(no subject)

[little_lady_d]

echo bazaar belongs to a particular genre of casual browser gaming -- you have a number of turns, which refresh periodically, to complete a number of actions. other actions unlock depending upon the actions you take, as well as upon statistics that build as you play. unlike a tabletop or video game you'd have to sit down with, it's not meant to be a definite time commitment. (i realized this when i realized i was playing it wrong -- i'm too much in the mindset of grinding through a game when i want new content, but there are gameplay constraints to discourage this.) it's something you play now and then, throughout the day, to kill time between slots of your busy schedule.

i've gotten into games like this before, then abandoned them once they become too repetitive. but the games i played weren't about anything -- i was a mafia boss, or a cowboy, but not a character, and my actions didn't constitute a story. story is echo bazaar's bread-and-butter. nearly everything's under the story tab -- you have story qualities, you complete storylets. and that lets echo bazaar accomplish something the other browser games i played didn't. echo bazaar makes me think.

not long ago, i talked to gileonnen about ludonarrative dissonance, a term that's thrown about in the critical gaming community, coined in a critique of bioshock. in the critique, it refers to a conflict between the game's ludic contract -- 'seek power, see to your own self-interest, and you'll progress' -- and what its narrative presents -- 'help others, make sacrifices, and you'll progress.' it's a step, i think, in an argument i've been trying to construct that gameplay and interactivity are tools for an artist, that they're in themselves capable of aesthetic and artistic expression. story and gameplay can come into conflict only if gameplay is saying something itself. i've started using 'ludonarrative harmony' to refer to the opposite: when gameplay and story work together in a way that's suiting, even beautiful.

echobazaar offers a possible example of ludonarrative harmony. it's a game about ... mysteries. secrets. standing under the hangman's arch, listening to the women gossip, or studying a candle-flame through a nephrite lens and glimpsing the faces of people you know. you catch names like the brass embassy, the tomb-colonists, or the rubbery men before you know what any of them mean. what the hell is a starveling cat? (it knows what we think! and we don't -- like -- that!) so of course it comes to you in bits, in fragments and echoes on your twitterfeed. and even though i've avoided getting twitter, it's the perfect medium: inbetween 140 pieces of of someone's day, you find hints of a fallen london. it works.

some other thoughts. in an episode of the retronauts podcast, one of the speakers tentatively defined survival horror as a genre of games in which dread is a central gameplay conceit -- that is to say, overcoming your fear of the game is part of the challenge to progressing in the game. i think echo bazaar has a twist on this. the major, if not central, gameplay conceits are dread and intrigue.

it comes across in the nightmare quality and cards especially. the game warns you not to let the severity of your nightmares reach 8, and that bad things will happen at 5. but the cards are so well-written, so evocative, and as the recurring dream story progresses i can't help but wonder what it's progressing towards. i wonder what happens when my nightmares become too much for me, but i wonder what happens if they don't. the challenge is in balancing curiosity with fear, when there's a card i haven't seen and my nightmare's at 7. what if this is the card that reveals everything? what if this is the card that drives me to the madhouse?

and some of nightmares are actually quite frightening. all of them are unnerving, but look at this:

You dream you're flinging books happily on the Stolen River, the one they used to call the Thames. The river is on fire! Flames leap higher than the houses on either side. Every time you throw another book on, there is a flare of coloured light, like a firework, and a puff of sweet-scented smoke. You look down and realise with horror that you've run out books: you are flinging your clothes on to the fire. When your clothes are gone, you begin peeling off skin and throwing that. You wake before it goes very much further.

no wonder confession spreads nightmares.

i've also some thoughts on character development, social grind games, and role-playing, but this is post is long enough, i think. until later, delicious friends!

Comments

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

Is it horrible of me that I've been resisting because I am terrified of Twitter? >_>;;

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

so am i, believe it or not! ^^; i don't know if your terror is the same as mine -- but it's not so bad, just using it for echoing. and light role-playing. my god, i've been sucked in.

... oh, and puella_nerdi maintains a role-playing community! deliciousfriend. i joined it.

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

I know she does! But I am still afraid, because. Twitter. IT LOOKS SO FLIP. HOW CAN I SAY ANYTHING OF ANY IMPORT IN 140 CHARACTERS.

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

you can think of it challenge, like writing photofic! ... except i always failed at photofic. well, don't think of it as a challenge, just follow me and play chess with me!

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

... chess?

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

gameplay mechanic explanation! each location offers its own set of storylets, which you select to increase your statistics or get rewards or just read whatever bits of text intrigue you the most. at your lodgings, you can invite other players over for dinner or a game of chess, which is a stat increase for you both, and a source of confident smiles and sudden insights -- they help you in stat checks by giving you a second chance, like a re-roll. my character is a watchful character so she plays lots of chess. i've even role-played it a little. (http://community.livejournal.com/deliciousfriend/891.html?thread=446075#t446075)

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

Oh, Delphina's a dear! Thank you very much.

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

aww, i didn't expect a thank you! you're welcome. ^_^ it's nice having an outlet for this character i'm developing.