The pleasurable lightness of being: Interface, mediation and meta-narrative in Lucasfilm's Loom

Abstract

This critique of the overlooked Lucasfilm adventure game focuses on the techniques, by which the distance between the avatar and the player is bridged, and the way the game deals with its gameness in its fiction. The critique is broken into three sections: the analysis of the fiction, investigation of the interface and, finally, the whole narrative structure. Conclusion is made that the uniqueness and "magic" often mentioned by the game's fans comes about thanks to a series of parallels between the player's and the avatar's situation.