I also agree with the OP. I went ahead and bought the loot pack to help support the game, but here is my problem with the bunny slippers.
1) They break game immersion for me. As mentioned earlier it's a dark and apocalyptic game world. Bunny slippers and giant lollipops just don't give me that feel. I would rather only have serious items. I came across the my little pony gag, and it was less obvious. Still slightly irritating but not nearly as much as this. The giant lollipop reminds me more of Wreck-it Ralph than fallen enchantress. It's hard to imagine my character is really locked in a struggle to rebuild this broken world when he/she is wearing bunny slippers and is carrying a giant lollipop.
2) They don't match the narrative tone of the other items in the game. It'd be like watching a Game of Thrones, and then instead of having the red wedding happen the way it currently did in the TV show, instead it turned into a Monty Pythonesq food fight with wacky music, etc. It'd be like watching Schindler's List, and then half-way through the movie the characters start busting out broadway showtunes. It'd be like watching Aliens, and during the last major pitched battle when the aliens busted through the ceiling, instead of the battle, the aliens busted through the ceiling wearing party hats, and had a birthday party for Ripley.
3) Those two items had an opportunity cost. No matter how many expansions, patches and DLCs that StarDock produces for the game, there will still be a finite amount of items, quests, heroes, buildings, etc. Each time a gag appears in the game, it resulted in the loss of some production time on a real item. Maybe if stardock didn't make the bunny slippers and giant lollipop, it wouldn't have resulted in a new pair of boots and battle axe, but maybe there would have been one more serious item.
4) If they are joke items, they should be funny right? Well, I didn't get a laugh out of them. I think if you wanted to have a joke item you could have made them funnier. I'm sure there could have been a funnier item. Maybe one so humorous, that I would laugh, guffaw, nearly cry because I laughed so hard, and then forgive the complaints listed above and move on.
Granted this isn't the first time that there has been "humor" in either this game or stardock products. However, I think you guys are far better at crafting serious worlds than telling jokes. That's why I keep coming back to your games, because the serious parts are really enjoyable. Most of the time I see something "funny" in a stardock game (well just galciv and elemental) it feels like it came out of a copy of "101 bad jokes my Dungeons and Dragons Game Master told me." Sigh.
I grudgingly gave you my 4.99 for this loot pack today since I'm worried that this will be see as support for more joke items. No this money is support for the 31 more serious items and the game in general. Though, even 33 items seems a little light. An even 50, with more of a spread across the power spectrum, and no joke items would have made me 95% satisfied. Right now I'm around 70-75% satisfied.
I saw somebody else suggest suggest a Muchkin power pack DLC full of joke items. If you must do joke, silly and the zaniest items around, I'd rather you do it like that. However, before you make that, remember my complaint number 3, opportunity cost.
If anyone from stardock reads this, please take this as constructive criticism. Seeing as how I paid money for the loot pack, I feel like I can give you feedback on what would improve future DLCs, making my purchases more likely.
