Ludonarrative Dissonance
When narrative says you can but gameplay says f-you! (and vice versa)
There’s no doubt Lara Croft, a famous character of a British archaeologist from the Tomb Raider video games franchise, is a pop cultural badass. With a reboot released by Square Enix in 2013, players get a glimpse into Lara’s origin story but might get confused in getting to know her through her story compared to playing as her.
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In the intro of Tomb Raider, Lara is portrayed as a fragile, not very courageous woman in her twenties who is still trying to find her place in the world and her confidence. Nothing wrong with that; we’ve all been there.
However, when a player controls her journey, Lara comes across as a very resourceful character and immensely strong, agile, and not afraid to kill an animal or even a person (or multiple people) she is faced with. All that while she runs around bleeding with her abdomen pierced by a rusty steel rod…
Introducing: Ludonarrative dissonance
These conflicting messages given by narrative and gameplay are what researchers and practitioners call ludonarrative dissonance. As Clint Hocking, a former creative director at LucasArts, wrote in 2007 about Bioshock, in the case of ludonarrative dissonance, “the game’s narrative structure is leveraged against its ludic structure and destroys the player’s ability to feel connected to either.”
It means that the narrative of a given game gives you one piece of information, and ludic (gameplay) elements tell you something else entirely. Players might feel confused, like the game is lying to them and stealing their freedom of choice, almost instantly breaking their immersion.
Since immersion is complex, players might pivot quickly to reacquire it through other means. But if the game continuously gives more and more evidence supporting ludonarrative dissonance, players might drop out of the game entirely when their threshold of “this doesn’t make sense” is met.
Game developers strive to use ludonarrative dissonance purposefully or design their games for ludonarrative harmony where narrative elements and gameplay correspond.
Some other examples
Using Tomb Raider as just one example of ludonarrative dissonance would be unfair to the game. Quite a bunch of video games are the culprits of this phenomenon in one way or another.
Uncharted - not such a good guy Drake
An example of Nathan Drake being essentially a mass murderer is well-known among people who’ve played Uncharted games and even to those who haven’t yet (including yours truly). Drake might be presented as a cool, amiable guy in the game, but his body count is far from fulfilling his good Chad vibes.
Game developers at Naughty Dog have gone even one step further in acknowledging this shortcoming. They included a trophy called “Ludonarrative dissonance,” which a player receives after 1000 successful kills in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
Assasin’s Creed: Odyssey - which side am I on?
So far, I have invested over 120 hours of gameplay in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, so dunking on the game would sound strange. The game is visually stunning and filled with content, systems, and mechanics for everyone to enjoy. However, one of their systems contributing to feelings of ludonarrative dissonance is the design of Athenian versus Spartan factions and the underlying logic of the player’s place among the two.
AC: Odyssey allows a player to embody a Spartan mercenary as a female character Kassandra or a male called Alexios. While exploring the mythological version of the Peloponnesian war as an exiled Spartan, the narrative of the main quest leads you to reunite your family, giving you choices if and how to deal with your legacy.
Side quests let you choose whether you fight for Athens or Sparta alike. You can choose which quests and errands you take and from whom: you can quickly help a Spartan soldier in trouble or an Athenian civilian being robbed by the same Spartans a few meters along the way. But the rules of the player’s engagement with the two factions and possible repercussions and consequences are blurry and inconsistent. You’d think helping one side gives you some protection for the time being, but frequently the same side you just helped attacks you in another encounter.
This freedom of choosing which side to help suits the narrative of your role as a misthios, a wandering mercenary looking for ways to provide for yourself in the rough times of war. But gameplay-wise, it confuses you and potentially kicks you out of immersion and role-playing once one faction you’ve chosen to side with starts attacking you…
❔ Are there any other examples you can think of? Leave them in the comments below❔
💡 Story from the trenches
Being a game designer and academic like myself gives you a glimpse into the inner workings of both worlds. This little anecdote I share with you might help you understand the origins of how and why we study video games the way we do and where “ludonarrative” as a term came from.
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In the early years of the 90s, a raging war between two camps of video game researchers took place in academia concerning which approach is the best to study video games with.
*cue suspense music*
Alright, maybe it wasn’t much of a war and might not have been raging *that much* per se, though I like to imagine it as a reenactment of a No retreat! Scene from Emmerich’s The Patriot but with academics throwing books, quill pens, or aggressively writing on a keyboard to make their point, but some heated back-and-forth discussions happened for sure.
This so-called “ludology vs. narratology debate” (look it up, it’s a thing!) seemingly split video game researchers and practitioners into two camps.
The narratologist claimed games should be analyzed as literary texts using narrative theory because they contain stories. The opposing ludologist side, however, called for studying games via their rules and mechanics, taking more of a formalist approach.
As many academic debates unfold this way, this one had become convoluted, even confusing, and eventually ended in a conciliatory tone admitting that the truth is out there somewhere in between. Now we tend to study video games as ludonarrative software, addressing the best of both worlds, and everyone is (hopefully) happy!
📚 Additional Reading
If you want to learn more about ludonarrative dissonance, read this comprehensive summary of the topic by Frédéric Seraphine.
For details on designing for ludonarrative harmony, check this paper by game designers Wendy Despain and Lauryn Ash.
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Leni 🫶