Kingdom of Loathing: an adventurer is me!

Ages ago I used to play an online game called Kingdom of Loathing. I played several different characters and never could get the hang of it. So I quit and promptly forgot my login information.

Well, someone very special to me currently plays it, and has been hinting for a while that I should too, namely by copy-pasting funny bits from the Wiki or the game in Skype chats. (You may be able to guess that this special person is my boyfriend. If you haven't, well, now I've told you.)

So I decided to pick it up again. Mainly because I thought it would make him happy but also because I was laughing pretty hard at the things he linked me, and I figured my stress levels could use some lowering. Humor is a good way to do that. And KOL is not a time-intensive game: you only have so many adventures per day, so you only spend about 30 minutes to an hour adventuring. Especially if you use the Wiki to help you out.

I play a Seal Clubber, which is a strictly muscle class.  Every level you get a new title (see picture below). There are two muscle classes -- Seal Clubber and Turtle Tamer -- two magic classes -- Pastamancer and Sauceror -- and two moxie classes -- Disco Bandit and Accordion Thief. The first time I played I was a Disco Bandit and then a Pastamancer (two different accounts; I never ascended) -- and this was the source of my trouble. I do best with classes that just let me pummel without thinking. So the next time I played I tried Seal Clubber. It's much better. I can scream HULK SMASH and pummel puny enemies. Once I'm used to the game and ascend, I can choose different classes.

The reason this game is so fun is because it's based on humor almost entirely. Yes, there's adventure and meat gathering (meat is the currency of Loathing) and trophies to earn (important to me because I'm a Diamond), but mostly KOL should make you laugh.

Observe:

This is one of the familiars you can get. You can also get the Ghuol Whelp (from the Misspelled Cemetary), the Leprechaun, the Grue...the list is endless. Well. Not endless. Just really really big.

Familiars accompany you on your adventures and help you in battle. You can name them whatever you want. My familiars are shown below.

This is a Valentine, sent to me by my sweetie. Along with gifts. He sends me lots of stuff. And meat.

This is a possible room you can go into in the Daily Dungeon. It's full of badgers. You have to sneak by like a sneaky snake.

This is both a reference to Lord of the Rings and Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle (though there is an entire quest chain dedicated to referencing H&K: The White Citadel Quest.) You first run into the eXtreme orc frat boys on the White Citadel quest chain, and they show up randomly after that.

This is only a small sample of the fun possible with Kingdom of Loathing. I'm sure you can see why I love the game so much.

Are you a gamer? What's your favourite game? Have you ever played Kingdom of Loathing? Would you like to?