Back- Kingdom of Loathing Review

Sorry for only one post last week. I had started one but I decided to scrap it. Added some more web comics this week to my list but that'll be for later.

First off, checked out MA3 again. Still crap, still glad I dropped it. So person who somehow sent me a suggestion to look at the recent updates, >:|

Next, I apparently have a StumbleUpon. Somebody signed up using my name and my email so I got notified and felt obligated to activate it. I won't use it though. Too damn confusing.

As for ads for cash, I have the email from Google, I just really don't want to do it. I barely have readers as it is and I feel I would alienate them by posting ads when my content is sparse as is. Also I'd hate to IM those of you who contact me and then have to tell you to click the ads so I could make fat stacks of cash and by that I mean $100 ever few months. (Just like child support!)

Now for the nerding report- Kingdom of Loathing
As anybody who reads the blog every once in a while could confess (since reading this blog is a sin in the eyes of the Internet) I am not a video gamer. Sure I just spent about 12 hours over the weekend playing Brawl (three achievements left!!!) I rarely play except in bursts. It takes something astounding to keep me continually playing, or at least something I don't need to focus on.

Kingdom of Loathing is in many ways a little from column A and a little from column B. It is an artistically-unastounding free online text-based role playing game where you take the role of a generic hero and point and click your ways through a myriad of humorous settings attempting to defeat the Naughty Sorceress and save the King only to save him and have to restart the entire buggering process again.

I used to be a person for this sort of thing. Heck, when I played Diablo, I restarted a few times if just to go through and train more before I killed Diablo. KoL (as the fans call it) is essentially a run through 12 prescribed levels with corresponding tasks till you reach level 13 and kill the foul harpy she beast that is the Naughty Sorceress. What drives the game though, is that fact that it is for the most part humor based and that the community is actually helpful to new players, unless you happen to be an asshole unto which your house gets toilet paper'd and bricked.

I started two years or so ago on suggestion of a friend who has since quit the game and bequeathed unto me his character (who is looking for a good home besides me.) I was drawn into the game but easily stumped early on. The difficulty is not so much intense, as it is the boredom due to the occasionally annoying text walls topped by a single stick figure failing to enthrall. At that point I invoked the ancient strategy of multitasking in which I would hold the window to the side and just click, click the last adventure area and run through my adventures until it became time to eat for more.

Eventually everyone settles into habits of either running through ascensions (each round of leveling up over and over) or mining meat (the currency of the game) or grinding (because you have no life.) The game counteracts this as much as possible by making it a living game. Every few days is a small holiday, the moons (Ronald and Grimace) effect the gameplay slightly and then you get the updates. Over the past few months, loads of new content has been released from NS13 (upping the level to fight the Naughty Sorceress to 13) to Hobopolis (clan based warfare against hippies) to the weekly updates that are beginning now and everything in between. The game is one that if you quit but still have an account, it is worthwhile to reenter. Or you can send me (Koltreg #1161814) your stuff.

I've been playing for about two years and when I started I ran one of each of the classes. You have the fighters (seal Clubbers and Turtle Tamers), the mages (Saucerors and Pastamancers) and the rogues (Disco Bandits and Accordion Thieves). Each class is different enough to make the gameplay and experimentation worth while. I lost most of my accounts to either banning or inactivity leaving me with my main account. Each run allows you to save one skill though for future use between classes, mostly resulting in you saving some dumb skill for your first run and then probably Torso Awareness and then who knows what else. It will depend if you found out about the Kol Wiki yet.

Now there are downsides to the game. You have limited daily adventures, there are times when the server lags and the server closes down nightly for rollover for a half hour or so (it is longer on Saturdays). The Mall is also unfair to new players based on the fact that they likely don't hold the rare items worth fat stack of meat but if it truly concerns you, you can always donate $10 and get a Mr. Accessory which allows you get an item of the month and support the game (or you can earn about 4 million meat and buy one at the Mall.) Pretty much the flaws of all long spanning games are the big problems and the limits are made to help the server and to stop gaming addictions which I support. I lost a friend to World of Warcraft.

Until next time, keep on nerding.

-Koltreg

PS. Join Team Majorca and help me get through Hobopolis

PPS. Jake, if you read this, your friends and family miss you. Please stop playing WoW and come home.