Kingdom of Loathing has an amazing community. Sure, it could be considered small -- there tend to only be a few thousand players on at any time -- but you only have to look at the incredible depth its spoiler-filled wiki goes to to see how into the game its players are. That's not to say they're closed off -- they're welcoming to "newbies" and most clans accept any and all players, but you do have to play by their rules. Which means using proper English (they don't make you pass a literacy test for nothing!) and taking part in the community in a positive manner.

If you want the "proper" Kingdom of Loathing experience you're best to forget that wiki I just linked (as the temptation to browse it will be just too much) and play through the game using the help of other players in chat. Kingdom of Loathing is a game full of surprisingly difficult (and obscure) puzzles to solve that are often explained in a rather roundabout fashion (the developers clearly love wordplay) so you're going to need the help.

Played like this, I'd almost be willing to argue that Kingdom of Loathing is about as "multiplayer" as any other online RPG -- after all, aren't all of these games about players working together to solve puzzles (sort of)?

And that doesn't take into account the absolutely incredible player-based economy that has been created in-world. I don't know how it compares to something like Eve Online (which we might look at in future) but the idea that there are players trading individual items worth millions of meat is mind-blowing. I don't entirely understand, for example, why the spices I received for killing goblin chefs are worth thousands of meat to other players while their resale value to NPCs is low (and other players could surely kill their own goblin chefs) but I guess I'm just not an economist.

When you look at aspects like that, Kingdom of Loathing isn't just a great game, but a really unique and interesting MMO. It does have its failings -- I think the interface is absolutely terrible, I don't find the stick figures that pleasant (even if it does feel like a Purple Ronnie MMO) and like many other RPGs it's completely bewildering to beginners (though the community can help with that.)

I wish I had reached a level where I was able to discuss Hobopolis, the multiplayer clan dungeons, but unfortunately the limited amount of adventures per day mean I haven't been able to get that far yet. I don't consider that a failing -- I rather like the idea that I can only play so long each day -- and have even wondered how such a system would work in a fully fledged MMORPG.

Anyway, Kingdom of Loathing probably isn't the kind of game you'd look at if you were trying to work out how to build a community in your MMO, but it only take a short time playing to realize such an assumption is dead wrong. Kingdom of Loathing might be more of a "game" than an "MMO" but as either, it easily outclasses many of the competition.