Echo Bazaar, on the other hand, is story based, which is why I like it so much. The experience is slightly different for everyone who plays, depending on your choices. There is a strategy to what you buy and what you sell, where you live, and who you befriend. The non-player characters seem very real, and they pop up in unexpected places. The structure of the game reminds me of those choose your own adventure books I read compulsively when I was about 9-11 years old, except there doesn’t seem to be a “right” choice, as there was in a lot of those books, and this story is MUCH more complex. There isn’t one goal that is better than the others, there are a lot of interesting paths through the content. I am nearing the top of what they have available at this point, and I am seriously considering starting over again with a new character soon. It is entirely possible to play this game with a few different characters and make different choices to see what would happen, and enjoy all of them in different ways.

If you are interested in that kind of thing, the writers’ discussions of narrative engineering on the company blog are fascinating. They discuss the mechanics of the story construction, different methods of game play, and various ways to interact with the story. It is also a good place to find information about upcoming content. They are doing something intriguing soon–starting a collaboration between the game and a traditional novel, The Night Circus, by Erin Morganstern. There are not a lot of details available yet, but it looks like there will be special content in the game, all free, and it will allow readers to create their own “diary page” to document their adventures within the world of the book.

I think this is a brilliant way to connect with readers and take advantage of the changing publishing landscape. When a writer creates a world for a book, there are many things that don’t make it into the book. A good story doesn’t tell everything about each detail of the setting, but an author usually needs to work these details out to make the world consistent. Therefore, there is plenty of information that supports the world outside the story that can be used to engage readers without taking away from the main story.

I love this idea, because it seems to be a winner for everyone. The game is enriched with new content, the author and publisher of The Night Circus get some great publicity, and readers get to feel a deeper connection to the world of the book, enhancing their enjoyment of both the game and the novel. The project doesn’t start until September, but I am excited about it anyway.

Does anyone else play this game? Am I alone in viewing it more as fiction than as a game?

Random House has said that they are currently working on two ideas, but have only hinted that one is an “adventure” and the other is a “horror” genre. They also have a partnership with Stardock to write stories about their game Elemental: War of Magic which is due out this fall. Now hedging their bets on books based on video games can be a bit risky, but I think that if they have good authors behind the books, this idea could be a good one. I’ve already seen games which have had some amazing books come out of them and I could easily see that books relating to a video game becoming a bigger market.

Via PaidContent.org

Random House has posted information and an excerpt from the first chapter of the Infernal City, a novel based on the Elder Scrolls. The same Elder Scrolls that is the popular game from Bethesda. This is the first of two books that will be based in the Elder Scrolls world.

The book is written by New York Times bestselling author, Greg Keyes. The novel will be available on November 24, 2009 but you can pre-order at various book retail stores now.

A preview excerpt is up here and gives you a slight indication as to how the book will be.