Very interesting read, I hope to do something like this one day. I think if I could learn proper dream incubation it would go a long way towards making a semi-persistent world like you said. Can you use any type of dream control you want, or are you limited by the world you've created? I'm basically curious if you're doing things like buying a sword (as opposed to spawning one) and hacking a mainframe to change the skin (as opposed to snapping your fingers or whatnot) because you have to according to discovered rules, or because you're roleplaying it that way.

This may be a little off topic, but do you have any tips for incubating dreams? I "know how" but I have had minimal success, usually in the form of being able to reenter some dreams on demand as I wake up between them (if that even counts). I'm trying to get back to the opening scene of one of my first LDs but I haven't been able to. That scene in itself was the result of a failed dream incubation exercise I believe, and I almost immediately became lucid.