Kingdom of Loathing

[juldea]

I just played some Kingdom of Loathing for a while. I have to say that I just don't get it. ("It" being the game's popularity amongst people I think are smart and should know what entertainment is.)

Comments

[juldea.livejournal.com]

But it's the "pleasure" part I don't get! It was just clicking around... The "warped humor" was clever but nothing that would entertain me enough to stick around... Perhaps it's just that I've never been the type of person to be attracted to the goal of "increase this number"? The reason I've played the same MUD I have for 6 years is because of the people; my character is woefully wimpy and poor for having been around for so long.

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

(Excuse me, have to log out of my third character...there.)

It's evil. It's flypaper for OCD gamers. It is sucking me away from the glass teat so I can get a few more clicks in. I'm thinking of getting cable for faster response time. Hi, I'm Teem, and I'm a KoL slut.

For the first ten levels or so, the amusement of opening up more areas to play in and giggle at was interesting but the puzzles are getting more needlessly obscure and complicated and (in my opinion) inconsistently designed. The economy of is also seriously out of whack and there's no real socialization path so you get stuck in the upward meat spiral or get bored and leave. (Heh, the chat room is best avoided, IMO, too.) I'm still having fun testing out the economy right now and playing karma-whack-a-mole.

(Hey! A shout out to any of my cheesy bretheren out there: 66666 Karma. HAH!)

Every now and then I go look in a "room" that I haven't been through. I'm probably going to set a goal and stop. If there were a bit more customization, I'd be hooked in more. I spent many late nights building and extending a TinyMUCK that I was in for, I think it was 7 years at DEC.