Ludonarrative dissonance
What is ludonarrative dissonance? The clash between a game's story and what its gameplay rewards, the term Clint Hocking coined about BioShock in 2007.
Ludonarrative dissonance is a conflict between the story a game tells in its cutscenes and dialogue and the story its gameplay tells through what it asks and rewards.
Where the term comes from
The designer Clint Hocking coined the term in a post on his blog Click Nothing, “Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock”, dated 7 October 2007.
Examples
Each game links to the source that describes it using the mechanic.
Related terms: Emergent gameplay, Permadeath.
Sources
Checked .
- Ludonarrative dissonance — Wikipedia
- Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock — Click Nothing (Clint Hocking) (Internet Archive copy)
- Ludonarrative Dissonance — GameDesign.gg