Probably distinctive play cultures have some things in common:

* They’re somehow distinctive (duh!) from a baseline norm, which strongly implies a baseline norm.

* The folks who play this way talk about it a lot, probably online: forums, Youtube, the Facebook, the Plus, the Tumblrs.

* The style is somehow viral: distinctive but not disruptive, easily mimicked elsewhere, attractive to a subset of those exposed.

* Convention presence, at least regionally, seems like a common infection vector.

But mostly I think it’s the fact that it’s talked about and seems fun.

Doing that on purpose…dunno! Probably possible.