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Well, nothing could possible beat owning a Bartender-in-a-box.

Too bad beer goggles are hard to come by and bartender skulls are illegal to own in most places.

Good thing they are almost mandatory to own in the Kingdom of Loathing.

I know that in one particular http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/game, they tend to follow this approach. Once a new feature is created, and debugged enough so that it's stable and doesn't break anything, the feature is released to the general populace. After all, once all of the important bugs are found, a thousand users will find the minor bugs through general usage faster than a small dedicated team of testers. Also, the time the testers save by not having to verify every single minor detail can be used to work on new material.
Add into the equation that without some elaborate software (such as Mercury LoadRunner, or an open-source equivalent), it's hard to simulate the effect the entire population will have when they start hammering on the server. It can also help track down extremely low-occurance bugs, because with enough people working on it, those one-in-a-million cases will eventually come up.

Kinda reminds me of infinite monkeys eventually producing the works of Shakespeare.

http://www3.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php You know it is...

Best... MORPG... Ever.

http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

It's not exactly massively multiplayer, but it's beautifully written.

1. Kingdom of Loathing still cracks me up, especially the stick-figure graphics.
2. I'm a little scared to toot my own horn on /. with this, but a couple of us are working on another game: Mutant Freaks of Nature.

Signal-to-Noise in places like, well, Slashdot increases dramatically.

You are assuming that physical age and mental age are the same. I have every expectation that the average OMG GNAA LOLZOR!!! FROSTY PISS! poster is over the physical age of eighteen. They just seem to be mentally retarded.

I play an online game where, if you want access to the chat room, you need to pass a test. The test includes being able to differentiate between their/there/they're, it's/its, etc.

Now that's what you need to do in order to weed out the kiddies. Make them prove that they are fluent in their native language. If somebody isn't, then it's almost certain that they aren't mature enough for the Internet.

Likewise, AC. I've got better things to do - like hunting zombies and cooking Lucky Surprise Eggs.

Has no one considered that an excellent way to keep this genre viable would be to popularize it on the web?

For that matter, MUDs - basically the MMO analogy of text games - could also be moved to the web.

AJAX technology makes both of these possibilities much more feasible. Is no one taking advantage of these possibilities yet?

A popular link going around a few years ago was "the Hamlet text game", which was playable through a web page. The author apparently had a generic framework for making web-based text games, called "Nondescript." I'd always expected to see it catch on more - but apparently it hasn't, and the author's site is gone now.

With the web being so ubiquitous, and non-intimidating to so many, there's a huge potential to take these games back into the mainstream. Add the ability to create games that have light text interfaces (like maps, so that players don't have to press N a hundred times), and the potential for the genre to be revitalized is considerable.

In fact, it's already being done to some extent. Kingdom of Loathing is essentially a single-player text RPG, save that it has stick-figure graphics, integrated chat features, and some (optional) PvP features. Urban Dead is a web-based MMO which uses only text and a simple map. (Peasant's Quest also deserves mention.)

These games have a considerable following; but they're reinventing the wheel. If the previous generation of text-adventure and MUD authors could pull their heads out of 1984 and think about merging their experience with the modern, accessible technologies of today, we could find text games once again catching on like wildfire, this time through the magical power of the interweb.

The great thing about text MUDs was how easily (and quickly) GMs could add content. There was no 3d modeling, no conceptual drawings, downloadable patches, etc, so a festival or merchant could be whipped up in a matter of hours to days (depending on the extent)

This is very true, and a huge limit on individual programmers' creativity. There are however some places where this simplicity and rapid deployment of content is still possible, without all the fancy graphics. One is Kingdom of Loathing, which uses only tiny hand-drawn pictures, most of which you can actually turn off and do without.

It's also hillarious, clever, fun, and a web-based MMORPG!
http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

Only one? Right now it must be http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

At Kingdom of Loathing, we get to trick or treat four times a year.

To hell with realism, I play Kingdom of Loathing

Tiny Plastic Sword, of course!

http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

I'm making my living in the games industry.

http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

We picked the bottom two. :)

I was a big fan of the first Zork, Bard's Tale, and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon. Of the three, despite its assininely insufficient attempt at graphics, AR:TD was engrossing because there were definite things to be solved, some of which came on you at random, and others which were at different places, and the included map was a stylized artsy drawing and not a literal map. You had to graph it out on paper and that took me several months of play to get each level correct.

Now it is all about super 3D, running around in ninety directions getting dizzy with bizarre amounts of controls, where the game play makes you wish you had four hands and forty fingers on each. The story is hack, the story-telling intellectually retarded, and the ultimate experience underwhelming. I could barely handle Doom, Quake was only fun when you set the gravity to zero and bounced around, and so forth. Now, I don't see anything engrossing enough to make getting good at it worth it.

Kingdom of Loathing is my new favorite and despite being free, I actually want to and have donated money. It takes up just enough and not too much time, it's still evolving, and the community of players is much closer knit than anonymous gripers about the latest craptacular EA Games offering. All things being equal I'd rather play that than anything offered right now. I don't even touch my Game Cube anymore having largely been turned off by the horrific treatment that Robotech was given. "WTF?! I waited twenty years for this game and this is the best we get?!" It was as much a letdown as the Robocop for Gameboy from Ocean which was delayed nineteen times or so before it broke and it sucked worse than the Gameboy Pit Fighter which was hard to imagine up to that point.

That's pretty much what Mr. Zalewski said. He specified that a hacker was a "skillful, passionate enthusiast" as opposed to someone who approached what they did as simply "just a job." Of course, he's speaking in the context of computers, but i doubt he'd be offended if that term was stretched into other areas of study/work. That's just my two cents.

