UPDATE: It is confirmed that XtremeTop100 was contacted by NEXON America.

XtremeTop100.com, a popular top site listing for private servers like that of MapleStory, has caused another uproar among private server players and owners. Every website listed on the MapleStory rankings page now re-directs to nexon.net. Sending out over 15,000,000 hits monthly and generating 600,000 hits daily, XTremeTop100 has helped many servers gain thousands of users and made them known to the private server community.

There has been no official statement by XTremeTop100 or NEXON. It is likely that they were contacted by NEXON.

Have any tips regarding this story? Send us an e-mail!

Scam websites seem to be a popular topic this week. NXEVENT.net was responsible for stealing hundreds of accounts and items (see previous post) and now, a new scam website has popped up.

NXEVENT.co.nr is a website that looks like an event entry page for MapleGlobal. In the event description, they claim that they will be rewarding 1,000 users 20,000 NX Cash for working hard during the  E X PLOSION! Event. A form is present on the page that asks for your ID, password, PIN, username, character name (IGN), and e-mail. The only requirements are that you are level 50 or higher (probably a way to rule out useless accounts).

Through further investigation of the source code, I found that the URL is merely a re-direction of http://maplestory.agilityhoster.com/. The source code also shows such tags as free nx cash. I was also able to identify that the form is fake.

Probably made by a Norwegian hacker or player judging by the form URL, http://mailskjema.nuffe.net/45532 gives you an image saying “sent” in Norwegian. It then takes you to a done page coded in simple HTML. Not only was I able to enter no information to reach the done page, but the whole site is very poorly designed. The German URL that says “message sent” is most likely the server they are using to send the information to whatever e-mail they have specified. “Mailskjema” is a sub-domain of nuffe.net. Nuffe.net is a website that offers free web services such as guest books, news agents, and email forms. Whoever used this had to have some knowledge of Norwegian (or could have just used Google Translate like us). You can view the translated page by clicking here.

It will most likely be difficult for NEXON to track down the creator of this site seeing as it is a free web hosting account at Agility Hosting. Once again, only trust the official nexon.net and MapleGlobal website! All events will be announced via the NEXON site or forum. Do not trust external websites or megaphones!

UPDATE:

NXEVENT.net now leads back to the official MapleGlobal website (maplestory.nexon.net). We advise all users to avoid logging in once redirected from NXEVENT as a precaution. It is not clear why the site was taken down, but it is likely that the creator had cold feet and backed out.

BREAKING NEWS

NXEVENT.net has caused an uproar among the MapleStory community. The site has been spammed throughout MapleGlobal and players everywhere are losing their items.

NXEVENT.net (also known as maplestory.nxevent.net) is a replica of the NEXON.net website. When you visit the site, it takes you directly to a login page. Many players who have entered their information have been hacked and lost all their items and in certain cases even their whole accounts.

There are several dead-give-aways.

1. The most obvious being the URL. http://nxevent.net/ is nothing like http://nexon.net/. This may have caused confusion in some newer players or those who believed it was an event page. NEXON repeatedly warns users to only trust the url nexon.net.
2. The site asks you for your PIN on the login page. The PIN (Personal Identification Number) is only used in-game. NEXON has never asked for your PIN on their site login.
3. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that on the official NEXON website, the title reads nexon.net. On NXEVENT.net, the page title reads NEXON.NET. This change in capitalization further gives away the site
4. Poorly designed NX event banner. It is out of place and does not fit in with the login. (see image)
5. Broken Links. There are numerous broken links (and some that even lead back to the official NEXON website). Whoever created the website was either very lazy or knew that people would be too stupid to know the difference.
6. URL leads directly to the login page. Not only does the URL not even have a homepage (or any others for that matter), it goes directly to the login page.
7. New Official Log In System. NEXON implemented a new login system a few days ago. It seems possible that this was implemented because of nxevent.net in an attempt to further differentiate between the two. As of now there has been no official statement by NEXON America.

One of Maple-News’ guild members in our Repulse guild, CupcakexStar, was one of many victims. I had the chance to interview her.

Savage is in blue. CupcakexStar is in red.

Savage: How did you find out about nxevent.net?
CupcakexStar: People were advertising it using megaphones.

Savage: What did you think of nxevent.net when you first saw it?
CupcakexStar: I thought it was MapleStory! It looks a lot like it! But it asked for my pin…

Savage: Why did you decide to enter your information despite the site being suspicious?
CupcakexStar: I guess I was dumb.

Savage: What would you like to say to others who may use the site in the future?
CupcakexStar: It’s stupid, I hate it, and it made me sad in the end.

Our newest anchor and podcast contributor, Kari, made a short video discussing this issue. Check it out below!

To protect yourself:

1. Never give away your personal information (ID, Password, PIN, etc.)
2. Only login to the official NEXON website (nexon.net)
3. Change your password and/or pin if you feel you have used the scam site or feel your account may be in danger
4. USE YOUR HEAD!

Maple Geek, a MapleStory private server that closed in August 2008 because of internal conflicts has announced they will be re-opening their doors.

MapleGeek.com:

Hello Geek, as you may already know MapleGeek closed due to some problems and false rumors caused by some people. We have decided to re-open our doors once again, but there will be new changes coming out within the next couple of weeks and months.

