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	<title>Systems of Play</title>
	<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net</link>
	<description>where ludology and narratology make sweet, sweet love</description>
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		<title>MUD: Messrs Bartle and Trubshaw&#8217;s Astonishing Contrivance</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is really an excellent talk by Richard Bartle on the topic of word building. Intentionality and coherence: asking &#8220;WHY?&#8221; on a level that&#8217;s more than commercialistic or purely player oriented. It&#8217;s something you hear shouted on the fringes of game design, but it&#8217;s by-far not the prevailing opinion. It&#8217;s refreshing to hear this message [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2010/10/29/mud-messrs-bartle-and-trubshaws-astonishing-contrivance/</link>
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		<title>A Common Framework for Storytelling in Games</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[also posted on GameCareerGuides] Do games tell stories? Sure, text, artwork, voice acting and cut-scenes can all arguably tell or help tell a story, but how can you truly say that the game itself is telling the story? And by the game, I mean the actual system, the units and rules that create the possibility [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2010/06/08/a-common-framework-for-storytelling-in-games/</link>
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		<title>Thought for the Day: The Dismissal of Text</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Why is it that a Halo gamer will sit down and read a Halo novel, but likely wouldn&#8217;t want to read through a paragraph if it appeared on-screen? I think the answer is more complicated than &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to read, I&#8217;m playing a game!&#8221; It&#8217;s not just that they&#8217;re different kinds of activities. The [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2009/08/06/thought-for-the-day-the-dismissal-of-text/</link>
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		<title>Overcoming Blow&#8217;s Challenge vs. Story Dilemma</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Jonathan Blow first brought up the conflict between story and challenge back in November 2008 at MIGS. Blow describes the problem as a conflict where “the challenge part is trying to hold the player back and keep him from getting to the next segment. But the story part wants you to get to the next [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2009/05/27/overcoming-blows-challenge-vs-story-dilemma/</link>
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		<title>Crisis Core&#8217;s Small Step Forward</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Christian Nutt has an interesting article on how Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII has taken a small step forwards in meshing together gameplay and story. The innovative way Crisis Core tells its story with vignettes during battle through the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) system is definitely something to praise, and Christian does a good job [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2009/01/22/crisis-cores-small-step-forward/</link>
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		<title>Games (Could) Make You Cry</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This one will be quick. Take a look at this quote from Chris at ihobo.com: This is the nub of the issue here: a story can make you cry by empathising [sic] with the protagonist (or another character), but a game (when viewed as a formal system) cannot do this. It follows that the only [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2008/12/10/games-could-make-you-cry/</link>
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		<title>A Dead Space of Possibilities</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you want a great example of why a good story isn&#8217;t necessary for a game to be fun, take a look at Tom Cross&#8217; opinion piece on Dead Space. I haven&#8217;t gotten around to playing Dead Space, but according to Tom, just about everything non-game is &#8220;carefully and stylishly unoriginal&#8221;. The characters are flat [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2008/12/02/a-dead-space-of-possibilities/</link>
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		<title>Confusing Themes and Terms</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was reading an analysis by Daniel Cook over at Gamasutra that at first made me nod in agreement. Games have repetitious themes and often implement them in disjunction with or with disregard for their game mechanics. It&#8217;s good to see yet another member of the games industry catch on to this endemic problem and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2008/11/05/confusing-themes-and-terms/</link>
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		<title>The All Storytelling Eye</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The &#8220;eye&#8221; or  &#8220;camera&#8221; in video games (essentially the player&#8217;s viewpoint) has always been designed pragmatically to allow the player to play the game. Rarely has there been any consideration of what the viewpoint is telling the player about the experience, other than purely game-related facts. If I could make an analogy to film, the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2008/10/05/the-all-storytelling-eye/</link>
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		<title>The Unpredictable Protagonist?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Rubes over at The Monk&#8217;s Brew has a few thoughts on the tricky problem of trying to have a realistic protagonist that fits into the story&#8230; who is also controlled by an unpredictable player. The problem is of course that all too often a game&#8217;s mechanics will allow the playful player to do something ridiculous, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.systemsofplay.net/2008/09/02/the-unpredictable-protagonist/</link>
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