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Kingdom of Loathing

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The KoL logo. "An Adventurer is You!" (quote spoofing Pro Wrestling)

Kingdom of Loathing (KoL) is a humorous and satirical browser game created by Asymmetric Publications (Zach "Jick" Johnson and Josh "Mr. Skullhead" Nite). It is notable for the usage of simple stick figure graphics and surreal gameplay, the origin of these characters, whereever drawn or from computer programs is unknown, although it is possible to change your appearance by wearing outfits.

Gameplay and features

The aim of the game is to adventure in different areas, encountering monsters, hobos, evil food, and other such things and collecting items and meat (which is the in-game currency) until one has the prowess to take on the Naughty Sorceress. A player is supplied with a number of adventures each day at a time called "rollover", also refered to as turn or tick based gameplay, which occurs at around 10:00PM-11:00PM EST. At least 40 adventures are added each day, and certain items can increase that number when they are either placed at the player's campsite or equipped. Adventures can be increased with food, booze, and by a few other means. Although he or she can have more than 200 adventures at one time, the most one can have after rollover is 200.

In addition to items found while adventuring, players can combine items with meat to get something new. Players can cook food, make cocktails, smith weapons, and make other various types of equipment. Some items can only be made by members of a specific class, which makes them more rare and more valuable.

The game includes a chat system, available after completing a test to prove one's basic knowledge of English grammar and spelling. In addition players can communicate with each other using in-game messages and forums. One may also join a clan, which is a group of players that work together. Other forms of communication are also encouraged, such as meeting outside of the game and the creation of a fan-based radio station, Radio KoL.

The Kingdom

The kingdom itself is full of references to movies, television programs, video games and other forms of entertainment. The kingdom itself is under the terror of the Naughty Sorceress, who holds its king captive and who is fought at the 'end' of the game, before ascension. Most of the power in the Kingdom of Loathing is held by the Council of Loathing, which gives players quests that increase in difficulty as the player becomes stronger. As much as they care about their king, it seems that they are in no particular hurry to aid his rescue. In fact, they tell the player this. The land is filled with monsters, which range from drunken-half orc hobos to furry giants. Although there are theories that they were created by the Naughty Sorceress, they continue to attack even after she's defeated because they just really hate you.

Classes

Players in the game choose from a number of classes:

  • Seal Clubbers - "Seal Clubbers hail from the frigid Northlands, because one character class always hails from the frigid Northlands. They rely on their Muscle to survive."
  • Turtle Tamers - "The Turtle Tamer's mystical connection with his terrapin brethren imbues him with great power. He excels at moving very slowly and winning footraces with smug satisfaction. His Muscle is the key to his success, and to his long lifespan."
  • Pastamancers - "With his mastery of the arcane secrets of Noodlecraft, the Pastamancer is a force to be reckoned with. He relies on his Mysticality to get ahead in the world."
  • Saucerors - "Long engaged in an uneasy truce with the Pastamancers, the guild of Saucerors protects the secrets of the Ancient Brotherhood of Gravymakers. Their Mysticality is their most important attribute."
  • Disco Bandits - "The Disco Bandit boogies to and fro, hither and yon. Whence comes he? No man knows. Whither strikes he next? All men live in fear of him and his Moxie."
  • Accordion Thieves - "The scourge of mariachis and polka bands, the Accordion Thieves have plied their malign craft since time out of mind. Their Moxie serves them well in both their adventures and their interactions with 'the ladies.'"

Attributes

Each player has three major attributes. Also, each class specializes in one of the attributes, and raising that special attribute sufficiently results in gaining a level.:

* Muscle - determines strength and HP - Seal Clubber and Turtle Tamers specialize in Muscle.

* Mysticality - determines magical powers and MP - Pastamancers and Saucerors specialize in Mysticality.

* Moxie - corresponds to Agility, Dexterity and Charisma in the mainstream role-playing games - Disco Bandits and Accordion Thieves specialize in Moxie.


