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ludonarrative dissonance

Far Cry 2

It’s often said that game developers and critics speak two different and incompatible languages. To this attitude, Clint Hocking exists as a strong counterpoint: he’s a veteran developer known for several beloved games as well as the coiner of one of game criticism’s most enduring (and hotly debated) concepts, ludonarrative dissonance.

Recently celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his best-known game, Far Cry 2, Hocking brought together his favorite critical pieces in a seven-part blog series. He’s graciously allowed us to reprint his collection here as a Critical Compilation.

For 10 years, Far Cry 2

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January 17th

…videogame.

At Not Your Mama’s Gamer, Bianca Batti checks out the relationship between games, their mechanics, and life.

The Term of the Week Is: Ludonarrative Dissonance

Did you think we were done discussing mechanics? Sorry, bucko. A few of the works from this week brought up the term “ludonarrative dissonance,” which means a disconnect between a game’s mechanics and overarching message. The more you know!

Uninterpretative’s Zack Fair contemplates how Undertale’s theme of distrust affects whether the game features ludonarrative dissonance or not. (I’m totally digging the Hello Kitty blog theme, by the way.)

After…

February 8th

…or even can find reconciliation! History is full of legitimate, unresolved intellectual and aesthetic disputes.

*Franklin’s video also provides the first clear, accurate and useful definition of ludonarrative dissonance I’ve seen in quite some time, so I highly recommend it. It also plays into the following section.

Difficulty Curve

Touching off of Lantz’s piece above, Soren Johnson grapples with (actual) ludonarrative dissonance as it crops up in game design:

[G]ames make us all fascists and communists; anarchists and tycoons; kleptocrats and ascetics, so we better hope that games are not as powerful as we once…

July 2020

…V. What kind of dissonance? Ludonarrative dissonance! *takes a shot*. (Manual captions) [Note: embedded advertising, violence, GTAV plot spoilers]

Digital Playgrounds

The relationship of videogame spaces to the form, feeling and rules of play gets a dynamic inquiry from these four excellent essays.

Fortnite: The Party That’s a Platform – Errant Signal (41:13)
Chris Franklin suggests Fortnite’s design directs players more toward social or casual rather than competitive play – a design system that has merits until you consider the cynical capitalising of social pressures that accompanies it. I particularly like the deliberate and

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June 3rd

…to also get right into the guts of things. Eric Schwarz declares Diablo III an abusive relationship while Josh Bycer presents us with a breakdown of the attributes of bad game design. Combining the two themes in a tale of “Vicodin Visions,” Grantland’s Tom Bissell performs a ludonarrative dissection of Max Payne 3:

Ludonarrative dissonance, a term first coined by the game designer Clint Hocking, arises whenever a video game’s fiction says one thing and its gameplay says an opposite thing. Some designers and critics regard ludonarrative dissonance as a core problem in modern game design. Max Payne

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August 18th

Welcome all. I am your intermittent host Eric Swain. Kris is off relaxing out in the northern wilderness so I’m picking up the curating duties in the meantime. We have a doozy of a This Week in Videogame Blogging ahead of us, most of it written in the last two days.

But first…

Ludonarrative Dissonance

Robert Yang kicked off a lot of discussion on the term ludonarrative dissonance by saying, I’m not in fact sure what he was saying and nor were a lot of other people as I saw so many streams being crossed all

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August 8th

…the game. The player has received these privileges for so many years that not only is there a presumption that these privileges are required, but most players are so comfortable in the current environment that they do not even know such privileges exist. I want to abolish the player’s privileges—or at least challenge the player’s dependency on them.

The phrase ‘Ludonarrative Dissonance’ has been a contentious once ever since it was introduced by Clint Hocking in his famous essay on Bioshock. This week, Corvus Elrod took the phrase to task in a post for his Semionaut’s Notebook [dead…

August-September Roundup

…For all the focus on game stories – press obfuscation of plot, spoiler warnings, post-release analysis – do they really matter that much? We have always played games that allowed us to create the stories in our own minds, and recent titles like Pivvot show we don’t need a compelling story to have a great game.

Although ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ usually refers to the tension between the narrative elements of a game and the actions it has our character perform, maybe the real tension should be our feelings towards the existence of the story itself. Is our reliance on stories…

June 29th

…developers can fight against the male-as-default problem of game avatars.

You Keep Using That Word

The ever-delightful Brendan Keogh shares some excellent thoughts on the underrated Final Fantasy XII, even if he defines (my old archnemesis) “ludonarrative dissonance” incorrectly. Sorry, Brendan. But also, for shame, Brendan.

On the contrary, this week’s Errant Signal video (by Chris Franklin) expertly captures the real meaning of ludonarrative dissonance as it applies to Entwined: when a game’s “big picture” themes and ideology are at odds with its systems.

Interviews

The good folks at Idle Thumbs have released their newest…

Bioshock: Infinite

…what it says about Booker’s forgiveness (or lack thereof) as a player avatar for the horrors of American past.

Ashley Schwieger at Damsels Out Of Distress wrote about Elizabeth’s role in the game, as well as looked at portrayals of women in the game as a whole.

In 2015, Alexandra Orlando at First Person Scholar picked apart the game’s use of player motivation and character motivation, and the ways in which they conflicted and cooperated with one another, citing Clint Hocking’s “ludonarrative dissonance” as a starting point. She concludes with the note that “I hope that in…