Hi Maplers,

I hope you all are doing well! I would like to talk about some recent issues and a little bit about our Glory update that is coming soon.

Recent Bans
As you may know, we’re continuing our efforts to ban accounts that are using some illicit programs in game, and we’re also trying to be more vigilant in identifying the hackers and botters because they affect our game environment negatively. However, our ban review process identified that several accounts were incorrectly banned recently due to our detection method. Since then, we held off on banning the accounts with this criteria and are looking into our criteria with our security experts. I sincerely apologize to the players that were banned incorrectly. We also understand that players were frustrated by the response they received to appeal tickets while we investigated the accounts that submitted ban appeals. Our players have shown their concerns on the various channels, so we are taking this opportunity to review our process and discuss improvements to our communication regarding bans. Here are some of the steps in our action plan to improve the overall process for dealing with ban appeals:

• We have improved our internal channel between Customer Support, Community, Production and Security teams for handling ban appeals to be more closely aligned and alerted to any false ban issue.
• If we find any possibility of a false ban with a certain criteria, we will try to let players know that we’re looking into it as soon as possible through our community channels and Customer Support response.
• If we have verified that there was a false ban, we will provide a clearer response to the affected players so that they can be reassured that the ban appeals are under investigation.

There are a couple more things that we will try, so I believe that the overall process and response will be improved and less confusing.

Lag Issue During 2x EXP/Drop Event
Some players in Reboot world reported severe lag when the 2x EXP/Drop event began on Oct. 31. We looked into the servers and conducted an optimization on the relevant system in Reboot world so that the servers would stay more stable during the next 2x EXP/Drop event.

Community Topic on Recent Kanna Bans
We saw that players have recently been discussing about the recent Kanna bans (Community calls this practice 'Suicide Kanna’) and whether this activity should be suspended or not. Even though it is not related to the use of an illicit program, this can be considered as an activity that exploits the game feature as the maps are designed to be used by players at a certain level. Repeatedly dying on a character with the purpose to stay on the map and taking severe advantage of it is an unintended behavior, which is why we decided to maintain the suspension on the affected accounts. I hope this will clarify our stance towards the activity.

Glory Update
Lastly, we’re currently having many busy days to prepare our Glory update. As you may have seen on Wednesday, the Glory microsite and the Update Preview for the 1st winter update have been released. There will be a lot of exciting content and events with the Glory update that you can look forward to. I personally enjoy our new class, Hoyoung a lot because of his storyline and the play style. Here are some of the other things that I would like to highlight in the Glory update.

• We will have exclusive features with Better Maple this time such as the addition of Storage Slot Expansion Coupons in the Maple Rewards Shop, as well as the friend list expansion. Also, the Gift Drop will display up to 30 gifts again with this update.
• If you join the Glory Guard, you will receive the very special VIP Royal Hair & Face Coupons which will allow you to choose one of the popular Royal Styles out of 30 hair and face options.
• We have revamped the character login process to improve the client loading time.
• Alishan and Twisted Aquarium will be removed as part of our efforts to manage the client size and to increase client stability.

I hope this memo is helpful! We will continue to keep an eye on your feedback. 

Thank you,
Anna