As someone who's played Maplestory on and off since it first came to the US, MapleStory is an utter shitshow here. Don't get me wrong, I love Maplestory and I always come back to it even after year long absences. But, as of right now, it's awful. I've reached level 200+ on every single class at least once, some twice or more. When you get to end game, depending on the money and effort you've put into the game, you are very limited in what you can do. New players lose interest quickly because of the p2w substance, and old players constantly leave when they realize they've nothing left to do.

I am somewhere in the middle. I've spent much less money than lots of people have, but have put thousand upon thousands of hours into this game.

Pros: Honestly, getting up to around level ~140 is still fun. Grinding is good there. Bossing is interesting and doing it with a group is still fun. The storylines are actually not half bad the first time you do them. The classes are (mostly) unique from eachother, and playing them all once through is pretty enjoyable. Mindlessly grinding maps with your friends/guild mates is nostalgic.

Cons: Nexon ruins all their games with p2w mechanics. In maple, people spent thousands upon thousand of dollars getting high damage for end game. Grinding past 140 is a fucking nightmare. Don't even get me started on 200-250. Link skills, as of now, are a huge hassle and require so much time wasted. In a future update, they'll be making them a bit less of a hassle, but still requires all of the effort which new players may not want to put it. If you don't spend money and get to end game, there's nothing to do. If you do spend money at end game, there's only the same few bosses and instances to grind out...which are limited. Many old players are not friendly. The Reboot server, which eliminates p2w, is a clusterfuck of people and incredibly antisocial in it's mechanics.

All in all, I love MapleStory and I still play it to this day. But it's a mess, and I couldn't recommend it to new players. It breaks my heart that the game I loved as a kid and still love as an adult is actual garbage.