StrategyWiki has more information about the content differences between versions at Latest patches.

Version	Language	Countries/ Regions	Local publishers
Maple Story South Korea	Korean		NEXON Korea Co., Ltd. a South Korean identification number is required in order to properly register.
Maple Story Japan	Japanese		NEXON Japan Co., Ltd. a Japan IP is required for registration.
Maple Story China (PRC)	Simplified Chinese		Shanda Corporation Co., Ltd a People's Republic of China identification number and People's Republic of China IP is required for registration.
Maple Story North America (Global)	English	+ Any country without a localized version	NEXON America Co., Ltd. any IP within North America and IP without restriction.
Maple Story South East Asia	English	+ + +	AsiaSoft Online Pte, Ltd. an identification number and SEA IP is required for registration.
Maple Story Taiwan (ROC)	Traditional Chinese		Gamania Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. a Taiwan identification number and Taiwan IP is required for registration.
Maple Story Thailand	Thai and English		Asiasoft Corporation Co., Ltd. a Thailand identification number and Thailand IP is required for registration.
Maple Story Europe	English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch.	Any country within Europe	NEXON Europe Limited GameGuard performs an IP check.
Maple Story Hong Kong (Macau)	Traditional Chinese	+ Within PRC's Special Adminis-trative Region only	Gamania Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. a Hong Kong or Macau identification number is required for registration.
Maple Story India	TBA		TBA
Maple Story Brazil	Portuguese		TBA
Maple Story South West Asia	TBA		TBA

The Korean version was the first to be created, ergo it has the most features as of yet.[17] Other versions are at different stages of development and most are not as advanced in content as Korea's. With this advantage comes the problem of players (mainly from the North America (Global) version, but some from others) trying to play KoreaMS. These players are often referred to as 이주자, or "immigrants" by a majority of the Korean MapleStory players. These "immigrants" are the reason why a Korean Social Security Number is required to play. IP blocking is used in some of the other versions of the game, mostly for the same reason. Some attempt to bypass this by using Proxies, which spoof IP addresses to make it seem like a player is playing from a different country - however in Europe MapleStory a GameGuard proxy check has been implemented. This is also because foreign text in the Latin Character-Based North America (Global) version causes glitches to occur. This is the same for Koreans in the Chinese version, and so on.[18]

Recently, a localized version for Hong Kong / Macau has been announced publish by Gamania Hong Kong. It should commence Beta testing on October 23, 2007.[19]

Though some versions share the same world names, they are different and independent of each other. They are defined by their language used, publisher, server location and specialized worlds.