Fallen London is a Delicious Time Waster
As a writer I am prone to procrastination. I binge on it. I install a game or Netflix a series, watch/play it for days during which I get nothing done, and then get sick of it and get back to work. It’s not that I’m undisciplined; I just know how these miniature obsessions work. As soon as I understand something well enough to render its base elements — figure out the perfect economic strategy in a simulation game, or figure out the formula in a show to predictive levels, I tire of it and move on.
My latest interest is a browser-game called Fallen London.
Fallen London by Failbetter Games
Fallen London is a story-based browser game by Failbetter Games with a Gothic Victorian fantasy theme. It plays out a bit like a board or card game; you draw story cards, playing them as you see fit. Each card has a bit of evocative prose, and one or more options to choose from, each of which has different potential effects. There are definite RPG elements involved, as your choices will both change your character growth and guide what cards and options are available to you in the future. Cards themselves (called storylets) (as well as the options they offer) are acquired based on your character statistics, your in-game location, and which in-game flags you’ve triggered.
What Makes Fallen London Addictive
Despite acquiring the same cards again and again, there’s not a strong repetitive feeling to playing Fallen London. You definitely feel a sense of progression, not only as your stats improve, but as you move along different plot-lines. The primary reward for these cards is more bits of the narrative… setting detail parceled out in exquisite chunks of well-written prose. This strongly appeals to the writer in me.
In fact, so appealing to it is that while there is an optional real-money marketplace (you buy a resource called Nex), according to the company blogs on the subject the primary purchase isn’t more turns to play, but rather exclusive story options and directions. Quest lines that are not normally available in other ways.
What Makes Fallen London Dangerous
Fallen London is one of those browser-based games where you have a limited bank of turns, and these turns regenerate one every ten minutes. Unless you pay the fee ($5/month) for the upgrade, you cap at ten turns. These turns go quick, but ten minutes passes by quickly.
My original intent was to incorporate playing with the pomodoro time management scheme I use. Write for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break to play my two turns, then back to work. In practice, though, I find myself taking a turn, checking my email, message boards, twitter, etc for ten minutes, then taking another turn.
Again and again.
This is, obviously, a problem, because I’m not sick of the game yet, and I have Dreams of the Damned revisions to finish if I want to get the book out by the end of the month. I’m working on coming up with a system that lets me get the work done that I need.
Come. Play.
Interested in giving the game a shot! Cool. Do me a solid and sign up through my profile. I get bonus turns when you do.
Or better yet, don’t. Go to the game’s page and sign up there. I really should be working.
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