Leeching

Leeching Information

Leeching is a form of gaining experience used by some players. It involves joining a party and letting others in the party do all the fighting. Someone who trains in this manner is called a leech. Some players charge a certain fee in order to train other players in such a way. It should be noted that if the level difference between the leech and the monster being trained on is too great, the leech will not receive much (if any) experience. In order to leech passively (without participating at all), you cannot be more than 5 levels below that of the monster or the player one leeches from. (Ex. Master Chronos are level 46, so you have to be at least level 41 (46 - 5) to leech passively there. Or, the player you are in a party with is level 42, so you must be level 37 to get exp.

Opinions on Leeching: The Ethical Debate: Legal or Unethical/Illegal?

The following opinions do not reflect all writes on Maple Wiki. They reflect what majority of others have expressed in the game itself to the writer, and he has written their opinion in his own words to express how they feel. Feel free to add paragraphs under "Pro" or "Con" with construcitive information and constructive criticism. This is an open debate on leeching. It is not a biased page. Also, this is an open debate, which means it has been on several other sites, but not all info here reflects that. So be aware as it is open to debate now!

PRO:

Leeching was designed that way by Nexon!

What's with all the people complaining about leeching? Did not Nexon design the game that way? I mean, if the game is meant to be played that way, I think there is no harm-no foul involved. I see it as legitimate and just how MS was designed to be played. So all the people who say it is bad, too bad, that is how MS was made!

CON:

Leeching as Unethical

There are many players that see this as a form of cheating, and is considered unethical. Nexon does not actually consider this a way of cheating, but it seems that many people consider it as such. Such as leeching is just having a person sit on a map and then have the higher level person fight. Is that any way right to play Maple Story? I mean, isn't a form of abusing the game? This is like someone selling a service that was never intended to be sold in the first place. It also promotes scammers to come on, pretend to sell leeching, the steal the person's mesos. Im sure it happens quite frequently, as many people smega about so and so scamming for leeching. Maple Story does not need leeching. If i were you, i would not use this or sell it. Play legitimately, play fair!

Leeching: From the Scammers View

• The following are from an actual interview from inside MS GLOBAL itself. I sat down and talked with an ex friend on why he leeched in the first place. After the first interview, i went back and asked similiar questions with different responses. The full interview is not listed here, so these excerts from them have the best part of the interviews

-Excert from first interviev: "Ha! It's so easy to scam people out of their money by leeching. They just come up, pay me, and then i take off. They can cry all they want, but there never getting their mesos back. Haha! I see them write: "I got scammed from XXXX" on the boards and thru the smega's. Like that is my only account im gonna scam people on. HA! So I say: "Aww..too bad..you pay for it..you get stuck with the bill." I just wait about 4 months, and do it again. I mean, sooo many people want to leech, so many victims..hehe..."

-Excert from second interview: "You asked me about this before, but i tell ya, it's not all just about the mesos. Sometimes people pay with NX. Now that's the real sweet spot! So many guillable people out there. I mean, if i saw someone selling leeching for nx, a little red flag would of come up in my own mind, but hey, im not the person buying the leech. HEHE! I sometimes trick people into giving me their account info too, that way, if i get banned on this account, ill just use theirs to scam leech. Nexon does not even give a (This phrase has been removed due to it's language) about the other people on this game. It's just soo easy to do here, and not a (explicit language) anyone can do."

-These were written from a view of a known scammer when asked why he scamm people for leeching. This in no way reflects the opinion of this writer, just this is his feelings put into words by this writer. In no way is this writer associated with this person, they were only asked in game why do they scam people, and said something similiar to what was mentioned above, edited and put into words by this writer. The idenetity of the person was protected for his own privacy to protect his identity, as what his wish was. The author no longer associates with the above person. He was only asked by this author to provide the above information for this page to inform others of what to expect.

Scamming using leeching as a stepping stone to Real Life Crimes

Some of you may not be aware, but some crimes can lead to others. For example, doing crimes and getting away with it can lead to more serious crimes. This was done in a double blind test in college in 2001 in a psychology class to see the effects of getting away with crimes on a college class. At first, the class acted appauled at these acts. Then, when they seen they could get away with it, the class was witnessed seeing doing other crimes, such as stealing from convienience stores, pick-pocketing, identity theft, and many others. No serious crimes were commited, but this test proved that if people can get away with one thing, and not get caught, there is a statistical increase in committing other crimes. The statistical increase is as follows:

• 30 students were in the class.
• 20 of them witnessed a crime and saw no punishment was merited out.
• 15 of them commited the same crime.
• 10 students that did not witness the first crime witnessed another similiar crime.
• 8 out of 10 committed same crime type.
• Out of the 30, 17 went and did additional crime types outside of class.

Statistical Increase:

• Out of the 30, those who witnessed the crime(s) and saw nothing was done to it:
  • 30% Either followed someone doing a crime and did nothing about it, or tried to leave.
  • 30% imitated the original type crime commited and shown.
  • 40% commited different crimes based on above crimes, and led to more serious crime habitualization.

-The above statistics takes in effects that there was no one sick during the time period(s) the crimes were committed or shown. The age ranged between 19 to 30. Out of the age range, the higher aged people were less likely to commit a crime, based on statistical data.

This test was done in a classroom and outside a classroom, where the person needed to take a running camcorder with themselves all day long. It was witnessed that some of these people turned off their camcorders, so they could not get "caught" at their crimes. Now you might say that leeching scamming might not do this, but i disagree. The following is from a news program interview on a person who used to do scams and now works for the law. The information was kept private and not released in order to protect the individual, and the program is copywrited, but i can paraphrase it in my own words, so i can use as it stands on here. The newsman asks why the person scammed. The scammer replied that he started out on "games" on the internet. He told how he could take others accounts on games online. Althought the games mentioned were not officially stated which games he was referring to, it is this author's asumptions when referring to accounts, he may be acquiring to mmorpg type games. He then explained later how easy it was to do, and he decided to start doing things in real life, like stealing people's identities. The scammer said he was like that scammer in that one movie "Matchstick Men". He said most scammers act that way, and start out as scammers on easy stuff, like "games". So in a way, this type of scamming can lead to real life crimes in identity theft and regular theivery.

More Info

• This information was removed from this section due to misspelling of every word, and was not changed by the author of this section. He or She was asked to come fix this, but the person was not available, so it was removed. If you wish to put back. Please fix spelling apropriately. Thank you!

References

• The paper referrred to above was viewed by this author for a document he wrote on increased criminal tendencies leading to other crimes, and the statistical data about that. This paper on the particular study is accessible at the UMTB psychological institute of criminal studies in their reference section.

• "Matchstick Men" is a movie featuring an actor portraying a scammer, to earn money. You can view more info on this at the International Movie Database, or IMBD.