Maple Story even though old, is still trying to keep things fresh and keep their users interested in playing this free MMORPG. In-game ranking details are now accessible via MapleStory’s European website, along with new and improved forums and community features. Now players can track their progress and see how they stack up against the rest of the world in your job class and even how famous you are.

From the press release:

Thursday 6th September/… NEXON, the world-leading developer and publisher of online games, is pleased to announce the introduction of a brilliant new ranking feature for its exciting and hugely popular free to play online RPG, MapleStory Europe. Players can now actively compete against each other in a whole new way, courtesy of an online rankings database which lets people directly compare their progress against that of both friends and rivals.

MapleStory is unique among MMORPGs in that it continually ranks players according to their current level and experience total. As players increase their experience, so their ranking changes. Now players can see exactly how they are doing by logging in to the MapleStory Europe homepage, www.mapleeurope.com, and browsing through a searchable online database of all active players.

The rankings, which are updated on an hourly basis, are divided into Overall, World and Job categories, allowing players to compare their progress against all other players, those that play on the same channel, or those with the same in-game profession. In addition, the top three fastest movers in each category are singled out for special recognition on the website, giving high-flying players something extra special to strive for.

A fourth category compares players on the basis of Fame, MapleStory’s unique in-game popularity rating. From Level 15 players can, on a once a day basis, give (or take away) a fame point to any other player in the game. As players who rank highly on the Fame leaderboard are assured legendary status among other MapleStory fans, this is guaranteed to make for an interesting and fiercely fought category.

In addition to the new online ranking system, all posts and comments made on the www.mapleeurope.com forum are now tagged with the player’s in-game avatar. Not only does this help to encourage community involvement, it continues to reinforce the deep character personalisation and customisation options available throughout MapleStory Europe.

To help celebrate the launch of the system, and as warm up for the Oktoberfest event set to take place in-game later this month, MapleStory Europe will be running a ‘Monster Invasion’ on September 10th at 6pm British Summer Time. During this one-hour event, huge swarms of monsters will randomly descend on various towns across Victoria Island to terrorise the locals, giving people the perfect opportunity to gain some experience and rocket up the rankings.

“We’re very pleased to be introducing online leaderboards to MapleStory Europe as part of our continuing efforts to add exciting new features,” said Calvin Yoo, Director of International Business Development at NEXON Europe. “Now players have a quick and easy way of seeing how well they are progressing in-game compared to their friends. This is yet another example of how MapleStory Europe continues to innovate and entertain in the field of MMORPGs”.