the odd creative position that playing a game creates

On another level, there’s the odd creative position that playing a game creates in terms of the opposition between the self-creating of the narrative through the play-process and the limitations placed upon you by the parameters and depth and programming. We need to ask ourselves how this is alike or different from conventional ‘fanfic’ writing. Are we not limited by the boundaries of the format from which we are poaching, in the same way that we can't escape past the boundaries of allowable play within a game? There are differences, but there are also similarities that are intrinsic to both: a sense of ‘play’ within the margins, as well as the opportunity to explore those margins. The primary goal of fanfic is to celebrate the source text, even as the edges of that text are being extended.