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Playing Echo Bazaar with a screen reader
by Kestrell
It's one of the ironies of my life that I have a degree in media studies and am married to a game designer, yet have only recently found a game which Alexx and I can share with equal enjoyment.
One of the major issues I've had with accessible games is that, while they may be fully accessible to people with disabilities, they aren't really as exciting for non-disabled players to play, not compared to all the other games they could be playing. Isn't it possible, I often ranted, to develop a game environment which from the very beginning is just as fascinating to the disabled player as the nondisabled player?
Echo Bazaar
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/
answers that question.
Echo Bazaar is a highly-decorative text-bassed game set in a pseudo-Victorian city called Fallen London. Most of the gameplay occurs through story fragments referred to as "storylets." To get a sense of what a storylet is, you can read an intro page at
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Home/FindOutMore
and you can read more about Fallen London at
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Home/AboutFallenLondon
The description of Fallen London actually implements one of the ideas I often used in my own thought experiment for an accessible game: due to a catastrophic event, natural light and electricity have become extinct, so everyone exists in a strange subterranean world of perpetual twilight full of uncertain shadows and surreal beings. This not only contributes to the gothic atmosphere of the game, it means that vision is not an entirely reliable sense for distinguishing friends from enemies or safe pursuits from dangerous ones.
How to get started
Go to the Echo Bazaar site
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/
You can also go to Google and enter the phrase "echo bazaar" in the edit field (omit the quotes), then click on the "I'm feeling lucky" button, and this will take you directly to the Echo Bazaar Web site.
To create an account, sign in using your Twitter account username and password, and you will be taken to a page which explains about how Echo Bazaar will be accessing your Twitter account for you to play the game. When you go to the Echo Bazaar Web site in the future, there will be a button right at the top of the page labeled "Sign in with Twitter".
You will also be asked what you wish your username to be on Echo Bazaar and, as this is a social game, you may wish to make this name something which your online friends will recognize when they read it online.
Next, you will create a character, which involves choosing your gender (there is also an option to omit choosing a gender), and choosing a silhouette or "cameo" for your avatar. As befits the gothic Victorian feel of Echo Bazaar, these all have a Victorian appearance, with the female characters having buns in their hair, the glasses and goggles having an old-fashioned look, etc.
Here is a brief description of each cameo, grouped into male, female, and other, labled with the filenames which screen reader users will be able to read (you can change this cameo later by going to your "Me" page and clicking on the link
Preview alternative Cameos):
Male cameos:
1. Beardy: hat sort of like a bowler, only flatter on top. Somewhat unkempt hair and beard.
2. Dorian: cowlick, no beard or hat, magnifying glass.
3. Gent: top hat, fancy moustache.
4. Hunter: flat-topped hat with feather, holding a hunting rifle.
5. Magician: top hat, moustache and beard, glasses.
6. Monk: skinny and undernourished, rat-tail (street urchin, or maybe Jim Hawkins).
7. Skinny: bald, glasses, somewhat mad-scientist looking.
8. Squarejaw: no hat, no beard, fairly average looking.
Female
1. Coquette: long hair, with unkempt strands.
2. Cruella: Hair in a bun, pointy nose and chin, wearing a stole.
3. Fez: short raggedy hair, fez.
4. Goggles: short super-curly hair, goggles.
5. Pirate: tricorn hat, short braids, notched scimitar.
6. Specs: fancy piled-up hair, earring, lorgnette.
7. Sticks: hair in a Chinese bun, with sticks through it, jewelry dangling off
the back.
8. Writer: hair up in a bun, with a few loose strands, quill pen.
Other:
1. Dreads: Straight neck-length hair, holding fingers in front of mouth as if they just popped in a delicacy.
2. Drog2: Bowler hat with daisy and escaping hair strands, pistol.
3. Drogyne: Bald, greatcoat and scarf.
4. Flatcap: Flat cap with escaping hair strands, high collar.
5. Hooded: Sharp edges -- is that a hat? Or maybe you are a golem?
6. Mask: Feathered hair, wearing a renaissance mask with a long nose -- if it
> is a mask.