(i didn't have a good referral link to put here, so i'll just leave this)

otherwise known as KOL (Kingdom of Loathing)

Try http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/. An example of a game which is driven by a database.

The Kingdom of Loathing is a sort of middle ground between them. Extremely tight community, mostly text-based puzzles, RPG-style gaming, and a buttload of goofy humor thrown in. There are others that are similar, too, but they didn't grab me, so I don't have links.

All you need is Kingdom of Loathing

Now, is it just me or is 1up a bastard website? They seem to have a shitload of anti-Nintendo propoganda.

I guess the GameBoy Advance is absolutely Dead. Obviously in order for games to be fun, they have to have dazzing 3D Graphics. Better stop playing Kindgom of Loathing.

Maybe I'm just fantasizing, but it seems that they are just trying to rat on Nintendo every chance they get. I know (but can't cite) I've read a couple more anti-nintendo articles in the past few weeks, too.

Oh well, I guess its the sort of thing you would expect from a second rate, poorly designed, website run by a bunch of corporate jerkasses... I mean this excellent quality website.

Anyone else play? I'm hopelessly addicted to it. http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

Actually, I've found that Kingdom of Loathing is exactly what I was looking for: a fun game that has plenty of casual gamers and hardcore players, but it honestly doesn't matter. The game is fun for everybody to play, and people *do* get sucked in, but the creators make it a priority that new players have as much fun as long time players. Of course, it may also help that the new breed of caffinated, medicated "twitch" kids aren't going to be too excited about a web-based black and white game. But more than anything, the creators work very hard to level the playing field, while the long time players still get fun goodies. The most telling aspect of the levelling is that player vs. player combat is set up so that it's unlikely that you'll get totally and completely spanked by some 9 year old that spends 12 hours a day in front of the tube.

My point is that it *can* be done. This is at least one example.

Is this another new monster from Kingdom of Loathing?

Microsoft defending itself against a competing platform? Sending attack money out? No, say it ain't so.

(insert your favorite eyes rolling emoticon here)

While not truely multi-player you can set up your own clan once you reach the proper level.

http://www2.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php

Another one to try is Adventure Quest. It's flashed based RPG type game.

http://battleon.com/

Or new games that are light. While it's not multiplayer, KOL can be a blast if you have someone to talk to and discuss ideas with. It's a blast regardless, but sharing the amazing content and quotes with others makes it all the more fun.

http://www2.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php

So explain how text- and stick figure-based games like Kingdom of Loathing have over 500,000 players? This and many other games of it's ilk are incredibly popular because the rely soley on game play. Not on shiny polygons.

One word: KOL. Free.

http://www3.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php

Think NetHack with stick figures and a lot more humor merged with something like Zork. It's amazing, once you get the hang of it. Try it for 2 days. You'll be hooked forever.

KOL

Sounds nifty, but I run Linux. (Googles) Oh, *sweet*!. There's a Linux client!

I spent hours going through archives of Games Magazine and I love Cheapass Games (it's a company if you're not familiar with them, that sells 50 to $5 really inexpensive, well designed games, usually a bunch of printed sheets in an envelope). Good game and puzzle design is an art. I'll give this a shot... later... when my paid work is finished. :)

( BTW - Kingdom of Loathing is a quirky fun site as well)

--
Evan

If you're looking for originality, try some of the low (and no) budget games online. Here are a few I like.

The GameShow!: Daily complete-the-phrase puzzle. Each game lasts a month and has about 100-150 players.

Kingdom of Loathing: Hilarious web based RPG

X-Kings: Turn based strategy game with thousands of players

See my own web based game in the sig...

who needs fancy graphics in the MMORPG's? kingdom of loathing rocks! =)

e.

Don't forget Kingdom of Loathing.

Not a video game, but the MMORPG Kingdom of loathing does pretty well for humour. Although there are plenty of other attractions, I suspect that's the main thing for most beginning players.

Kingdom of Loathing

I really think the future of online gaming is not going to be 3D accelerated shooters. These types of games appeal to a much larger audience and almost everyone has the hardware to handle it.

Some of my favorite online games?
Kingdom of Loathing - Hilarious multiplayer RPG
The Game Show - A daily phrase puzzle similar to family fued.
Diplomacy - Famous war game without random elements.
Global Combat - Risk-like war game, except all moves are made at the same time.

If anyone likes playing around with markets and such, Kingdom of Loathing has a great economic system for players level 5 and up. You can buy and sell game items that fluxuate in price depending on supply and demand. For example, when a certain game item went from being indestructable to breaking after x number of uses, I quickly bought up a lot of its components and sold them at a huge profit.

In addition to the cool economic side of it, the game is an amazing web based RPG that everyone should check out anway.

kingdom of loathing, saviors of rpg gaming!? ;p

For example, Kingdom of Loathing seems to do very well with a good story and rather poor graphics. On the other hand there are games where you sit there in awe of the visuals and can pretty much forget about why you're there.

Just my .02 worth

Gin? I thought you'd just been playing too much KoL.

Now, of course some players won't play that way, and will play to enjoy the game, but personally, I would never play a game with a finite number of turns or whatever for my character because for me, the game would become a game about using those turns in the best way possible to put my character as far ahead as possible, even if it means I have less fun.

For a perfect example of this check out Kingdom of Loathing which gives you a finite number of turns per day. And while they refresh at the end of the day, the gameplay has evolved such that everybodies actions once they start getting into the game revolves around getting the most bang for their turns, and figuring out how to get more turns.

Your Magical Mystical Hippy Stone has been smashed, and you may attack players camped near you.

Strangest RPG I have ever seen