The online game I'm playing now.

[xiphias]

I'd heard about Echo Bazaar first from kestrel, I think.

Before I go further, let me say that, in order to play this game, you are required to log in through either Facebook or Twitter. I know that there are some of you who are philosophically opposed to having an account on either service, so I'll just say up front that you're not going to be able to play this game. They have their own reasons for making that choice; I think we can all agree that, whether we agree with that choice, it's their choice to make. For me, I'd rather have been able to avoid doing so, but I choose to log in through Facebook.

So, what IS the game? In its basic form, it is similar to Kingdom of Loathing: you have a certain number of actions per day, and each of those actions is a little adventure. In KoL, most of those actions are going to be combats with various creatures, along with other things you can do; the "Storylets" are more widespread.

One of the first things I heard about this game was how egalitarian it is. The game designers try mot to make any assumptions about what kind of characters people are going to want to play. The first delightful thing you encounter is in character creation, in which you are given three options for what sex you wish your character to be: "A gentleman", "A lady", and "My dear sir, there are individuals roaming the streets of Fallen London at this very moment with the faces of squid! Squid! Do you ask them their gender? And yet you waste our time asking me trifling and impertinent questions about mine? It is my own business, sir, and I bid you good day."

After that, I don't know that it's ever referred to again, except on your character sheet. If you encounter a Storylet about a romantic encounter, you may play it or not as you choose, regardless of your character's gender, and the gender of the NPC. Romance plotline storylets appear to feature male and female NPCs about equally, and a few in which the gender isn't really specified.

Your character picture is a silhouette -- which means that it could be whatever skin color you'd like it to be.

Do they always succeed in being inclusive and not assuming things about the characters? No, not always. But they have requested that, if you find a blind spot that they've tripped over, you email them and tell them about it, and they'll try to tweak the storylet to un-oops it.

Okay. So what is the game itself?

Well, the setting information. The website's background is as follows:

1889.
Three decades ago, London was stolen by bats. Dragged deep into the earth by the Echo Bazaar. The sun is gone. All we have is the gas-light of Mr Fires.
But Londoners can get used to anything. And it's quiet down here with the devils and the darkness and the mushroom wine. Peaceful.
But then YOU arrived.
Welcome. Delicious friend.

You have four statistics: Dangerous, Watchful, Persuasive, and Shadowy. Each of your 70 turns per day is a little mini-adventure called a "storylet", consisting of a challenge against one of those statistics. For instance, you may be using your Shadowy statistic to catch a cat, who will then have to let you know some Secrets (which are one of the forms of currency in the game).

There are different locations in Fallen London, each of which has different Storylets associated with them. You go to a location, and you have a selection of little adventures you can have in that place, depending on your statistics, things in your possession, and so forth.

You also have "Opportunity Cards", which are "cards", randomly chosen from a "deck", which give you Storylets that you could play anywhere in Fallen London.

A potential task could be a "straightforward", "low-risk", "modest", "chancy", "high-risk", or "nearly impossible" challenge for one of your statistics. If you choose to attempt the task, you will succeed or fail. Success means that your statistic improves somewhat (the more difficult the task, the more improvement), and you get some other benefit -- items, connections with people, whatever it happens to be.

Failure means that you don't get those other benefits -- but you get even MORE of a statistic improvement than if you'd succeeded. The name of the company that writes the game is "Failbetter Games", and "failing better" is really the basic advancement mechanism for your character.

Some Storylets string together into longer storylines; most are simple one-time encounters.

The final significant thing about playing this game is how they make it addictive, but NOT able to entirely consume your life. You get 70 actions a day -- but you only have 10 actions at a time. Actions refresh 1 action per 7 minutes or so, which means that, basically, the game is designed so that you go ahead and do your job or whatever for an hour, then take a ten minute break and play Echo Bazaar, then go back to your actual life for another hour. You CAN'T really spend more than, say, an hour a day playing Echo Bazaar, and that has to be broken up into chunks over the day. So, by design, it CAN'T take over your life.

Anyway, there are in-game benefits to encouraging your other friends to play. There are Storylets that are only possible to play by inviting a friend to play them with you, for instance. So, I guess I'm encouraging those of you who already use Facebook and/or Twitter, and who think this sounds interesting, and who are interested in a little browser-based game that is NOT all-consuming, to consider trying out the game and seeing if you enjoy it as much as I do.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

welcome, delicious friend!

are you playing via twitter or fb?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Facebook; I don't have a twitter. My account name on Facebook is also Xiphias, but I show up as Ian Osmond, my meat-life name.

