This week has seen several investigations into structure used in and around play.
Persons of Play
Fang Langford discusses the use of novel writing perspectives on narrative person in RPGs. He relates third, second, and first person narration with GM-based, cooperative inter-player, and self narration, respectively.
Producing Story
Bradley "Brand" Robins discusses different approaches to producing stories. Specifically, the linear approach where things are pre-planned, the gestalt approach where the player decisions as a whole produce the story, and lastly the emergent approach where the story's structure is unpredictable. He suggests these are a continuum, with most story-based play being a mixture of these approaches.
Feedback
Over at Gamecraft is a discussion on the effect of patterns of feedback. This has included the effects of long chains of positive feedback and their relationship to games which ensure that some positive feedback is provided from character actions. Meanwhile, Bradley "Brand" Robins describes the need to distinguish feedback systems and reward systems. The former includes social and mechanical responses you get as you play, while the later is specifically the system that ensures you get what you want out of play.
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