Before play: This guide is to help you get started playing the game and help you through the first few levels. It is by no means definitive, and I suggest you also look MapleStory Mesos at the official guides contained. Still, I hope it can make things a little easier at start up.
Before you play the game, OK, you've loaded up the game, signed up for your account, downloaded the new version, and now are finally logged into the startup screen. Now what? The first thing you need to do is choose a server.
There is no difference in lag or speed or game-play between the servers. The only server that is different is the Percival server, where the players are encouraged to role-play their character, which basically means to expect a lot of thees and thous and not a lot of out of character conversation or dude speak.
Amongst the other servers, I suggest you choose the one that has the smallest population. More people will join after you and the lower the population, the less competition for kills. Also, you should check the age of the servers.
Older servers will have higher level characters, more established guilds, established tradesmen, and to the limited extent allowed in Camelot, characters twinked by their friends to have more money and equipment.