And while you can't directly play with other people, you can steal their stuff, join guilds and interact. The whole game is consistently absurd and amusing, from the enemy types, to the genre conventions it apes so cleverly.

And then there's the Haiku Dungeon, where not only are all the descriptions of your enemies in haiku form, but so are your attacks. The Disco Bandits dance at their enemies, fuelled by moxie. The Sauceror flings hot sauce in people's faces, and they get damaged, because hot sauce would really hurt if someone threw it at your face. Take, for instance, the pun-based classes. It's trying to be funny, and it's been going strong for years.

It's a little ugly, but Kingdom of Loathing isn't trying to be pretty. Kingdom of Loathing is a sort of pseudo-mmo kind of thing, firmly embedded in the web interface, with drop down menus letting you select your attacks, and page refreshes for every new area. Play: Kingdom of Loathing | Release date: 2003 | Developer: Asymmetric Publications