Do you feel Nexon exploits it's playerbase?

Entrapment could very easily be pinned on many many many aspects of business, or even life in general. Creating the incentive is indeed part of what they do, but they aren't at all to blame, because that's what we call marketing. Not to say the players individually can do anything about what they decide to do, but they keep the cycle going even if they don't agree with it because they want the benefits despite having the willpower to back away. Nexon's profits prove that.

Yes, they are to blame.
Perhaps I should have been less vague.

When I said they create the incentive, I don't mean that they make really attractive items that are attractive in and of themselves then create vast campaigns to convince players to buy them. That would be marketing.

What Nexon does is design the game in a way so that the lack of NX becomes a burden.
In Maplestory, there's the Potential system. Without investing NX, you're going to find it impossible to participate in some of the game's content.
In Dragon's Nest, there's the storage system. Without investing NX, you quickly run out of space to store the many items that drop from dungeons.

These are just two examples of the way Nexon exploits its players.
It's all very well thought out too.
They create an in-game item with benefits and glaring negatives and, a few months later, release an item that magically removes the negative.

Now, they've found a way to even exploit their non-game-changing items.
They release a Gachapon for Chairs and Mounts!
...but some of those items that you paid for expire.
Don't worry! You can buy another item to make sure they last longer!

Just because people should be able to reason and not feed the system doesn't leave Nexon free from blame for designing the system.

(For the record, I haven't bought NX for over a year, and don't plan to ever again.)

I feel like this whole thread is going to end up in a debate over the what the word "exploit" means

That's dumb. We have dictionaries for that.
[URL="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/exploit"]
"2.
to use selfishly for one's own ends: employers who exploit their workers."[/URL]

I'm pretty sure that means I win the thread and that Takebacker's claim that players exploit themselves is utterly nonsensical.
Right?