So, what's this 'Fallen London about then eh?'

Fallen London
1

So I’ve been trying to get a couple of mates into Fallen London to no avail for a while now - given up on them. One just likes to watch the occassional ‘let’s play’ of it - my incredulity hit 11 at that as the idea of watching a let’s play of fallen london seemed as out-there as being eaten by space walruses - why on earth would anyone choose to do that and why would anyone post that on youtube?

Dumbfounded.

Anyhoo, back to the matter at hand - another couple of friends did I meet and I tried to extol the virtues of ‘playing’ (or experiencing, or confabulating) this wondrous work and I must admit I found it quite hard to pitch - victorian, weird, London stole by bats, I love it - were words and phrases that were uttered but it became obvious I am not a salesman by nature or by heart, and to be fair Fallen London is a real bitch to explain when I don’t understand most of it myself :D

So.

Can anyone give a succinct sales-pitch for Fallen London that I can point my friends at so they may also enjoy the Neath and all the wonders and miseries and joys and whatnot?

2

If you like reading, play it.

…That’s it. That’s all I got. If your friends don’t like to read I’m not sure a longer sales pitch will do it.

3

You could borrow directly from the log in page:

&quotDiscover a dark and hilarious Gothic underworld where all your actions have consequences. And did we mention it’s free?

Welcome. Delicious friend.&quot

4

Fallen London is fun, but without the Forums to enrich the experience, I suspect I would have stopped playing years ago.

5

i enjoyed a considerable success with getting my friends to play FL when bringing up the bizzare macabresque and horror that happens ocassionally; the turpism of a romance with the mummified smuggler, the subtle creepiness of the missing heiress storyline, the being burried alive and the red honey, and of course, the seeking. nothing is as attention-grabbing as &quotmurder&quot and &quotbetrayal&quot and &quotcannibalism&quot. especially &quotcannibalism&quot.

but then again, i have plenty friends of highly specialised tastes. normally the phrase &quotevil capitalistic bats from space&quot works universally. if not, then describe your favourite themes or storylines, or the themes or storylines you think your friends might be especially interested in. citing your favourite quotes to showcase how good and worth-the-grind the writing is, is also a good way to get people interested. and of course, be enthusiastic because enthusiasm is highly contagious (;

6

Basically, what Kylestien said above: FL is much more a Readers’ Game than a Gamers’ Game, so to speak. If you have friends who devour weird fiction of any kind, point them here. If you meet someone lamenting the dearth of good CYOA fiction for adults, insist they make an account immediately.

The last thing is what drew me here, years ago. A friend explained that there was &quotthis entirely text-based browser game that’s basically like a huge CYOA-style novel&quot and of course I had to check that out.

7

I just like logging in to a medium complexity optimization game with some decent writing here and there.

8

Come on down to the Fallen London Forums, where we rival Dwarf Fortress’s Forums in absurdity.

Just ask any of the locals! Let’s see… there are in-game characters who have one post each, some dude named after actual content in the game, a pupper with a top hat, a metric ton of ‘Seekers’ (whatever that means!) and literally a pokemon.

And every has a backstory! That’s right! Everyone gets one.

9

Me too! Well I’ve only been playing for a year, but still.