"Open World" Texts: A Framework for Analyzing Recombinatory Writing Games (RWGs)

This paper develops a theoretical framework for analyzing recombinatory writing games (RWGs), playful systems that reconfigure literary texts through chance-based juxtaposition and algorithmic constraint. Drawing on Surrealist practice, Oulipian procedural methods, and Jerome McGann's concept of critical deformation, the framework treats reading as a process of building and recombining, likened to the open-world exploration of Minecraft. Its central argument is that conventional creative writing pedagogy tends to privilege expert "genius" and evaluative assessment, whereas approaching literary texts as material for design can engage students who do not identify as creative. The framework rests on five analytical categories, divergence, juxtaposition, textuality, open world, and play, which distinguish RWGs from the broader family of creative writing games for reading, such as replacement poems and card games like Apples to Apples.

The framework is demonstrated through an analysis of Poetry Planet, a prototype built on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The analysis finds that the game shifts from highly divergent freewriting toward convergent, solution-based riddle solving. Its core juxtaposition mechanic operates entirely within the textual medium, yet it offers limited scope for playfulness and collaboration. These observations suggest that the balance between divergent and convergent mechanics is a key design variable shaping how players engage with a source text.

The paper's scope is conceptual and programmatic rather than empirical. It references established figures, such as Minecraft's large player base and Raymond Queneau's estimate of 10^14 possible sonnet combinations, but reports no original quantitative findings. It anticipates future empirical work connecting the framework to a study of one hundred Norwegian upper-secondary students. A forthcoming extension proposes applying the OCEAN personality model to contrast how self-identified creatives and non-creatives respond to divergent versus solution-based mechanics, and it flags "criticality," the degree to which a game encourages critical reading of its source, as a candidate concept for refinement in later revisions.