Answer: impersonal tone; third-person point of view; complex sentences
Explanation:
Formal articles or essays tend to present the characteristics above. In the case of the passage we are analyzing here, there is no subjectivity. We cannot tell how the author feels about the game or the way it is played. The author is simply informing the readers about the history of the game. In texts that have that purpose - offering information -, the best technique to use is to avoid the first-person point of view and subjective feelings. As for grammar and structure, formal texts tend to employ more complex sentences, connecting ideas via prepositions and conjunctions, using longer structures - such as adverbial phrases - instead of shorter ones - such as an adverb alone. Unnecessary contractions are also avoided in formal texts.