7. Ninja: Wearing a medieval helmet, sword hilt visible in the back.
8. Zom: Very battered top hat, clothes... and face, what details can be made
> out.
The final step of completing your character is to Leave checked or uncheck the box to decide whether you will tweet the 1st tweet: Tweet this message (once only): "I've gone to Fallen London!
http://www.failbettergames.com/echobazaar
#echobazaar"
Playing the game
Note: The game may seem initially overwhelming to blind users because there are many things you can do to play the game. My advice is to take your time and explore all the tabs and links, read the story snippets, and find some friends to play the game with you. I am not an expert gamer myself, but I am a big fan of great stories, and the main idea behind Echo Bazaar is to move the story along. The game dynamics are very gentle on new and casual gamers, it won't kill your character just because you failed in an action and it won't penalize you for playing for just a few minutes and then walking away to do something else. You can afford to be adventurous and spend time and consideration deciding what characteristics and abilities you want to develop in your character.
Exploring the pages
At the top of every page on Echo Bazaar there are a number of tabs which appear as links.
1. Home: includes a map to show your location, a space called "How are my friends getting on?" (heading 3) which includes a list titled "Invitations for you" have received, accepted, or denied from friends, along with the various things you have received through these invitations, and options regarding when and how you wish Echo Bazaar to send you messages.
2. Me: includes information about your strengths, your Lodgings, your inventory, qualities, ambitions, story, etc.
When you purchase something from the Bazaar, you must return to the "Me" page in order to don, drink, or activate the object. Do this by going to the line
Your Inventory
and then going down the list until you get to theobject you wish to activate ("equip"), and then click on the link for that object.
3. Story: this is the link you click on to begin playing the game. There are many different things you can do on this page, including using the Map, choosing an Opportunity Card, or playing a Storylet, so screen reader users may wish to spend some time exploring before they begin gameplay.
a. Map: Click on Map and it will bring you to a page with links listing the different sections of Fallen London, just click on the link to go there.
b. Opportunity Cards: You will click on one of the Opportunity Cards the first time you play the game.
This is also the first item on the page after the navigation links, and it is in a header 3-size font, so Jaws users can just press the number 3 key to go directly to the line
Click an Opportunity card to play it...
Opportunity Cards may give you loot, offer a chance to follow a special storyline, or impose some new ability or negative action upon your character.
the red-bordered opportunity cards use an action just by viewing them. However, getting these cards is pretty rare, so in the majority of cases merely viewing an opportunity card will not use an action, although you may have to use an action to actually use the card which you have drawn. If you read the filename, you may be able to get a hint at what the card is about, or yu may be able to recognize specific cards by their filenames after a while.
You can play the card by clicking on it, "Discard" the card, or you can keep it in your hand (as your ranks go up you get to have more cards in your hand).
c. Storylets: When you click on a storylet and it opens up a new page, you can again use the 3 key to go directly to the new text on the page.
Continuing with the descriptions of the tabs at the top of the page,
4. Fight: this is for
the Game of Knife and Candle
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Gap/Load?content=%2fMe%2fLanding#
described as "a merry sport of ambush and murder." This adds a combat aspect to the game, but it is only activated if you sign up. Note: I have not tried this and therefore don't know how accessible it is.
5. Bazaar: this is where you go to buy and sell things like clothing, animal companions, potions, and curiosities. Echoes are the currency of the Bazaar. You can also sell objects such as secrets and treasure trove there. You should go there at least once after you have escaped from prison in order to sell your prisoner clothes and manacles so that you don't look suspicious.
6. Fate: fates are a form of experience points which can be used to open particular storylines, be traded for more actions, etc. Fates can be purchased using real money (Google "freemium model" (rhymes with "premium").
Note: When I tried to purchase fates first using my credit card then through an Amazon transaction, I found it to be very difficult and finally asked a sighted person for assistance, so I'm uncertain how accessible the process is. However, you can play the game for free without spending money, and hopefully the payment process will be made more accessible soon.
7. Mysteries
8. Help: This is the final tab/link in the navigational links, so after Help comes the original content of each newly loaded page. This means you can always use Windows find (control + f) and enter the word help then arrow down one line to find the new page content.
Note: If you have helpful suggestions regarding improving accessibility, you can e-mail accessibility@failbettergames.com .
Clicking on help will provide the following:
a. A very short FAQ
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Gap/Load?content=%2fHelp
b. A brief article titled "How to play Echo Bazaar"
http://www.mmorpg-info.org/echo-bazaar/how-to-play-echo-bazaar/
c. A Wiki titled "First Steps"
http://echobazaar.wikidot.com/first-steps-in-detail
which provides many details about the game. If just exploring the game is stressing you out, this is the doc for you, but it also has lots of spoilers about the story.
The Wiki has some flash, so it takes a bit of time to load, and both the article and the Wiki are offsite from Echo Bazaar, and thus open up in new windows.
9. The final element on the page is an area near the bottom which shows snippets of text in a header 5-sized font, so you can press the 5 key to go directly to this snippet, which refreshes often. Also, you can echo this snippet by sending it to your social networks site(s), just click on "Echo this" and then check the refreshed page to add your additional comment, then click on "Echo this" to send the snippet to your social networks. You will get a message
You've echoed this. The Bazaar hears the echo and has refreshed your actions! You can get another refresh in twenty-four hours.
Doing this refreshes your actions to 10, so you may wish to wait to do this until your actions are running low.
10. Actions: These show up as two separate numbers at the top of most pages.
a. Actions10/10
This means you have ten actions you can use and you have used none of them. Playing Opportunity Cards will not use up these actions.
Following this number is a link with the question
Want a second candle?
which will provide options for getting more actions if you run out (every ten actions equals one "candle"). Actions also refresh over short periods of time.
b. Actions left today: 70
This is the total number of actions you can use in a 24-hour period, and these also refresh every 24-hours.
It's one of the ironies of my life that I have a degree in media studies and am married to a game designer, yet have only recently found a game which Alexx and I can share with equal enjoyment.
One of the major issues I've had with accessible games is that, while they may be fully accessible to people with disabilities, they aren't really as exciting for non-disabled players to play, not compared to all the other games they could be playing. Isn't it possible, I often ranted, to develop a game environment which from the very beginning is just as fascinating to the disabled player as the nondisabled player?
Echo Bazaar
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/
answers that question.
Echo Bazaar is a highly-decorative text-bassed game set in a pseudo-Victorian city called Fallen London. Most of the gameplay occurs through story fragments referred to as "storylets." To get a sense of what a storylet is, you can read an intro page at
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Home/FindOutMore
and you can read more about Fallen London at
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Home/AboutFallenLondon
The description of Fallen London actually implements one of the ideas I often used in my own thought experiment for an accessible game: due to a catastrophic event, natural light and electricity have become extinct, so everyone exists in a strange subterranean world of perpetual twilight full of uncertain shadows and surreal beings. This not only contributes to the gothic atmosphere of the game, it means that vision is not an entirely reliable sense for distinguishing friends from enemies or safe pursuits from dangerous ones.
How to get started
Go to the Echo Bazaar site
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/
You can also go to Google and enter the phrase "echo bazaar" in the edit field (omit the quotes), then click on the "I'm feeling lucky" button, and this will take you directly to the Echo Bazaar Web site.
To create an account, sign in using your Twitter account username and password, and you will be taken to a page which explains about how Echo Bazaar will be accessing your Twitter account for you to play the game. When you go to the Echo Bazaar Web site in the future, there will be a button right at the top of the page labeled "Sign in with Twitter".
You will also be asked what you wish your username to be on Echo Bazaar and, as this is a social game, you may wish to make this name something which your online friends will recognize when they read it online.
