It's why the "addressed as" quality for the ambiguously gendered is: 'si- er, mad- er, yes', which is pretty good estimation of what a polite reaction in setting would be

Well congratulations, you get the satisfaction of knowing you did a good deed- the ultimate cop out reward. :P

For the record, those links basically boil down to this:

"We fudged it, that may or may not make the setting anodyne. We did it because people complained."

To the second, I agree that we have lost some of the flavour of Victorian London. But we've never made a serious virtue of historical realism, and one too many people mailed me to say [I paraphrase] 'look, I like your game, but when I see that word used in that way, it makes me feel like I don't belong here.' In the end, that's the important thing.

Y'know, it's more than a little odd to me that in game lore clearly states that women are very much still on the margins of society, and yet homosexuality and the ambiguously gendered are accepted... in the 1890s.

And I can't speak for what "one" feels, I'm simply voicing my opinions. The fact that anything remotely contentious automatically provokes dozens of defensive replies and countless downvotes in this forum may or may not have anything to do with that anodyne quality mentioned earlier. Just a thought.

Huh...

Y'know, it's more than a little odd to me that in game lore clearly states that women are very much still on the margins of society, and yet homosexuality and the ambiguously gendered are accepted... in the 1890s.

(Somehow I have a hard time imagining a Victorian barkeep unironically using the word "themself" when referring to a patron.)

This "Farewell to Connected: The Orient" and "The Mysterious and Indistinct Art of Pronouns", as well as tangentially "SLIGHTLY BREAKING: same-sex marriage legal in Fallen London from Alexis Kennedy offers some insight into the way that Fallen London has approached the careful balance between its Victorian setting and its contemporary audience.

So of course I had to slog through the, ah, spectacle of the first two pages of this thread.

I love it already, but I stopped halfway because I'm not sure whether to take the ratling with me or not! I don't want to come back to London to a grieving rat mother. Can anyone PM me with info on how tragic this is going to get?

• If you return to the cliffside workshop after leaving the first time but before fighting the Stalker, it retriggers the Dark Conversation, even if you've already dismissed the Grieving Zailor.
• After defeating the Stalker, the Airs quality disappears, preventing further exploration of the island.
• Some travel options cost no actions, while some do. There's no discernable difference between them as far as I can tell.

Can anyone tell me what is up with Daylight? I didn't take the Ratling or the zailor, so I don't know what is Mr Socks, the Stalker, and how it relates to Parabola. I don't know why the zailor is angry at me for blowing it up, and wht Daylight is so bright. Can anyone elaborate?

• The beginning of the story felt very linear with little player agency. The narrative simply assumes my character will help the Zailor; there's no point at which my character's motivations are brought up. My character would definitely help out of altruism, or out of interest in the Imaginator's work, or curiosity once the details of Daylight come up... but I'm never given the chance to decide so.
• The Zailor has very little characterization other than missing the Imaginator. At the end, he gets angry at me for killing the monster, when the story previously implied that letting him help against the monster might get him killed. That's it. This compounds the lack of player agency, as I have no investment in helping him even out of character.
• There's not much characterization of the Imaginator either, which makes sense when we meet them in the present, but we know little about their past self either. They were very creative and that's it, apparently?
• Really, the Ratling is the only character I found at all interesting, and she isn't significant enough to carry the story on her own. Not surprising, given you can leave her out entirely, but disappointing.
• While exploring Daylight, there's little sense of progress. We have to obtain three qualities to reach the Imaginator, but there's no reason given for this. As such, we just wander aimlessly around the island until we stumble across what's needed to progress. We also randomly acquire and use other qualities, but these are often confusing. I haven't heard of anyone finding the rat key, nor was it ever clear what inspiration did, and we pick up items like Mr Sock just because. There's very little story impact in this section, and we do nothing to change the island's environment.
• Wandering the island is an action sink. We have to spend an action every time we visit a new location, and without a clear sense of where to go, it adds up fast. Those travel options really need to be free. This is especially egregious when:
• After fighting the Stalker, we can revisit areas freely, but there's nothing to do there. In fact, there's so little to do that all of the earlier options are gone! We just spend an action to see text we've already seen and get redirected back to the main island storylet. Absolutely nothing has changed, but we neither get to keep exploring in detail nor for our characters to examine old areas with fresh eyes and knowledge.
• The Stalker is just... there. It's taken for granted. We learn from the rats that a monster exists, then it's ignored until it potentially attacks, at which point we just run away. After meeting the Imaginator, it attacks again and we destroy it, then its gone. Any learning about it is incidental—we destroy it without needing to figure out weaknesses, then never wonder about it again. Apparently it's an ushabti controlled by a Fingerking: although we have no idea where it came from, why an ushabti looks like that, or how on earth this can happen when we're not in Parabola. Our characters simply do not care.
• Likewise, not only do we never find out how Daylight is illuminated, but we are never even invited to consider it. We get there, the island is bright, that's it. The writing never questions it.
• There just weren't any narratively significant choices. We decide whether to bring the Ratling along, but her presence changes little. We wander an island, meet the Imaginator, then destroy a monster. We decide whether the reunited Zailor and Imaginator should return home, but there's no conflict between the two. We're given no reason to think the outcome will be any different. The player character exists to facilitate the plot, not to have any say in events.

silurica wrote:

On the topic of queer romance, off the top of my head we have...

Much obliged, friend, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for these people. <3

For those who care about such things, what were your reasons for taking the Precocious Ratling with you, motivation-wise? I feel like taking a young child with me to a place they had just escaped from because of some unseen danger is dangerously irresponsible, but then, I don't want to miss out on any great content because of that hang-up...

When you order a drink, a scoff from the dark lets you know you're drinking with company.

• The Zailor is given too much narrative importance with respect to his role. He's supposed to be the former love interest of the Imaginator and the driving force of the story, but he's kept in the periphery. He's not even the one who can convince the Imaginator to leave Daylight - there's no chemistry left there, and I think that's potentially powerful - love fades, after all. It's just that there's not enough to characterize the Zailor in a way that he can carry the story. By giving players a more direct connection to the Imaginator, the importance of the Zailor is de-emphasized, allowing for a stronger core story.
  
  
• The Rattus Faber are too peripheral. It says something that you even have the choice to not bring along the Precocious Ratling - if Daylight had no rats, the plot would not change significantly. Without making more substantial edits to the story, then, it would make sense to connect the Rattus Faber to the theme of waning creativity and depression by making them represent external creative force in a more benevolent sense than the external creativity offered by the Bauble.

This "Farewell to Connected: The Orient" and "The Mysterious and Indistinct Art of Pronouns", as well as tangentially "SLIGHTLY BREAKING: same-sex marriage legal in Fallen London from Alexis Kennedy offers some insight into the way that Fallen London has approached the careful balance between its Victorian setting and its contemporary audience. The trend has essentially been towards (1) increased player choice and (2) greater equality in the setting.

Azothi wrote:

Tom Davidson wrote:

Out of interest, did anyone actually find a key? That was the one piece of content I missed out on, and I can't help wondering if that contributed to the ending feeling more than a little incomplete.

I didn't either, and I've been unable to return to the rat village to search more because raising the Hunted quality to 2 after finishing up in the workshop automatically triggers the Stalker fight. My best guess right now is that it's a rare success on searching the houses.

If you defeat the monster, you're free to explore any part of the island you want without cycling Airs. I left without looking for another key, though. It might be related to a choice back in London, such as possibly if you didn't take the ratling with you. If anyone found a key themselves, please speak up.