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ludonarrative dissonance

November 12th

…You Want | Unwinnable Ed Smith traces the industry’s maximalist approach to the whole ludonarrative dissonance thing.

“The uncanny, infinitely variable and indefinable nature of games, their worlds and their texts – partially defined as ludonarrative dissonance – is no longer an artistic problem for mainstream games, but their central and most profitable characteristic.”

Brief Histories

Now let’s look at historical approaches to games, as our next two featured authors examine both alternative and inadequate treatments.

“Hampstead” and Interactive Fiction in the UK in the 1980s | The Rosebush Ian Greener offers…

…in the first Uncharted still holds true for the second. In “Nathan Drake in: The Curse of Ludonarrative Dissonance!” Juster contends the gameplay–Drake who slaughters hundreds throughout the game–is at odds with the cutscene–Drake, an “everyman” hero.

In “The Fallacy of Choice” Justin Keverne puts “everyman” Drake under the microscope: “A real ‘everyman’ would have fallen to his death within the first few minutes,” he sayd, commenting on the audience’s longing for a relatable hero but a hero nonetheless. It’s precisely this paradox that make Nathan Drake the character he is, and the game makes no bones about it.

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January 29th

…the end might take some comfort in the game’s campy genre logic. But what are they to make of Kirk Battle’s eerie precognition, writing about the wastelands of Bastion and New Vegas?

Clint Hocking coined the term “ludonarrative dissonance” to describe when what you’re doing in the game doesn’t really reflect what the story says is going on. Over the years, this has proved to be a bit of an impossible standard. Inevitably, game mechanics assert themselves, and the game’s story becomes less important as a motivator compared to gaining a level or grabbing that next powerful

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September 6th

…five-foot-eight, 36 inches around the chest, and a worldclass rockface dangler/militia combatant/tarzan impersonator: these things speak to an ignorance of bodies, and the bitterly foolish choice to define them anyway.

Happily, as Napier notes, rebooted Lara Croft has not had so much attention paid to her proportions — outside of fan speculation, at least.

Systems and History

At Sufficiently Human, our own Lana Polansky offers as a more elegant alternative to ludonarrative dissonance the terms “coherence” and “incoherence,” describing the ways a game’s design succeeds or fails at reinforcing its themes:

Dissonance is a…

June 25th

…form that are usually left unarticulated and poorly understood.

“Heroes of the open (third) world: Killing as pleasure in Ubisoft’s Far” by Christopher B. Patterson In this academic article that recently went open-access, Christopher Patterson argues that the Far Cry games make effective use of ludonarrative dissonance to highlight the cognitive dissonance of neocolonialism.

Separate Invisibilities – An Excerpt from Unwinnable Monthly 91 | Unwinnable Yussef Cole’s investigation of 2016-2017 stealth protagonists through the lens of race might be the definitive article on this topic from the past year.

Radiator Blog: Some recent conversation on cultural appropriation…

October 15th

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Contrast

Dissonances are also explored in these two pieces on the surprising narratives told through games that seem to be about one thing but turn out to be about another.

Opened World: The Night Is Young – Haywire Magazine Miguel Penabella praises the understated yet sensitive storytelling of a game that, on the surface, should surely just be about making cars go very fast.
In Stardew Valley, Ignorance Can Be Bliss | Kotaku Kirk Hamilton makes a compelling argument that Stardew Valley’s rarely-acknowledged ludonarrative dissonance is deliberate and effective.

“It’s a

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BioShock

…the Big Daddies (and possibly the little sisters) makes the player part of the oppressive capitalist regime. Justin Keverne argued that the mechanics of the game suggest that one’s goal is to acquire power in order to gain the ability to acquire further power.

At this point, designer Clint Hocking felt that BioShock went off the rails in a certain sense. In his essential essay “Ludonarrative Dissonance in BioShock“, Hocking argues that the game presents the player with two conflicting contracts. The gameplay establishes that the player must serve his own interest in order to advance, while the story…

Rachael Webster / PixelVixen707, Part 2

…jadedness, judgement, or excited claim to a new sighting of ludonarrative dissonance; just a deadpan statement that succinctly illustrates the game’s ridiculous marriage of narrative and mechanics.

We’re going to see more writers like Rachael in the next few years. I don’t mean invented personas, but rather writers with a style that can only come honestly and comfortably from someone who grew up in a world where games have the kind of cultural relevance and ubiquity that makes constant justification unnecessary. I have a 12 year old cousin who is more hyped than I am for Beatles: Rock Band…

September 20th

…a useful break-down that I’ve been thinking about myself for a while – describing the different levels that non-linearity can happen as ‘micro’, ‘macro’, ‘structural’ and ‘meta’. I think this is a seriously fantastic discussion and it’s this week’s must read. I should add that I discovered Lyndon’s blog via his pacifist play-through of the original Fallout. It’s also an engaging read.

Michel McBride does a really nice analysis of the character and role of The Riddler in Batman: Arkham Asylum and how the old spectre of Ludonarrative dissonance comes back to haunt.

When the hand-to-hand combat

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September 27th

Quick! It’s that day of the week again, which means it’s time for a decidedly laissez-faire overview of the game criticism blogosphere. And don’t forget: you can always send links to Critical Distance’s twitter account for inclusion in TWIVGB.

After last week’s acclaimed critique of The Joker and ludonarrative dissonance in Batman: Arkham Asylum, Michel McBride looks at the composition/execution cycle (as originally put forward by Clint Hocking in a GDC presentation) as played out in the game.

Alex Raymond had the pleasure of having her critique of gender issues in Mass Effect responded to by one

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