In Kingdom of Loathing, players take the role of a loosely-defined “adventurer” to save King Ralph XI from the evil Naughty Sorceress. Along the way, you’ll fight such monsters as Sk8 Gnomes, Goth Giants, and Racecar Bob.
It sounds stupid, I know, but KoL is actually a very funny game. Originally designed by Zach “Jick” Johnson, the game uses his simplistic stick figure art. That, in addition to the extremely witty jokes, are some of the major draws to the game.
Under most circumstances, a game like this would lose all appeal after you saw all the content, but Kingdom of Loathing has several factors in its favor. First, the game has very strong mechanics. Even after you’ve read all the jokes and seen all the art, KoL is still surprisingly fun to play.
Another important factor, though, is the extremely strong community. There’s an integrated chat, which is almost always filled with people. There are the official forums. There’s a Shoutcast radio station. There are dozens and dozens of fan-made sites.
Another interesting aspect is the contact that the Dev Team has with the players. They host biweekly, two hour radio shows in which players can send in questions for them to answer. This gives them very close contact with the players, meaning that, for better or for worse, the community of Kingdom of Loathing has much more power than the community of other MMOs.
Kingdom of Loathing is an extremely clever, witty game. Even if you can’t find the time to become an active player, it’s something you should play at least once.
I just started playing with
I just started playing with this and found it hilarious. The jokes were a stitch and I like the toot oriole.
Highly recommended.
KoL is astoundingly deep. When you defeat the Naughty Sorceress, you can then "ascend", that is, reset your character to level 1 and choose another character class. But you get to keep one of your skill from your previous incarnation. (Plus you get one or two other rewards.) This means that you can eventually accumulate the best skills from all the character classes, and this changes the game a lot.
The really cool thing about KoL is that you can make your own goals. There are leaderboards that track most ascensions, fastest ascensions, highest level reached...There are display cases where you can show off the rare items you've collected. There are trophies, which are a bit like XBox Live Achievements (or vice versa), acquired for fulfilling certain requirements. And there are many active clans you can join, or just people you can chat with.
All this and they've got an interesting revenue model; Donate $10 and you get a powerful item ("Mr. Accessory") that can be used on its own or traded in at a special store ("Mr. Store"). There are a few basic Mr. Store items you can trade for, but a new one is added every month (and the previous month's item goes "out of print"). Apparently several people at Asymmetric make a living from these "donations".
I've been playing for years.
I've been playing for years. It has lost none of its charm -- Jick and his crew have worked tirelessly over that time to roll out new content. NS13 just rolled out, adding two huge new quests and making the Sorceress even harder to beat. NS15 is planned.
A lot of the appeal, too, is that there are games within the game: you can set yourself a goal of making a million meat (yes, the game currency is meat), or beating the Naughty Sorceress in record time, or delving the depths of Fernswarthy's Basement, or simply beating up other players in opt-in player vs. player contests. And of course there are the holidays: twisted versions of Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas, each with special content and items.
I highly recommend playing through at least once. If you get stuck, there's a comprehensive wiki guide at Coldfront.net