Kingdom of Loathing

|alt=A web page broken up into frames. The center frame shows the combat, consisting entirely of text and crude thumbnail images of drawings. There is also a chat pane showing various announcements and a character pane displaying the player's experience levels, hit points, and magic points. Gameplay involves fighting monsters, completing quests, gaining skills and stats, and accumulating items and meat. In KoL turn-based gameplay, a player's character is supplied with a number of adventures each day, at a base of 40, although this can be increased. The game day resets at a time called "rollover". Characters are allotted forty adventures every rollover, though they can increase that number with various equipment and items. Additional adventures can be acquired by consuming food and booze. However, only a limited amount of each can be consumed each day, Most actions in the game use up adventures, including crafting items and exploring the game world (adventuring). Combat is turn-based, meaning that the player and the monster take turns attacking one another using weapons, skills and items. Players who successfully defeat a monster receive experience points, pieces of meat (the game's currency), and various items. The game features an integrated chat system which is available only after completing a basic test of English grammar and spelling. Additional clan dungeons have since been added, including the Slimetube, Dreadsylvania, and the limited-time Haunted Sorority House. Players can buy a store in The Mall of Loathing and sell their character's items to other players. The Kingdom of Loathing economy was the subject of an academic study, Economics in the Kingdom of Loathing: Analysis of Virtual Market Data in 2011. Character classes Players choose from six classes when they create a character. This feature becomes available after the game's final quest is completed. Ascending will allow the player to receive Karma for their actions, which can be used to purchase special items before choosing a new path/lifestyle. Players who embark on a new path have their character's experience levels reset to one, but they retain their currency and items. Ascending players can also choose to make their ascension more difficult by taking on various restrictions, such as not being able to eat or drink, in exchange for special rewards. There are special paths which could have the player play as a special class or have a unique gimmick (such as every zone is on fire, damaging you). In addition, the game features a leaderboard system which allows players to see one another's ascension speeds and compete for the fastest ascensions. ==Plot==

Setting Kingdom of Loathing takes place in Asymmetric Publication's Loathing universe; however, the specific time is unknown. It was inspired by Asymmetric Publication's earlier game Krakrox the Barbarian and even included into the game's lore as the forefather of adventurers and banisher of the monsters of the dark continent that would later become the Kingdom of Loathing. The game is humorous in nature, and most quests, battles and individual item descriptions include jokes, witticisms, or references to popular culture. The player takes on the role of an adventurer who is tasked with solving problems and killing monsters in this fantasy-based kingdom. Story Thanks to the three mighty architectural elders before the days of Yore (which includes Boris the Warrior, Jarlsberg the Wizard, and Sneaky Pete the Cool Guy), the Kingdom of Loathing used to be a peaceful place to loathe one another under the Kingdom's ruler, King Ralph XI. However, one day, the Naughty Sorceress arrived and "imprismed" (imprisoned in a prism) King Ralph XI. Afterwards, the monsters that hid away reemerged, and under the control of the Naughty Sorceress, caused chaos in the kingdom. In King Ralph's absence, most of the power in the Kingdom of Loathing is held by the Council of Loathing, but not much has been able to get done, so adventurers (such as the player) were called into action. There are two storylines that the player is encouraged to participate. These storylines are Me and My Nemesis, and Naughty Sorceress Quest (main campaign). Players can also unlock quests from other sources, some of which are available only after ascending. from finding a mosquito larvae to starting (and finishing) a war between the Hippies and the Frat Boys, all in hopes to either fixing issues around the kingdom, finding possible ways to defeat the Naughty Sorceress, or for profitable gain. The final quest is given when the character has reached level 13 and finished the other quests. With Frank's help through a maze, the character will come across 6 locks to the entrance. 6 different keys are required to enter (such as the keys of the three mighty architectural elders). After finding the keys and the many trials to the top of the Sorceress's tower, the player comes face to face with the sorceress herself, only to be beaten in her third form: a sausage powerful enough to cause any damage in capital letters. Frank will notice this and will tell the player to go back to find the Wand of Nagamar, the wand of the necromancer Nagamar who was responsible for misspelling the Misspelled Cemetary. After finding the wand, the character will fight the Naughty Sorceress once more and rearrange the spelling of her all-caps attack to counterattack, eventually leading to her sausage defeat. Once the Naughty Sorceress has been defeated, her chamber will have been mostly destroyed, and King Ralph's Prism will appear. The player can then free King Ralph, thereby reinstating power to the King and causing the Council of Loathing to become obsolete, much to the dismay of the council members. The destruction of the prism will cause an astral gash to appear in the middle of the sky where the King was once imprismed. Upon returning to the council, they will tell the character that they have just discovered that the monsters are still running amok, and that the Naughty Sorceress wasn't the main culprit: it turns out that the monsters really hate the character. However, they also reveal that jumping into the Astral Gash will allow the character to ascend to Valhalla, afterlife hub of reincarnations and new routes, and only then will the monsters stop attacking the kingdom. It is up to the player to either continue playing side quests and leveling up or to ascend to play a new game whenever they decide to. ==Development==