MapleGeek will be opening a brand new community. All members are required to re-register and we will slowly try to integrate the old MapleGeek.

If you received a newsletter from us, that means you are one of our old members and are more than welcome to join us again. You will be put in a special group as a reward for returning. Please keep in mind that we sent out around 80,000 messages. It will take time to get every old member into their special group.

Now that we have most of the information clear out, all you have to do is click community to join us.

At a time when NEXON is taking down servers left and right, it seems as bad a time as any to re-open a private server. Maple Geek has put a big red target on their back. It looks like they’re asking for trouble.

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Since the release of a video Nexon posted on YouTube 6 days ago, players of Combat Arms have highly been anticipating the new game mode being released today.

Fireteam, the name of the mode, allows you to team up with 7 other people and fight waves of NPC sand hog soldiers. Nexon even mentions a tank or 2. While some are very hyped for this some others are not, as some think that fighting NPCs would not be as fun as people say it will be.  If you have ever played Gears of War 2, then FireTeam is like Horde but for Combat Arms, as fallen opposing NPCs will drop more ammo and health kits.

If you see the 2 videos Nexon posted on their YouTube channel, you can guess that your opponents will be mostly from the Middle East. There will be 3 different difficulties that the Host can pick from, kind of like an arcarde game. There is Easy, Medium, and Hard. Some of the NPCs will be part of the Sand Hog Royal Guards and will be stronger than the other regular soldiers. You can point out these trained NPCs (lol) because they will all be wearing dark black hoods. I know some people are a little hesitant of whether or not this will be all that it is said to be but I sure am looking forward to the release.

To end the month of May with a bang, MapleGlobal unveiled two new events today: The Beauty Coupon Sale and the 99 NX Cash Blowout Sale!

From 5.27.09 (May 27) to 6.3.09 (June 3rd) you will be able to get great discounts on select cash shop items. Too bad they only last 5 days.

Asia Soft wow’d players in Singapore and Malaysia with the release of MapleStory Episode 2 for MapleSEA. Asia Soft has long been respected as a company that cares about their users and brings decent content. NEXON has received an increasing amount of criticism ever since NX Games and Wizet became NEXON America. Many users have expressed a feeling of dissatisfaction and annoyance with the company and their maintenance of MapleGlobal.

The release of Pirates to MapleGlobal brought many users (especially veterans) back to the game and interested many new users. It gave many dissatisifed maplers a feeling of excitement and somewhat raised NEXON America’s likability and street cred among the public. With exciting new events, temporary EXP increases, and new content the community is beginning to “warm up” to the multi-million dollar company. However, when NEXON declared War on Private Servers, things began to change.

The ongoing war between NEXON (Korea and America) has created a dividing line. You’re either on the private server side, or NEXON’s side. This has created a large amount of animosity towards NEXON and their employees (especially their General Counsel, Mr. Korn). Threats, insults, and strange e-mails flood forums, websites, and e-mail inboxes. The fire continues to burn brighter as more servers are shut down and more people become unhappy. No one can see a definite end in sight, but it will definitely go out with a bang.

Many peg Asia Soft’s MapleStory Episode 2 as a ploy to gain more users. Much of the content could have been achieved in one large patch. Many users (especially in MapleGlobal) believe that NEXON may be able to pull off a large update, without having to add the title Episode 2 to the mix. Many summer events such as the E X PLOSION! has brought users back to the game and the increasing amount of events, especially GM events, have drawn some private server users.

It remains to be seen what NEXON America has in store for MapleGlobal this summer. There are three months of water balloons, bathing suits, and fun in the sun. I’m sure they can figure something out.

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Apparently so…

TaraLunai:

Okay, I’m writing this post so us girls will have a place to put the names of known rapists on Maple. I’m also hoping that GM’s and other Nexon officials will see this foum and block the rapists from the game. I’ll start us off with HouSeF1Re who tried to rape me on the ship from Ellinia to Orbis on channel 2 about 20 minutes ago in the crows nest.

Current List Of Rapists

HouSeF1Re

The interesting thread found on NEXON forums sparked some interesting replies.

InFireWeDie:

Wow, report and ignore, dont come crying on the forums. You cant rape in maplestory.

EdibleSpeedo:

Not going to lie – the thread title made me interested enough to venture into this topic.

But I’m confused, was he harassing you via text, or pressing the “down” button repeatedly, or…?
And I haven’t seen anyone doing anything like that in a really long time so I can’t remember any usernames to post.

RuheMaus:

Um……….  Without breaking forum rules….  How!?!?  I’m confused now……………..

So what do you think? Is this person serious, possibly insane, or all of the above? Are there really crazy people playing MapleStory? How far do you think harrassment will go in a video game?!

Actual Post on NEXON Forums

My LOL of the Week. Expect more.

We already have some amazing event ideas floating around, but to make this year’s summer events totally kick ass we want to hear your ideas!

What ideas do you have for the Maple-News Summer Event? What prizes would you like to win? Post below!

I found the video on YouTube, and it shows how MapleStory2 looks like and a preview of the KOC coming to MapleSEA! Maplestory2 is not 3D it’s just a new version/series of MapleStory. Mostly everything is the same, but the log in design has changed.

Video: