Echo Bazaar ditches Facebook

That headline is misleading in a couple of ways. First, the game Echo Bazaar, a cannily uncanny union of writing, RPGing, and world building, is no longer called Echo Bazaar. Now it’s called Fallen London, after the name of the place where it’s been set all along. Good move.

Second, they didn’t really ditch Facebook so much as make it optional, which is a great move considering the developers have always been suitably sheepish about hitching their work to social networking. Now you can play Echo Bazaar…err, I mean, now you can play Fallen London by simply registering an email account here. However, the optional social elements of the game — the multiplayer, if you will — are still tied to Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps as the developers develop Fallen London’s nascent clique system, it will make Facebook and Twitter even more optional.

And because it wouldn’t be Fallen London without some great prose, here’s the little snippet of lore that appeared on the side of my screen while I risked scandal by gossiping with the Melancholy Curate’s servants to get information on his Enigmatic Sister.

You can study many things at the University of London. The Department of Cryptozoology studies the small, hidden creatures of the Neath. Creatures that have never been seen, but almost certainly exist. Under the right circumstances. Hopefully. Otherwise, the Department might lose its budget.