Chances are, if you are a video game enthusiast, you likely don't need me to tell you what a looping path is. If you're a video game developer, the notion of explaining such a fundamental part of environmental design may seem laughable. Many exploration, adventure, and role-playing titles utilize this technique in order to create satisfying gameplay loops out of their game worlds, rather than just their gameplay mechanics and systems. It is one of the textbook ways to perpetuate a feeling of momentum within a video game world, making sure traversal does not become tedious by slicing off chunks of backtracking.

Greetings, all, and welcome to another installment of an ongoing discussion of RPG terminology. The first installment of this series largely had to do with the progression of story in the genre, but eventually lead into a discussion of the nature of quest and character progression. This lead to two definitions, which I'll reiterate so that we can use them moving forward. I'll do this for all the terminology I coin in each subsequent article, so that we have a little glossary of terms before each discussion: Organic grinding-  the experience (EXP) the game developers force you to accrue because of thoughtful game design. Artificial grinding-  the experience accrued for no other reason than to lighten the burden on the player or subvert the difficulty spikes.