The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So apparently May is now “Wacky KoL Experiment May.” Or so it’s been said. The last one got generally bad reviews for being much, much too restricted! But this one, this one is going to be good, right? Maybe?

Well, it certainly was new.

There were actually two IoTMs this month. One was the Clan VIP Lounge Invitation, and the other was a piece of furniture for said lounge, a Pool Table.

There are some issues.

One, paying a Mr. Accessory for the Lounge Key seems like a decent investment. You automagically get access to a hot tub which does crazy HP healing 5 times a day, as well as a brand new Mr. Klaw machine which, while dispensing a bunch of silly, fun things, also can dispense a new familiar as well as a piece of gear that, if gotten on day one, would be extremely relevant. But that’s just it. It’s being put forth as an investment. You’re getting this with the promise that there will be more furniture for you to use and get benefits from. But on the radio show, Jick was talking about how it would kind of kill their revenue to actually make another piece of IoTM furniture, looking at the current numbers. Will it happen? I don’t know. Still, the healing in Hardcore is relevant enough for anyone wanting to be serious to pony up for that.

Two is the pool table itself. It costs 3 Mr. A’s, which is a huge expense if you’re on your own. It’s obviously not meant to be gotten that way, of course, as it’s for the clan, and is meant to be used by multiple people constantly. I pitched in a Mr. A for ours. But, of course, then there’s the issue of the Clans. Mr. Store stuff can’t disappear, right? But an empty clan does disappear, and clan-hopping is very important if you’re going to do a lot of Hobopolis runs. I haven’t heard confirmation that your clan would stick around, and hell, nobody is going to test that kind of thing with this expensive of an IoTM. I also feel like there should be a more straightforward way for multiple people to chip in for the table, if that’s the idea. I mean, I have no problem giving a Mr. A to Cris or Val and having them buy it, and I’m not in it for the glory. At the same time, it seems kinda silly that it commemorates who placed the table in the clan when that person probably didn’t pay for all of it, and perhaps not even for most of it. There’s something not optimal to how that works.
As far as the pool table itself goes, I’m pretty happy with it as something I paid 1 Mr. A for. Basically, it gives you some useful buffs 3 times a day, and you can choose which ones you get. Speedsters are going to love Hustin’, and I’m going to probably enjoy Mental A-cue-ity once I get back into normal things. There’s also a metagame where you play pool against people and rack up winning streaks, which goes on a leaderboard. There’s some talk about it being a rock-paper-scissors game, based on the buffs you pick, to beat people, but I don’t think anyone knows for sure yet. Either way, that kind of interaction with other players is something I’m for, though I would have preferred something a bit more interactive. It also would have been nice to have more detailed record-keeping of your own playing. I’d like to see my horrible win/loss record against Val or whatever, instead of just what my longest streak was and how it matches up with my clannies.

Either way, both seem worth getting yourself access to, since they do give tangible benefits and aren’t taking up a slot that could be filled by something else, since it’s an entirely new mechanic. Will it be expanded farther? I don’t know. We’ll see. There’s certainly a lot of potential in clan furniture, but I think there’s a lot of things that could stand to be worked out or stated clearly. Still, I’m not too unhappy with my 2 Mr. A’s of investment this month. Yep.