Game:

Fortune Street (2011)

Category:

Tutorial

Duration: 41:28

585 views

4

As a natural companion to the Easy mode rules, we have the Standard tutorial to offer... although, if I must say, I rarely find the "Easy" mode all that... well, easy. I think I would prefer the term "Simple" or "Simplified"... because it is indeed much easier to understand and just sit down to play, but there's also significantly less you can... "do"... I guess is how I'll put it. There's much less you can do to invest your money wisely even in the face of any of a number of other potential misfortunes that await you, so it feels like I'm flying without my golden parachute on Easy.

As a result, I've made far less progress on the single-player modes on Easy than I have on Standard. The game is still exciting and addictive, and time will just fly by as you connive your way to economic dominance... it just happens to feel... less "in control" in terms of the fiscal wizardry going on.

But I won't for a second suggest that the Standard rules aren't a serious investment of attention and unlimited strategic permutations as the game board and general economic climate evolves around you... so there's a reason why you might not choose to embrace it immediately. (For one thing, it's making it way more painful to go back to Easy mode, which I have to do, because I don't have any of the spiffy extra boards I have in Standard unlocked on it!)

The major difference revolves around reorganizing the general lay of the land into "districts"... which are suspiciously not at all dissimilar from Monopoly's color groups. Instead of needing adjacent properties as in Easy mode (or an entire group, like in Monopoly, yikes), properties will have their potential for expansion improved just by being under the same ownership.

There is one other major difference in play that's brought about by the existence of these districts, and that's the stock market. Each district's general property values will contribute to the base stock price in that district, so a well-to-do part of the board will have high-priced stocks and one with low-income housing will have low stocks. As players invest their money in the physical properties, the stock prices will really take off and give speculative investors a way to make some considerable cash in the process as prices balloon from the 10s and below up to 30, 40, or even 50 gold and beyond per share.

Besides that, stock ownership entitles a player to a small "cut" of any revenue from a player landing on another's storefront, in fact rather similar to the star spaces on the board that grant a one-turn commission.

Stocks are also a confidence game, so they're highly manipulable... in fact, more manipulable than they "should" be as an actual stock market, because any time a player buys or sells 10 at a time, the price will adjust accordingly, leaving a surprising amount of room for crafty machinations by shareholders.

Of course, the real deal is the synergistic combination of properties and stocks and you can seriously rake in the cash by doubling down on your own investments and buying stocks in a district before improving them... since you know a little home improvement will drive the prices way up just doing what you would anyway to protect your real estate holdings and squeeze more money out of visiting competitors.

It's probably a lot easier to understand if you do it yourself... or, failing that, if you see it done rather than explained in theory. I can't really help with the former, but the latter I can certainly provide... and the explanation just now was entirely free! And the game will throw another one at you, too! (Aren't you lucky?!)

Just try not to let all the changing numbers overwhelm you, the causes, effects, and general flow of green digits are the real important parts.

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As it so happens, we had a stream session last night, and my opponent graciously chose to partake of a Standard match in spite of total unfamiliarity with the format.

http://www.twitch.tv/yuugijoou/c/1923223 (Bowser's Castle)

We also played some more Easy matches, which were as always incredibly tense and even fraught with some unexpected turns of events:

http://www.twitch.tv/yuugijoou/c/1923142 (Yoshi's Island)
http://www.twitch.tv/yuugijoou/c/1923188 (Delfino Plaza)

...huh, an oversaturation of Mario over Dragon Quest courses... ah well, that happens sometimes, I guess.

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As noted, we actually had an extemporaneous stream just last night, so the only real way to really know when it happens is through any of these fine locations:

Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/YuuGiJoou
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/YuuGiJoou
Chat: http://www.tinyurl.com/queensgambit

You don't have to stay very long, particularly if whatever we're playing doesn't happen to be your particular cup of tea, but I do invite anyone with even an inkling of interest to take a peek and get infected by this mind virus... uh, I mean, look at all the numbers! Yes, numbers! Exciting!

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