precious. However such acts are rude. I'm sure you would be irritated too if someone did that to you. I certainly do. Especially when my mage character is happily taking her time physically whacking a snail, only to have it killed by a passing archer or warrior. BahZ. And I have lost a few coins, potions and ores to fellow Maplers.
And then there are those selfish people who ask people to clear out when they are in their hunting territory. Umm... hello? The hunting grounds are for all to share. If you're not happy, you can leave. To such rude requests, I usually say "But I like it here." and ignore all follow-ups. There was once the latter replied that she was about to level up and had to go soon, so I let her have the hunting ground. Well, she was polite, so I decided to be conscending. I was quite pleased with a certain Mapler I met at the Pig Beach, who asked me if we could share the hunting ground. Of course we could! See? Nothing wrong with being polite!
In fact, there are nice Maplers around. When I was level 12, down and out, a nice mage, seeing me still in my newbie clothes, kindly donated some cash to me and bought me my archer clothes and a bow. He even helped me train for a while. I won't forget that guy, and if I ever see him again, I'd probably fame him for free.
Indeed, MapleSEA is a good analogy of today's society. Our world is full of ugly people. The KSers, the stealers, the selfish brats who have the word 'share' mysteriously omitted from their vocabulary. But there are good people who donate potions to those hanging by a thread (literally and figuratively) and money to newbs needing it to buy their new equipment, and who offer to help train up the less experienced Maplers. A good mirror of our world indeed.