ProjectOMS

One of the main problems is that a game needs to progress not to die. Simply starting a pre-potential server might seems like a good idea for the first week its open. It might even last a month with the stragglers who don't quit after that first week of "ooh, fun, nostalgic, etc". However, to keep the game alive, it would need updates, new content, supervision, and so forth. And as we all know, you can't just send it down the same path it went down, or else it loses its throwback feel. So now Nexon's having to develop said content for the OMS server to keep it fresh. And we all know they won't ever do that.

If you want old school Maple, wait and see if WonderKing NA ever comes back. That game's a 2D MMO that felt quite a bit like pre-potential, non-pay2win Maple Story, except with an auction house and the ability to get looting pets through ingame means if you tried hard enough. Oh, but all localizations of WonderKing shut down completely a while back...due to host-developer legal battles that could not be resolved, resulting in zero updates and a very stale, deserted game after a year. Now? WonderKing JP is up again, though there isn't any news of the NA version getting resurrected. I tried playing the JP version, but being unable to read any japanese makes questing impossible beyond what was dug up in terms of quest guides in english. I could just grind to 30 and reach 2nd job, but...eh, it got tedious and I couldn't chat with 98% of the population. XD