Playing Godville

Reminder: The next Vote Your Adventure begins on October 7! New to the site? Read The Relic and Site 27.

Who remembers Progress Quest? Anyone? It was a fun, free game where all you had to do was create a character and read. That was it. Progress Quest literally played itself. The human participation was observation only. The text game would run on its own and a small blurb at the bottom would tell you what silly things your hero was fighting and looting and what bizarre items they had equipped on their person. The game was funny and had quite an underground fan base.

Progress Quest now has a fun successor: Godville. The idea is similar, though slightly evolved: each person creates their god name and a follower. The follower (or hero/heroine) runs around on their own, accomplishing quests, fighting things, gathering money and items, and prays to you. They even collect bricks of gold with which to build you a temple. All this, and they do it all on their own. As they run around, you can read in real time what they’re doing to level up and revere you. It’s so silly it’s entertaining.

When your hero has filled their bag with 11 items, they head back to town to sell — and buy exciting new equipment, if possible.

The difference in Godville is that you, the player, now get two whole buttons to play the game with. You can either encourage or punish your follower. This will ultimately affect their personalities. If you punish them a lot, they’re mean and evil, but they deal more damage in battle. If you encourage them a lot, they’re kind and heal more quickly.

At level 7, your hero can have a motto. My heroine’s name is Pink Cupcake, so her motto is “No sprinkles!” (I don’t like sprinkles or sparkling sugar on cupcakes. Their texture with a creamy cake and frosting/fondant topping is off-putting to me. …What? Why are you looking at me like that?) Anyway, PC’s personality is gentle but I’m thinking she needs to deal more damage. I may have to make her evil.

At level 10, you receive a notice that your character has the possibility of interacting with other heroes in the world and may have to fight them. You can also elect to send your heroes to the arena, where they fight an actual hero. If you lose the match, you lose all of your inventory (not your gear) and your money. If you win, you get a gold brick, which goes toward building you a nice big temple.

Phat loots, dude.

If you’re looking for a free game that’s mindlessly entertaining, I suggest you head on over to Godville and register an account. It’s also available for iPhone and Android phones. I strongly recommend it for your phone over the web app.