Zack Johnson, the game's creator, developed several games before Kingdom of Loathing but did not feel that they were good enough to release online. and Johnson soon invited his childhood friend Josh Nite to contribute content as a writer and designer. Within a year, 300,000 player accounts had been created, far exceeding Johnson and Nite's expectations; Johnson has referred to the game's success as "a never ending series of astonishments". In the game's early days, Johnson worked on the game during breaks while at work; however, 18 months or so after launch, the game was bringing in enough money for Johnson to quit his day job as a programmer and develop the game full-time. According to Nite, the game's writing style owes itself to a humorous email exchange between himself and Johnson that began when the two separated after high school. These emails "helped us develop the shared comedic voice that KoL written in". The game's developers cite text-based games such as Zork and Legend of the Red Dragon as creative influences, and Nite has compared the game to the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children's books. In November 2014, Nite left Asymmetric Publications. ==Business model==

Kingdom of Loathing is advertising-free and does not charge subscription fees. and players who donate US$10 to the game receive a powerful item known as a Mr. Accessory. Mr. Accessories can be equipped to give stat boosts or spent in the "Mr. Store" to buy powerful items (including special monthly items). Mr. Accessories and Mr. Store items may be traded freely between players. According to an interview with Zack Johnson from 2010, Johnson originally established the Mr. Accessory revenue model as "kind of an afterthought", but it became lucrative enough to allow him to work on the game full-time and eventually to hire several permanent employees. ==Community==

Kingdom of Loathing has been praised for its welcoming and active player community. One of the most unusual aspects of the community is the large number of female players: according to Johnson, approximately 40% of players are female. Longtime player and nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot is active in the community and included a Kingdom of Loathing-themed song on his 2010 album Zero Day. Brett Bixler, founder of the Educational Gaming Commons at Pennsylvania State University, has hypothesized that the Kingdom of Loathing community is successful because it accounts for Richard Bartle's model of player personality types in massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, creating a balanced gameplay system that appeals to a wide variety of players. A Web-based SHOUTcast radio station, Radio KoL, was the "official unofficial" radio station of KoL. It was a 24/7 DJ-hosted station, with volunteer DJs drawn from the KoL user base. As well as the player-hosted music shows, development team members hosted shows on Radio KoL in which they discussed the state of the game and answered questions from players. Radio KoL was shut down in late 2019. ==Reception==

Critical response for Kingdom of Loathing has been generally positive, with consistent praise for the game's humor and surrealism. The gameplay and content have been praised as "well designed" and having a "huge amount of content". and according to Worlds in Motion, "Kingdom of Loathing isn't just a great game, but a really unique and interesting MMO." Gamezebo criticized the interface, calling it "clunky", ==See also==