Nexon America has announced the second birthday of their first North American MMO release, Maple Story. To celebrate the occasion, they will be holding contests driven by user generated content, and five coordinated events awarding special prizes in the month of May. The festivities include events with some interesting names, such as the "Massive Maple Item and Weapon Hunt" and the "Birthday Present Blow-out" and more.

Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia's leading online game company Nexon Group, is proud to announce the two year anniversary of its first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game release in North America, MapleStory. In-game festivities during the month of May include five coordinated events awarding special prizes, and ample opportunities for the community to showcase its collective talent with contests driven by user generated content. MapleStory currently boasts more than three million registered users in North America, making it one of the fastest growing massively multiplayer online games. According to Xstatics, compiled by Xfire.com for the month of April, MapleStory is fourth among the top ten MMOs currently being played online, and 15th among the top 20 PC games currently being played online.

"We would like to thank our 50+ million users worldwide and rapidly expanding U.S. audience for helping us mark the two-year anniversary of MapleStory in North America," says John H. Chi, chief executive officer of Nexon America. "Nexon looks forward to celebrating MapleStory in the years to come by providing even more innovative content and unique gameplay for our passionate community."

Through the month of May, various anniversary events will take place in the MapleStory universe in which community members can participate. The "Massive Maple Item and Weapon Hunt" promotes an all-out hunt for monsters carrying unique Maple Items and Weapons. The "Birthday Present Blow-out" features cake and candle monsters designed exclusively for this event carrying birthday presents for users based on their level. "Cody's Quest" will offer users who complete the celebratory and birthday themed quests an extraordinary and rare game item. In addition to these commemorative events, special GameMaster events will take place in MapleStory each day during the week of May 9-16. Finally in a special "thank you" to the community, Maplers will be "Seeing Double" as experience points (EXP) and drops will be doubled from May 11-31.

MapleStory will also offer players opportunities to submit content for future in-game inclusion with three contests in the month of May. Building off the success of previous fan art contests, players will be asked to capture the spirit of MapleStory's 2nd Anniversary by uploading original fan art for "Fan-tastic Art!" The Top three submissions will receive limited MapleStory dolls, one converted poster of their fan art, and 100,000 Maple Points. The "Design a Weapon" contest invites players to create a new weapon design with one lucky user being awarded 50,000 Maple Points, the privilege of naming the weapon, and the honor of having their new weapon implemented into the game. Lastly, "It's A-A-A-L-L-I-V-E-E!!" will allow players to design and name a monster to be brought to life in the game; the winner receives a MapleStory doll and 25,000 Maple Points, in addition to having their monster join the unique horde already featured in-game.

For information on all of the events, visit http://www.mapleglobal.com/.