Thoughts: Old Internet Gaming and Kingdom of Loathing
Let's take a time-warp back to the days of my youth. Back when 33.6k dial-up was probably some of the fastest and blistering speeds ever experienced in the year 1996. What was popular then? id Software's line up of Doom engine games, 3D realm's famed Duke Nukem 3D, and most of all... door RPG's. A door RPG is one that's simple in concept... Your character is created through some web forms. After creation, you are then given a set of "turns" which are actions you may perform. When you participate in battle, you expend these turns. Turns are then "regenerated" in a real-time conversion (depending on games, it could be an actual 24 hours for new turns or a turn every 5 minutes).
My biggest time sink back in 1996 was a game managed by a Korean internet company trying to it it big with a game titled: "Archmage: Reincarnation from Hell". The plot was simple... The land of Terra is one of death and rebirth. Some are born with the power to destroy the world, the power of the Armageddon Spell. Which on casting it, the mage is vulnerable to attacks while the incantation is being used... The spell takes 10 "days" which on a successful casting, destroys the entire realm of Terra, ending the game. The game lasted for a long while and then eventually development ceased...
What made Archmage so special? It was free and the story was well crafted. Back in the era of 33.6k or 56k dial-up loading extensive images was a death wish. So a game minimal on images and text heavy was essential to craft a successful web game. Archmage did just that. It didn't have fancy graphics, but the competitive game play made for a fun experience. Unfortunately, games had to "move on" with "killer 3D graphics". From there, the debauchery of gaming began. Games where the focus on was making them pretty with the computer generated stuff, but lack of a great story. Don't take that as me referring to all modern day gaming... After all I respect some of the well crafted modern day gems.
Let's return to the era of today: 2007. My buddy Noirsword recommended me to check out a funny game called "The Kingdom of Loathing". The game itself is interesting. The game is in the vein of an door RPG with images, but not anything spectacular... The kicker is that the art is stick figure drawings! Most people would probably think that a low graphics, tons of text, and poor art style would be completely stupid for a game. The charm is that there is lots of internet and gamer satire and humor. Things from the whole "leet' (or spelled 1337) computer culture to internet humor make their rounds, even things such as an item called 31337 7r0wZ0RZ. The story is pretty well crafted to boot. It's more turn based laughs, but with enemies like the Zmobie or the Baseball Bat, it just keeps you going! It's quite a fun game and well worth the time.
If you're into a game with a fun story, goofy art, and great tongue-in-cheek humor, Kingdom of Loathing will not dissapoint! It definitely has an appeal to the older gamer who respects the days when games needed a good story to be profitable. The author does offer nice gifts to players who donate for the server costs of the game... Veteran players say that the new "nerfs" to the errata have made the game harder, but it also presents a fun challenge too.