[kiya]

I've heard about this thing. You have finally rolled me over into playing it. Also I have sent you a friends request.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Dambit, like pointing me at the interactive fiction archive wasn't bad enough. :P

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this one is self-limiting.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Slightly, but it has high obsessiveness potential.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a very interesting game.

[goljerp]

So is this a facebook app, or do they just use facebook to get your credential/?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Just use FB for credentialling.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

NAgonna! NAgonna!!

[pogodragon.livejournal.com]

I play through Twitter, I am there, as most places, Pogodragon. I shall try to find you, you may be delicious my friend.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Ooh, am intrigued!

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Things were going great until I got pitched BACK into prison. Now I can't seem to get out.

[sev]

you may need to remove all your suspicion-increasing clothing.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I did eventually get the suspicion under control. For a while there it seemed like no matter WHAT I did I just got more sketchy-looking....

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Not on Facebook or twitter - philosophically opposed to twitter, and Facebook to some extent, though I'lll probably have to cave and get a Facebook account at some point.

Like the fail-better mechanic. Hate the pacing. I don't have an hour of time (in one time slot) to spend each day on a new game... but I can conceive of having one, and this sounds like a decent game if I did. On the other hand, I would *hate* to have my day broken up into one hour chucks for something I could only do for ten minutes. I like to work for 2 to 6 hours at a stretch.

Pretty much hate the fact that I live in a culture where more people like that kind of pacing than hate it; it is, pretty much, the same reason I'm philosophically opposed to Facebook and twitter. It allows / supports the short-term and trivial/shallow, and prevents the long term and deep/complex.

Kiralee

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Would you want to play a casual game of that nature for 2-6 hours at a stretch though? I can get immersed in a thing for hours, but not usually games, or not at that level of gaming. I agree too many things seem to need splitting into bite-sized chunks for folk to cope with them, but sometimes its a good thing :)

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Hmm... yes and no...

We game every Sunday from 1-6: usually we play tabletop RPGs, which are meant to be more intense and long running, but on rare occaisons we play boardgames instead, which vary in length from a few hours to 10-20 minutes. It's not that I don't play or enjoy the shorter games; but I tend to think of them as part of the longer term activity of getting together for gaming.

... nor to I expect everyone to want to work in such large blocks of time; I just wish most people preferred activities that took 1-2 hours, with people who like Echo Bazaar pacing, and people who like Kiralee pacing, at opposite extremes of the pacing bell curve.

That doesn't seem to be the case.

Kiralee

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

That sounds a great way to spend a Sunday :) And by casual gaming I meant in the internet sense - I crave the interaction with people as well, so bite size solo games like these are great, I'd enjoy a longer more involved Echo Bazaar game if it had more interaction with other gamers, it would make a great RPG I think. Not sure I'd want to play that format alone for hours on end, though I'm intrigued enough with the storyline and concept it might work..

The assumption that everyone has the attention span of a goldfish on speed does seem to dictate the form things take rather too much, for sure.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Noooooo! Don't cave! There are few enough of us who've eluded the clutches of Facebook thus far. We can't afford to lose one of our number!

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Would you suggest a better place for 'weak-link' networking? The fact that FB supports weak rather than strong links between people is exactly what I don't like about it; but I have to admit the economic necessity of weak links, what the business world calls networking.

Sometime in the next year or so I will be launching a job search. I may not techincally *need* a network to do that, but it's very likely it would help a lot.

Kiralee

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I have a high susceptibility to identity theft and stalking, so I avoid places for weak-link networking like the plague. I'm still amazed that I'm actually on LJ and doing more than simply lurking.

I've heard some people say they've had good luck with Linkedin for professional networking. I haven't checked it out personally, though, so I can't speak to how much control you have over what's shared and with whom.

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

I've heard of Linkedin, but not much. I wish there were some way to find out more, without making myself a target for marketing... identity theft and over-exposure of things one would prefer to keep private are worse problems, but the thing about weak-link social networking that I find most annoying is the (over) exposure to marketing.

Anyway, thanks for the tip.

Kiralee

[aethelflaed2.livejournal.com]

I'm on as aethelflaed through twitter. I've only been playing a couple of days but, I'm enjoying it. I'll try to find you.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

If I read this correctly this is a mix between KoL and Farmville in a steampunk setting. Question: you say you have a 70 ap per day cap, but does the ap save cap also stand at 70 or do you have to spend point to get to that 70 cap? You get 40 ap per day with KoL and can save up to 200 before you stop gathering them. Which means you can not play for 5 days without losing ap. How does that work here?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

70 turns per day is 70 turns per day. There is no carryover.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

I don't like that. Way too much like farmville and not enough like KoL. I don't have twitter or facebook, so I wasn't likely to play anyway, but seels it. I'll stick to KoL instead. :)