Next, you will create a character, which involves choosing your gender (there is also an option to omit choosing a gender), and choosing a silhouette or "cameo" for your avatar. As befits the gothic Victorian feel of Echo Bazaar, these all have a Victorian appearance, with the female characters having buns in their hair, the glasses and goggles having an old-fashioned look, etc.
Here is a brief description of each cameo, grouped into male, female, and other, labled with the filenames which screen reader users will be able to read (you can change this cameo later by going to your "Me" page and clicking on the link
Preview alternative Cameos):
Male cameos:
1. Beardy: hat sort of like a bowler, only flatter on top. Somewhat unkempt hair and beard.
2. Dorian: cowlick, no beard or hat, magnifying glass.
3. Gent: top hat, fancy moustache.
4. Hunter: flat-topped hat with feather, holding a hunting rifle.
5. Magician: top hat, moustache and beard, glasses.
6. Monk: skinny and undernourished, rat-tail (street urchin, or maybe Jim Hawkins).
7. Skinny: bald, glasses, somewhat mad-scientist looking.
8. Squarejaw: no hat, no beard, fairly average looking.
Female
1. Coquette: long hair, with unkempt strands.
2. Cruella: Hair in a bun, pointy nose and chin, wearing a stole.
3. Fez: short raggedy hair, fez.
4. Goggles: short super-curly hair, goggles.
5. Pirate: tricorn hat, short braids, notched scimitar.
6. Specs: fancy piled-up hair, earring, lorgnette.
7. Sticks: hair in a Chinese bun, with sticks through it, jewelry dangling off
the back.
8. Writer: hair up in a bun, with a few loose strands, quill pen.
Other:
1. Dreads: Straight neck-length hair, holding fingers in front of mouth as if they just popped in a delicacy.
2. Drog2: Bowler hat with daisy and escaping hair strands, pistol.
3. Drogyne: Bald, greatcoat and scarf.
4. Flatcap: Flat cap with escaping hair strands, high collar.
5. Hooded: Sharp edges -- is that a hat? Or maybe you are a golem?
6. Mask: Feathered hair, wearing a renaissance mask with a long nose -- if it
> is a mask.
7. Ninja: Wearing a medieval helmet, sword hilt visible in the back.
8. Zom: Very battered top hat, clothes... and face, what details can be made
> out.
The final step of completing your character is to Leave checked or uncheck the box to decide whether you will tweet the 1st tweet: Tweet this message (once only): "I've gone to Fallen London!
http://www.failbettergames.com/echobazaar
#echobazaar"
Playing the game
Note: The game may seem initially overwhelming to blind users because there are many things you can do to play the game. My advice is to take your time and explore all the tabs and links, read the story snippets, and find some friends to play the game with you. I am not an expert gamer myself, but I am a big fan of great stories, and the main idea behind Echo Bazaar is to move the story along. The game dynamics are very gentle on new and casual gamers, it won't kill your character just because you failed in an action and it won't penalize you for playing for just a few minutes and then walking away to do something else. You can afford to be adventurous and spend time and consideration deciding what characteristics and abilities you want to develop in your character.
Exploring the pages
At the top of every page on Echo Bazaar there are a number of tabs which appear as links.
1. Home: includes a map to show your location, a space called "How are my friends getting on?" (heading 3) which includes a list titled "Invitations for you" have received, accepted, or denied from friends, along with the various things you have received through these invitations, and options regarding when and how you wish Echo Bazaar to send you messages.
2. Me: includes information about your strengths, your Lodgings, your inventory, qualities, ambitions, story, etc.
When you purchase something from the Bazaar, you must return to the "Me" page in order to don, drink, or activate the object. Do this by going to the line
Your Inventory
and then going down the list until you get to theobject you wish to activate ("equip"), and then click on the link for that object.
3. Story: this is the link you click on to begin playing the game. There are many different things you can do on this page, including using the Map, choosing an Opportunity Card, or playing a Storylet, so screen reader users may wish to spend some time exploring before they begin gameplay.
a. Map: Click on Map and it will bring you to a page with links listing the different sections of Fallen London, just click on the link to go there.
b. Opportunity Cards: You will click on one of the Opportunity Cards the first time you play the game.
