Happily, I managed to ascend again in the Kingdom of Loathing. This would be my 15th ascension and not even remotely my fastest. But, still, 30 day hardcore ascension is nothing to sneeze at since I took over double that the first two times. The key part is that I still really enjoy the game and every morning, first thing, I get online to burn through my turns.

Though, I kind of rushed the ascension itself because I was running late to work. Ended up being a "just one more thing" type of morning. Going to be worse in the new house (week from Wednesday!) because I think I'm 10-15 minutes further from work which means I'll need to get up twenty minutes earlier to get my fix in.

I play in the morning for a few reasons. One is lag. There are about a thousand or so players on in the morning, but close to three or four when I get home from work. That can turn a twenty minute burn into an hour game, simply from the load on the servers. And during Crimbo, their christmas holiday, an evening play is three or four hours. The other reason is because it lets my brain wake up, like coffee.

Yeah, right.

KoL is one of those games for me. It triggers a desire to complete the game, either to get all the items or to experience all the plots, but also has enough pattern to the play that it doesn't require a lot of effort to really appreciate.

It also gets my creative juices flowing. Not that I think I could do a better job, Jick and company are a lot better a humor, but it makes me wonder if I could write a game that is as simple, yet enjoyable, as this game is to me. And, in those moments when I'm not really doing anything, I work on plans for my version of the game. If only to see if I could write a Good Game™

And, to write a game requires a good commitment. Something I've been whining about the last few months about not having time for anything. It is easy to start new projects, hard to do them right and get to a finishing point. A game like this, it really doesn't have an end, if done right. In fact, it would be an evergreen project.

Still, fun to dream about. And while I do, I fire up the game every morning for my twenty minutes of meat, booze, and the quest for every (useful) hardcore permanent skill.