HP- "For those of you who have never played a computer game before, HP stands for Hit Points. It's a measure of how much physical damage your character can take. When your Hit Points are reduced to zero, you cannot adventure until you regain some, either by using healing items or resting at your campsite. You also spend a few turns Beaten Up, which effectively reduces your primary statistics by half."


MP- "For Seal Clubbers and Turtle Tamers, MP stands for Muscularity Points. For Pastamancers and Saucerors, Mana Points. For Disco Bandits and Accordion Thieves, Mojo Points. MP are consumed when your character uses skills. MP can be regained via certain items, or by resting at your campsite. Your maximum MP is determined by your Mysticality." catagory:kingdom of loathing

History

As of Thursday the 9th of June 2005, the Kingdom of Loathing has officially been launched, finally out of the beta-testing stage it has been in for over two years. This comes with the release of Ascension. Ascension effectively allows players to "win" the game, and then re-start their characters at level 1. Players are given the option to select a new charcter class, a skill to keep forever, and a zodiac sign. The latter has various effects on the game, and also gives access to special post-ascension areas determined by sign. All meat and most items from the previous life is kept, but is held in storage at Hagnk's Mostly-Burned-Down Ancestral Mini-Storage. For the first 600 turns, the player has limited access to items. Twenty items or 20,000 meat or any combination of the two may be withdrawn in any one day. This period is referred to as ronin. In addition, while in ronin, the player may not be given or purchase items from other players, and may not have spells cast upon him by others. The player also gets a gift item for ascending, depending on the path that they ascended on. There is much content only open to Ascended characters. The release of Ascension has not stopped development, however, as Jick has continued to release new content. Also, ascending players can choose to follow different paths, like Boozetafarian (can only drink booze, no eating), Oxygenarian (no food or drink), and Teetotaler (no booze). One additional option is going "Hardcore," where players don't have access to any items from anyone else, including the mall, trades, the clan stash, and previous lives.

During the beta-testing phase, some serious bugs were found and exploited resulting in a severe influx of duplicate items and meat into the economy on a day now known to players as "Black Sunday." In order to get the economy back to a healthy state without upsetting the player base, a number of "meat sinks" - expensive "must have" items - were instituted to slowly leech meat from the economy. Despite massive amounts of currency leaving the game (according to Jick in November 2004, the total meat in the game economy was reduced by around one-fifth to one-tenth of a percent per day) the richest players were reluctant to part with their meat and some still hoard billions. The economy has been mostly fixed.

On Wednesday the 26th of October 2005, Jick accidentally deleted several data tables during rollover. The effect was that items from all user’s alternate ascension inventories (Hagnk's) were reverted back to their state on September 6. It took 48 hours for Jick to fix this because he had to use the full backup from September. After he fixed this problem, he apologized to everybody and gave them a special item called “petrified time”. He also added “temporal rifts” that send you back (and forward) in time. This date has come to be known as 'White Wednesday'. Jick has promised to try to get people their items that they lost back, and he seems to be making good on his promise, thus far.

Maintenance and development of the game is supported by sale of associated merchandise, and by donations. Donations of at least US$10 to the game result in a 'gift' of an in-game stat-boosting item being sent to the donating player, known as a Mr. Accessory or Mr. A. These items can also be sold for meat at the game's mall, traded for better items (including Ms. Accessory, Mr. Accessory Jr, and a Golden Mr. Accessory), or used to purchase customization of one's account (such as a unique avatar). New familiars and items with unique abilities appear every month, and as they can only be purchased with a Mr. A this helps keep a steady flow of incoming donations.

