Loom: How Brian Moriarty Proved That Less Is Sometimes More

Re:Loom: How Brian Moriarty Proved That Less Is Sometimes More by Baeocystin on Saturday February 18, 2017 @04:15AM (#13674147)

Awful? Those few minutes of example show more player agency than the entirety of Loom combined. This is not a novel criticism- it was one of the main complaints levelled against Loom when it first came out.

There's a difference between text you read, and text you have to guess at/type (ie, the find-the-synonym frustrations of Infocom games).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Loom: How Brian Moriarty Proved That Less Is Sometimes More by sparkpeasy on Saturday February 18, 2017 @04:45AM (#13674200)

Player agency in a medium without unlimited outcomes is a Choose Your Own Adventure, where the trick is done in plain sight and therefore unconvincing. Loom is just trying to tell a linear story in a convincing manner with the tools it has available, and it elevated the tools available. That's my only point.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Loom: How Brian Moriarty Proved That Less Is Sometimes More by Baeocystin on Saturday February 18, 2017 @05:09AM (#13674277)

Fair enough.

(Although speaking of Choose Your Own Adventure: http://io9.gizmodo.com/remember-inside-ufo-54-40-the-unwinna... had a fun "choice".)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Loom: How Brian Moriarty Proved That Less Is Sometimes More by coroxout on Saturday February 18, 2017 @09:01AM (#13674811)

I had that book. Very weird and trippy to my pre-teen mind.

After many, many readings, both legitimate play-throughs and cheating flip-throughs, I don't think I realised what the article points out.

[ Parent | on HN ]