There was some exquisite corpse stuff going on here a ways back. Here's a time warp, this is maybe 10 years ago? The Graphically Exquisite Cadaver <www.madsci.org>

Just found the old corpse stuff here: this is the genesis of the Gridcosm in many ways: ...#players

Personally, I enjoy when a grid level has a "theme", but I don't like it all the time.As you say, the lawlessness of the Grid is part of it's appeal.

I was toying once with doing a gridcosm in different proportions. Instead of a square, the level would be a rectangle (horizontally) and each contribution would be a rectangle. The aspect ratio would be 3:2, the same as film and the themes would be movie based.

But thinking about all the work that would go into it still makes me marvel at the execution of the Grid.