Recently, Jick has begun to offer a new gift as a reward for a donation of exactly $10 Canadian sent via Mail: an in-game item called a Mr. Eh?. The Mr. Eh? is a slightly weaker Canadianized version of the Mr. Accessory, and cannot be similarly traded for other in-game items. The reason for the weaker effect is that Canadian dollars are worth less than American dollars. Jick has stated that if the Canadian dollar became worth more than the american, then the Mr. Eh? would be stronger

Community

There have been several player-based projects that revolve around the game. A satirical magazine called Syphilis was developed recently by players I Stab People, Ultimationismist, ADeadHeart, and Crapstorm. It features gossip, stories, and other such things. Other successful projects include the "Official Unofficial" KoL fansite KoL Coldfront; Visual KoL, which now runs a growing KoL-specific Wiki; The Player-Made Music Site, a surprisingly sizable collection of music created by players of the game that features both parodies and original songs about the game as well as non-game-related pieces by or involving players (as well as links to many band and artist sites);and KoL Trance, which has a large amounts of information and various KoL comics. The KoL community highly approves of these player-based projects.

Many KoL members express themselves within the game inside the chat channel /c Haiku, a channel where strict 5/7/5 syllable structure is enforced. Many people fall comfortably enough into this pattern that they begin to naturally type in that manner after a long chat stint.

Radio KoL

A Web-based SHOUTcast radio station, Radio KoL, is the official radio station of Kingdom of Loathing. It is a 24/7 DJ-hosted station, with DJs drawn from the KoL user base.

Radio KoL was founded in June 2004 by Kingdom of Loathing players SeveredToe and Artsychick (all DJs are known by their KoL character names.) As their project gained popularity, they hired other players inari and EyeSpeculum to be DJs for the station. These four, especially EyeSpeculum, were known to pull insanely long shifts of up to 48 hours in desperate attempts to keep music playing at all hours, but by August 2004 there were enough DJs to take the station live 24/7. During the 2004 holiday season, Radio KoL climbed to the top of the station rankings of its current host, Fast-Serv.

Radio KoL does not have a fixed musical style; it is entirely DJ-dependent. The unifying theme of the station is rather its connection to Kingdom of Loathing. There is a high degree of interaction between DJs and players within the KoL chat system, from which the station frequently takes requests, and for which the DJs regularly hold contests. The prizes for these contests are typically items or currency within the game, including unique game items created for Radio KoL.

Radio KoL exists solely on donations, with profit going directly back into the station (for reasons such as the increase in listener slots from 110 to 200 in October 2004, and the addition of an 80-person 64kb stereo server in July 2005).

In March 2005 the founders SeveredToe and Artsychick hosted the first official Radio KoL party, Arkanstock 2005, at their home in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. The weekend-long event involved approximately two dozen tents pitched on their property, karaoke, a tattoo artist for KoL- and Radio KoL-themed tattoos, and many party attendees trying their hand at DJing for the station (often more than one at a time). The success of the party, originally planned as a one-time event, has spawned plans for more Radio KoL parties and meetups across the globe, as well as Arkanstock 2006.

In late July of 2005, controversy led to SeveredToe and Artsychick handing over leadership of Radio KoL to Fusilliban, who then handed it over to the administration team of EyeSpeculum - who remains in charge of the servers - and amplitude - the station manager. Jick and Skullhead remained a part of Radio KoL but were otherwise uninvolved in the change.

SeveredToe and Artsychick opted to create a second radio station for the KOL community, which is called WKOL: We Know Our Listeners. While this station was not recognized as an 'unofficial official' part of the community like Radio KoL (and other sites, like KoL Coldfront), it does have a dedicated fan base, and is therefore part of said community.

Radio KOL continues to operate with many of the same DJs and hosts "The Jick and Skullhead Show" on Monday nights. SeveredToe and ArtsyChick's flagship radio program, "The Big Meat Show," moved to the new station and remained in the same time slot, while RKOL replaced the now empty time slot with other talented voices.

About Spoilers

In the Kingdom of Loathing, giving direct answers to players is generally looked down upon. Instead, players use Haikus and vague answers to help newer players. Although spoiler sites are up, if you use "The Forum of Loathing", any direct answers are given in a black box with the bold heading "Spoilers:".

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