Ludonarrative dissonance

Clint Hocking, a former creative director at LucasArts (then at Ubisoft), coined the term on his blog in October 2007, in response to the game BioShock. Writer Tom Bissell, in his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter (2010), notes the example of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, where a player can all but kill their digital partner during gameplay without upsetting the built-in narrative of the game. ''Uncharted 4: A Thief's End'' acknowledged the criticism with a trophy called "Ludonarrative Dissonance" that is awarded to the player for killing 1,000 enemies. The game's co-director Neil Druckmann said that in Uncharted 4 the studio was "conscious to have fewer fights, but it came more from a desire to have a different kind of pacing than to answer the 'ludonarrative dissonance' argument. Because we don't buy into it". In 2016, Frédéric Seraphine, semiotician and researcher specialized in game design at the University of Tokyo wrote a literature review about the notion of ludonarrative dissonance. In this article, developing on debates sparked by Hocking's blog post, Seraphine identifies the reason of ludonarrative dissonance as an opposition between "incentives" and "directives" within the "ludic structure (the gameplay)" and the "narrative structure (the story)". Chris Plante of Polygon wrote there had been an increasing number of games being designed around violence that meant the story shifted to accommodate gameplay, rather than vice versa. He considered the game The Last of Us Part II, also directed by Druckmann, to be the culmination of this ludonarrative dissonance due to its revenge-driven plot. Plante argued that due to the appeal and constant supply of violent games it was unnecessary for them to justify why their player characters exhibited violence, and expressed his desire for more games to tell stories that didn't hinge around violence. Debates on the potential positive use of the notion Some scholars, game writers and journalists have challenged the supposedly negative nature of ludonarrative dissonance. Nick Ballantyne, managing editor at GameCloud Australia, in an article from 2015, argues: While acknowledging the potential of ludonarrative dissonance to create what he calls "emersion", defined in opposition to "immersion" as the "sensation of being pulled out of the play experience", Seraphine agrees with Ballantyne that it is possible to purposefully use ludonarrative dissonance as a storytelling device. Seraphine concludes his article with: "It seems that more games in the near future might use ludonarrative dissonance as a way to tell more compelling stories. In essence, stories are about characters and the most interesting stories are often told with dissonant characters; as it is the surprise, the disturbance, the accident, the sacrosanct disruptive element, that justifies the very act of telling a story". ==Ludonarrative consistency==

In contrast, ludonarrative consistency can be considered the use of gameplay mechanics to positively reinforce the narrative. An example could be deliberate "jank," or difficult controls, in order to simulate states like being drunk or confused. Pathologic 2 takes advantage of difficult controls to simulate illness and various states of exhaustion. Alternatively, mechanics and narrative can be intertwined to the point where gameplay is itself an element of the story. Gerald Farca argues, citing Journey (2012 video game) as an example, that a game's communication and aesthetic affect relies on its interactions between a player, culture, and a text that "exhibits virtual (indeterminate) qualities," allowing players to participate directly in forming meaning through gameplay. In other words, the act of play becomes the experience of the narrative itself. It has been argued that through high ludo narrative consistency, video games are able to accomplish what other forms of non-interactive art cannot by form. In Papers, Please gameplay revolves around the checking of paperwork under strict time limits and moral decisions that have to be made in mere seconds, mirroring the real life task of high pressure paperwork. The creator, Lucas Pope, stated in a 2013 interview, "A few people with similar jobs have told me that the mechanics in the game are close to what they do... Once I started considering the concept, the gameplay mechanics and story grew from what I thought would make a fun game." The gameplay itself becomes a core part the game's commentary on borders, bureaucracy, and the concept of the iron cage, in a manner that could not be accomplished in other mediums. The manner in which ludonarrative consistency is accomplished can differ according to genre. Jon Stone explores Disco Elysium as an example of a point-and-click game's attempt to integrate gameplay and narrative. In Disco Elysium, the player explores a world unknown to them from the eyes of an amnesiac police officer that is equally confused. The game encourages the player to gather context through bizarre and inappropriate interactions, tolerated by other character's due to the protagonist's position as a police officer, contributing to the narrative's own commentary on law enforcement. The Dead Space series is noted for its ludonarrative consistency. Brett Makedonski of Destructoid states that the gameplay aptly conveys the sense of sheer terror and loneliness that the narrative expertly strives to establish. ==See also==