Background
When I took over MapleStory, some underperforming team members had deliberately ignored player-reported equipment duplication exploits, causing the in-game economy to collapse. Publisher relations were tense, and they had lost trust in the operations unit. The game had been live for years — new players struggled to enter, and existing players continued to leave amid the deteriorating environment. The product desperately needed to give players a reason to stay and a chance for rebirth.
Challenges
- Low team morale with underperforming members requiring action
- In-game economy had collapsed; player trust was extremely low
- Publisher had lost trust in the operations unit due to past issues
- Game had been live for years; new player acquisition was difficult
Actions
After taking over, I made the tough call to remove underperforming members. I issued public acknowledgments of the problems, executed bans, recalled exploited items, and negotiated with the publisher and company to allow the product to stabilize — pausing content updates to prioritize fixing fundamental issues.
Observing that several IP-based static exhibitions (Doraemon, Chibi Maruko-chan) had successfully generated buzz in the market, I proposed to the publisher to center promotional efforts around the 10th anniversary, building all event planning around this milestone.
The plan was to bring beloved in-game monsters and scenes into the real world. Limited-edition plush mushroom toys created scarcity, shifting player attention from in-game problems to an off-screen brand experience.
Results
Over 8,000 visitors attended the weekend exhibition. Multiple organic posts spread across forums and Facebook.
- Monthly login count grew 12% YOY
- Annual unique logins increased 20%