This is also the first item on the page after the navigation links, and it is in a header 3-size font, so Jaws users can just press the number 3 key to go directly to the line
Click an Opportunity card to play it...
Opportunity Cards may give you loot, offer a chance to follow a special storyline, or impose some new ability or negative action upon your character.
the red-bordered opportunity cards use an action just by viewing them. However, getting these cards is pretty rare, so in the majority of cases merely viewing an opportunity card will not use an action, although you may have to use an action to actually use the card which you have drawn. If you read the filename, you may be able to get a hint at what the card is about, or yu may be able to recognize specific cards by their filenames after a while.
You can play the card by clicking on it, "Discard" the card, or you can keep it in your hand (as your ranks go up you get to have more cards in your hand).
c. Storylets: When you click on a storylet and it opens up a new page, you can again use the 3 key to go directly to the new text on the page.
Continuing with the descriptions of the tabs at the top of the page,
4. Fight: this is for
the Game of Knife and Candle
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Gap/Load?content=%2fMe%2fLanding#
described as "a merry sport of ambush and murder." This adds a combat aspect to the game, but it is only activated if you sign up. Note: I have not tried this and therefore don't know how accessible it is.
5. Bazaar: this is where you go to buy and sell things like clothing, animal companions, potions, and curiosities. Echoes are the currency of the Bazaar. You can also sell objects such as secrets and treasure trove there. You should go there at least once after you have escaped from prison in order to sell your prisoner clothes and manacles so that you don't look suspicious.
6. Fate: fates are a form of experience points which can be used to open particular storylines, be traded for more actions, etc. Fates can be purchased using real money (Google "freemium model" (rhymes with "premium").
Note: When I tried to purchase fates first using my credit card then through an Amazon transaction, I found it to be very difficult and finally asked a sighted person for assistance, so I'm uncertain how accessible the process is. However, you can play the game for free without spending money, and hopefully the payment process will be made more accessible soon.
7. Mysteries
8. Help: This is the final tab/link in the navigational links, so after Help comes the original content of each newly loaded page. This means you can always use Windows find (control + f) and enter the word help then arrow down one line to find the new page content.
Note: If you have helpful suggestions regarding improving accessibility, you can e-mail accessibility@failbettergames.com .
Clicking on help will provide the following:
a. A very short FAQ
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Gap/Load?content=%2fHelp
b. A brief article titled "How to play Echo Bazaar"
http://www.mmorpg-info.org/echo-bazaar/how-to-play-echo-bazaar/
c. A Wiki titled "First Steps"
http://echobazaar.wikidot.com/first-steps-in-detail
which provides many details about the game. If just exploring the game is stressing you out, this is the doc for you, but it also has lots of spoilers about the story.
The Wiki has some flash, so it takes a bit of time to load, and both the article and the Wiki are offsite from Echo Bazaar, and thus open up in new windows.
9. The final element on the page is an area near the bottom which shows snippets of text in a header 5-sized font, so you can press the 5 key to go directly to this snippet, which refreshes often. Also, you can echo this snippet by sending it to your social networks site(s), just click on "Echo this" and then check the refreshed page to add your additional comment, then click on "Echo this" to send the snippet to your social networks. You will get a message
You've echoed this. The Bazaar hears the echo and has refreshed your actions! You can get another refresh in twenty-four hours.
Doing this refreshes your actions to 10, so you may wish to wait to do this until your actions are running low.
10. Actions: These show up as two separate numbers at the top of most pages.
a. Actions10/10
This means you have ten actions you can use and you have used none of them. Playing Opportunity Cards will not use up these actions.
Following this number is a link with the question
Want a second candle?
which will provide options for getting more actions if you run out (every ten actions equals one "candle"). Actions also refresh over short periods of time.
b. Actions left today: 70
This is the total number of actions you can use in a 24-hour period, and these also refresh every 24-hours.