MapleStory Adventures receives social update

The last time MapleStory Adventures for social network sites made headlines it was when the game reached 1,261,046 monthly users within two weeks of its open beta phase. Now, publisher Nexon has announced that this version of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game will receive some major updates.

Suck pretty bad on a boss fight? Try using the new Horn of Friendship.

New dungeons in the update for the new year include the Wasteland of Souls, where fans will encounter ghost boss Papa Pixie, and the level 50-only Forgotten Temple filled with wild plants capped off with a boss fight against the multi-armed Ravana. Killing the aforementioned bosses will give players a chance to earn rare and legendary gear drops.

Also new is a Cash Shop item called The Horn of Friendship, which calls upon four other players to help the user overcome bosses in dungeons. All items in the game now have three new attributes: luck, critical, and dodge. Luck determines a player's drops, critical determines a user's critical attack rating, and dodge determines a character's chance to evade attacks.

MapleStory isn't the only RPG franchise that has a social game spin-off: BioWare's Dragon Age Legends and Square Enix's Knights of the Crystals are two well-known examples. For more information on the franchise, check out GameSpot's feature on the MMORPG.