Nightmares and Narrative; A Hastily Scrawled Note From Echo Bazaar

The world of free social MMOGs isn't exactly small. There are the big ones, the multi-million dollar ones, like Farmville. And then there are your smaller social experiences, like Echo Bazaar. Made by London based developer FailBetter Games, Echo Bazaar is one of the few online games to use Twitter as its platform.

For a set-up, it's quite a concept. London is the fifth in a line of cities that has been stolen, dragged below the very surface of the Earth by bats to play host to a mysterious marketplace, the eponymous Echo Bazaar. You take the role of a newcomer to the city, but, as is so often the case in these scenarios, you start off in jail. After escaping you are given free reign over your story.

Echo Bazaar is, at it's heart, a choose-your-own-adventure book. You read the storylet set-up, and then choose your option. A basic stat-check takes place, and you either succeed or fail. It is this simple design that makes EB such a success. The enjoyment found in the game is in the narrative, not the gameplay. Whilst other social games force you to find rewards in selling your watermelon harvest, EB rewards you with a beautifully scripted story, and a development to your character.

The dark humour of the storylets is wonderful, and the world sculpted magnificently. One of the things that I enjoyed is how you are dropped into the world, with no explanation of it. For a time you fumble somewhat blindly with the strange vocabulary dropped into conversation, but slowly you come to recognise these words as the norm, and the city truly feels like your home. This simply technique immerses you in the world so effectively, and yet so subtly.

The character development in EB is also to be noted. You have four primary stats; Dangerous, Watchful, Persuasive and Shadowy, and these all develop as you succeed or fail in the appropriate stat checks. However, it is the Qualities which define who you are. These stats are hidden away in your character sheet, but they allow you a greater understanding of the path you have taken. Some chart your connections with the various factions of the city. Others mark your exploits and the choices you made. Your Quirks label you with qualities you might not desire, but are stuck with due to your choices and failures (or in some cases, successes). It is this almost natural character building that makes EB stand out for me; as opposed to crafting who you wish to be, you are truly defined by your actions.

I cannot claim EB to be perfect. There is somewhat of an element of grinding to be seen when your stats are too low to unlock newer challenges, although it is difficult to avoid this. FailBetter are also constantly added new content, so combined with the four novels worth of content already freely available, grinding will become bearable, if not enjoyable.

Most interestingly, as I finish writing this post, FailBetterGames have announced the launch of a new subscription system, on top of the already present Fate system. The Fate system allows you to purchase more storylets, almost like DLC. The new subscription raises the number of actions per day raised from 70 to 100, which seems fair enough. Non-subscribers, on the other hand, are having their actions reduced to 50. I don't feel this is unfair. The subscription is about £4 a month, and I've already gotten hours of free entertainment from the game. I personally would consider subscribing, but it should be interesting to see how the market reacts to it.

Echo Bazaar is quite a unique game. It's social but not to the point of annoyance. It has deep, involving storylines, and a dark, dry sense of humour. It's also free for the most part. Immersive games are often thought of to have to be visually arresting as well as well structured; EB only needs the one. I have never been drawn into a world so much that I willing drove my character insane in order to progess a storyline.

Assassins Of Future Past

Ubisoft have been very clever with the design of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Not only is the Animus one of the most original framing devices used as a novel game interface, it also allows a great deal of choice in selecting the setting for any future games. It's a hot topic on forums across the internet as to the time period and location of AC3, so today I'm going to have a look at the top suggestions as to where the game might go next, and comment on their likelihood.

Feudal Japan; This one has been going about for a couple of years now, and I don't see why it couldn't work. I think a lot of people would like to see an Assassin running about with a katana, and the architecture in Japan does lend itself to free-running. However, it would be quite a challenge to try and work the Templars into this setting, so unless Ubisoft create a new enemy, it seems unlikely we'll be assassinating samurai any time soon.

World War 1/2; Probably the setting that has been asked about the most, I don't think that we'll be seeing either world wars as the background for AC3. For one, the wars have been done so many times in gaming that many gamers are simply bored of them. Another reason is that the addition of automatic weaponry to the series would make gameplay far harder. It's one thing to dodge a bullet fired from a matchlock rifle but to dodge a spray of lead from a machine gun is somewhat stretching belief. Finally, the designers have gone on record saying that it is not a setting they are particularly interested in covering, so I think that it is safe to say we won't be travelling to war-torn Europe in AC3.

The French Revolution; This one has the most force behind it right now, mainly because of the teaser at the end of AC3 mention two symbols appearing only in the time of French Revolution. On the face of it, I can understand why this could be a likely option. Like the games before it, it features a period heavy in conflict, guns aren't so advanced as to make free-running deadly and the Templars could very easily be behind the revolution (or maybe even the Assassins). The only thing that makes me doubt the use of 19th century France is that technology would not have moved on that much from the 16th century. Writing this down, I know it sounds ridiculous, but in an AC game setting, I am at a loss to think of what changes could be made mechanically if it were set in the 19th century.

The Modern (Future) Day; Ever since the not particularly exciting Desmond sections in AC1 and the marginally more exciting bits in AC2 and ACB, the fans have all been asking (and to an extent almost expecting) a Desmond game. Given the way the game are moving, with the constant training of Desmond, it would make logical sense to have the last game in the trilogy (of four) to have him being the ultimate assassin he is destined to be. But again the flaw lies in the gun element; once Abstergo starts rolling out the automatic rifles and shotguns, no amount of eagle vision is going to help. It would be nice to see some more action sequences with Desmond, but I don't think it's realistic, gameplay-wise, to have an entire game of him.

Mayan/Aztec; A while ago now, a news story came out about how AC2 was going to be set in Aztec or Mayan times. Obviously, this never came to pass, but it does seem to make sense as a location. Given the series focus on the 2012 apocalypse, one of the Mesoamerican cultures that originated this idea would make sense. The city of Tenochtitlan would make an ideal location for free running, and would provide a unique setting for any game. The crystal skulls could be interpreted as Pieces of Eden. The time period would also not block the Templars involvement either, as they could arrive in the form of the Conquistadors (although I am aware this has briefly been touched upon in Project Legacy)

So there we are. Of course, it could easily be another time period entirely, and I'm not even mentioning the end of Brotherhood, and my theory that the whole game series is going to turn out to have been experience through Desmond's descendants. But until Ubisoft reveals AC3, I guess we will be left in the proverbial dark.

See y'all next time.