I went completely blind into Fallen London - I’ve found it by accident in the "Recommended" tab in the Android Appstore - and at first I was pleasantly surprised and played it once or twice a day, then I slowly delved deeper, started playing more often and I started worry about making the "right" choices in order to get the best rewards, mostly. I have a general idea of who my character is, but honestly, the choices I make reflect more on myself than on her.
Then I’ve found this forum and also the fallenlondon wiki and since then, I’ve double and triple and quadruple checked almost everything before making a move. Because I want to make the best choice possible, I’ve spoiled almost everything for me. I’m on the Cheesemonger’s agent quest (level 14) and I already know how it’ll end. I was messing around with the Intimate of a devil quality and now I know that if I don’t want to lock myself out of certain storylets, I should stop. And so on and so on…
It’s a terrible case of perfectionism and I would like to ask: Has anyone else dealt with this problem? Did you learn to let go? Is it okay to let go? How big is the chance to lock myself out of content by not checking the options beforehand?
This may seem like a silly thing for a topic, but I’m kind of ruining my own experience here and I have yet to encounter anything else than a helpful reply, so I’m trying my luck.
Thank you for listening. edited by Lallinka on 11/1/2016
— Intentionally experience the forbidden thrill of missing out. Knowingly miss your chance to upgrade a Hallowmas companion, if you’re particularly bold. Or ease into it by choosing a wasteful path through a story, or locking yourself out of something. This forces you to face the fact that you can’t achieve everything, and to realize that the consequences are actually quite minor and forgettable.
— Set aside your main account for a few weeks. Make a new character, Jenny Pennywaster, and bumble around London making horribly inept choices. Choose a different Ambition path and rediscover how fun it is to read a new story branch and not worry about whether it was optimal.
— Set yourself an unusual goal. You can combine this with the step above, since it’s essentially taking a break from the game-as-intended without leaving your character entirely. Would you like the world’s largest raven collection? Can you take on the entire Black Ribbon duelling society naked with your best friend the Talkative Rattus-Faber? Would you like to spend some time role-playing with your contacts, and devising a game based around mysterious gift results?
I’ve tried all three tactics. My main character has been on a zee voyage for many months, advancing a goal with no in-game benefit. I play a few times a week, on average, in very short sessions. They missed out on the Fruits of the Zee and Hallowmas, both of which had all-new content this year. But I poked around the holidays with my alt, without getting anywhere near the full experience, and surprisingly I feel completely fine about the whole thing. I started playing more than five years ago, so I’m being rather drastic about it. But I recommend a similar relaxation on a smaller scale.
Although this wouldn’t work with every item you miss out on, I do sometimes deal with my “gotta catch 'em all” desire for every companion by telling myself that perhaps certain ones I’m locked out of will be made available to me in the future. Like, maybe someday they’ll make it so you can have more than one Connected Pet (maybe by getting your renown in that faction to a certain level?) or let you keep your previous profession-linked companion/item when you change jobs (would be a powerful motivator for people to try every profession) or bring back the sunlight someday so I can get a Gilded Crustacean, etc.
Maybe they never will, but I like to let myself think there’s a possibility I can get some of them someday. Who knows what the future will bring?
How not to be a completionist ?.. I don’t undertand. Wh… Why ? … Why would you… what… but… I don’t… why do you…
;p I get your feeling. It’s very hard. I got around it by purposely letting go and doing only what my character would do.
It got me North, but it was very satisfying and I now don’t care (almost) about the rewards or owning everything there is to own. It takes time, willpower and a looot of self discipline, but it worked for me and I’m satisfied !
Thank you very much everyone for sharing your experience and advice. I’ll try my hardest to let go and play more “in character”. I’ve finished the Cheesemonger storyline and from now on I vow not to spoil the stories and find out the results for myself and I’ll try to just let go and have more fun.
I think what might help me at first will be just treating whatever outcome I get as the only outcome possible and not look for the other options. Again, thanks everyone to listen to my suffering. Bless you all.
Although I am not a perfectionist/completionist, I do at times, worry that I will be missing out on some important story or bit of text by making one choice instead of the other. One way that I mitigate this–and of course it does not work for all situations–is through the use of a second FL account, an alt. With my alt I feel free to make choices that are sub-optimal or out of character for my main account, since I am not so invested in her.
Heyo! I’m one of the acquaintances you made when you first started. As a PoSI, I personally still use the wiki, but only when I’m hesitating for important decisions. They have nice guides for some aspects of the game too. But it all depends on how you see perfection.
Personally, I hoard useless qualities and items that I’ll never put on my mantelpiece, like "Your Quarry: Wariness" and acquiring the item of every level of the Fidgeting Writer story. It’s just a personal challenge. Still, playing in character is more fun, as it makes you feel like reading a book in which the theme is "desire" and where you can control major decisions.
(Bitter Saker Falcon! Not really. It makes your hunting harder at level 5, but it’s hard to even raise it to 2, near-impossible to 3.)
Also, I’ve seen that you needed some jewels for the cane. Do you still need them or did you already get your cane? I can send you some next time I draw the Give a Gift card if you still want some.
[quote=Fluby]Heyo! I’m one of the acquaintances you made when you first started. As a PoSI, I personally still use the wiki, but only when I’m hesitating for important decisions. They have nice guides for some aspects of the game too. But it all depends on how you see perfection.
Personally, I hoard useless qualities and items that I’ll never put on my mantelpiece, like "Your Quarry: Wariness" and acquiring the item of every level of the Fidgeting Writer story. It’s just a personal challenge. Still, playing in character is more fun, as it makes you feel like reading a book in which the theme is "desire" and where you can control major decisions.
(Bitter Saker Falcon! Not really. It makes your hunting harder at level 5, but it’s hard to even raise it to 2, near-impossible to 3.)
Also, I’ve seen that you needed some jewels for the cane. Do you still need them or did you already get your cane? I can send you some next time I draw the Give a Gift card if you still want some.[/quote]
I recognized your name, I was wondering if you’d recognize mine. It’s nice to know you did :) I already got my cane, but you’re very kind to offer, thank you very much :) Also, thanks for the imput. For now I slowed down, because I felt like I was a bit ahead of my quality levels and now I just focus on my Ambition. It pains me a little that I can’t try all four Ambitions, but I’ve made my peace with the one I’ve chosen and now I’m committed to it.
