After seeing a thread about a truly free game, I remembered when I first played Maplestory, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. It was basically my first true MMORPG, and back then I had no idea what micro transactions were. The first items were simply cosmetic, and I remember thinking, "why would anyone even spend 5 dollars to buy virtual sunglasses?" Now it seems like the norm for all f2p mmos. So now i'm wondering how Maplestory survived in its first years of launch without an actual cash shop. What i'm also wondering is which MMO was the first to implement a "cash shop", and when did they become the standard for all f2p mmos to come?