Like most MMORPGs, gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combatting monsters in real-time. The players combat monsters and complete quests, in the process acquiring in-game currency called "Mesos", experience points (EXP), and various items. Players can kill monsters alone, or they can form a party with up to six total characters. Loot is shared based on relative damage and level of characters in the party, more being awarded to the higher-level members about Maple Story Mesos.

MapleStory 2D scrolling viewpoint more closely resembles a platform game rather than the typical 3D environment or top-down perspective of other games, such as Guild Wars or Mu Online about Maple Story Mesos. The controls for the game are executed using the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is used for many game functions, and much of it can be rearranged to suit users needs. The mouse is mainly used to trigger non-player characters (NPCs) and manipulate items.

MapleStory characters exist in "worlds" or "servers." Players are allowed to create up to 3 characters in each world (although more character slots can be obtained through the purchase of an item from the Cash Shop). Each world, similar in content between each other in the same version, is split into at most twenty channels, among which characters are allowed to freely switch. The ability to transfer entire characters between worlds was added in December 2007 to GlobalMS about Maple Story Mesos. However, this feature has a restriction ¡ª transfer of Maple Story Mesos is limited to 1 million, and players cannot transfer to the newest world. When the man had realized his online character had been deleted, he proceeded to call the police. The woman was apprehended by the authorities and jailed for illegally accessing a computer, and manipulating on-line data.