Ah, Fallen London. Ironically, I was introduced to it by a tweet from King of Dragon's Pass creator David Dunham who rarely tweeted about other games, so his apparent endorsement piqued my interest. I spent many happy months (and some not-so-happy months, and lots of purchased Fate) following the various ratholes and paths which were constantly being added to the game. It ultimately got to be too much (have always been more of a tactical than a strategic player), and I never had the guts (or perserverance?) to Seek Mr. Eaten's Name so eventually abandoned it altogether. But regardless of that, this is still one of the most insanely great and unique games in the genre.
I had forgotten about Echo Bazaar's early Twitter days! I've kept up with the game and a few weeks ago got my Hesperidean Cider. The content FBG has put out in the past two years has been my favorite yet (especially the conclusion of my ambition, Heart's Desire). I'm amazed at their ability to put out stable releases with such quality prose at the rate they do, especially considering the other projects they're working on. They recently added some new mechanics that allow for a global, dynamic game state and they've gotten rather creative with it.
Truly it has been a team effort, but I have to say, Aaron: I wish you would have included at least a mention of Alexis as the progenitor of FL, and not instead felt the need to bring up the imbroglio between Weather Factory and current Failbetter in an editor's note. I don't think anyone would have taken that as explicit support for Kennedy. I'm especially wary of 'picking sides' in this situation given Failbetter's silence: if things were so conclusive, the matter would have been resolved by now.
Ah, Fallen London. Ironically, I was introduced to it by a tweet from King of Dragon's Pass creator David Dunham who rarely tweeted about other games, so his apparent endorsement piqued my interest. I spent many happy months (and some not-so-happy months, and lots of purchased Fate) following the various ratholes and paths which were constantly being added to the game. It ultimately got to be too much (have always been more of a tactical than a strategic player), and I never had the guts (or perserverance?) to Seek Mr. Eaten's Name so eventually abandoned it altogether. But regardless of that, this is still one of the most insanely great and unique games in the genre.
Thank you for this. I have now spent a month playing Fallen London and I am utterly smitten. I wish I had found it years ago!
I had forgotten about Echo Bazaar's early Twitter days! I've kept up with the game and a few weeks ago got my Hesperidean Cider. The content FBG has put out in the past two years has been my favorite yet (especially the conclusion of my ambition, Heart's Desire). I'm amazed at their ability to put out stable releases with such quality prose at the rate they do, especially considering the other projects they're working on. They recently added some new mechanics that allow for a global, dynamic game state and they've gotten rather creative with it.
Truly it has been a team effort, but I have to say, Aaron: I wish you would have included at least a mention of Alexis as the progenitor of FL, and not instead felt the need to bring up the imbroglio between Weather Factory and current Failbetter in an editor's note. I don't think anyone would have taken that as explicit support for Kennedy. I'm especially wary of 'picking sides' in this situation given Failbetter's silence: if things were so conclusive, the matter would have been resolved by now.
Alas. Thank you for another excellent write-up.