fallen off london

[jazzfish]

My love affair with Fallen London lasted almost exactly two weeks, in the following stages:

• Oh, it's free on iOS, may as well check it out.
  
• The writing is kinda fun.
  
• I'll throw a little money their way, support people doing cool things etc.
  
• The app is frustratingly slow for something that's just displaying text and still images.
  
• Yay, an app update fixed much of the slow!
  
• ... which serves to reveal the grind-y underbelly of the game itself.
  
• Bored now.

Verdict: the writing is fun but the gameplay is annoyingly focused around doing the same thing repeatedly. Reading the same fun snippet for the nth time sucks much of the fun out of not only that snippet but the ones around it.

Comments

[okrablossom]

>> Reading the same fun snippet for the nth time sucks much of the fun

Given the names I've heard associated with this, I would have expected them to know that before building the game mechanic. So, just, wow.

Hmm. Or maybe all the names I know associated with this are writers and therefor probably not in control of the game's cyclic nature.

[jazzfish]

That seems likely. :7

My main prior exposure to the game came a few years ago, when I couldn't log on to Twitter without tripping over Starveling Cat doggerel. Presumably it was posted by players who got extra in-game actions for advertising.

... in retrospect that's the kind of scummy games-industry behaviour that I prefer *not* to support, and now I feel icky about having given them any money. I am not a student of advertising, I am the target of it.

[okrablossom]

Well at least you got a cute blog post out of it? :)

[jazzfish]

Small favors. :)