LUDONARRATIVE CANNOT BE DISSONATED
A downloadable project
Manifesto against the concept of "ludonarrative dissonance".
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A downloadable project
Manifesto against the concept of "ludonarrative dissonance".
Click download now to get access to the following files:
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Don't understand this... there are just multiple layers of abstraction and framework, you can choose which to focus on
that would go against a manifesto for learning how to not divide layers of abstraction and framework!
I really like this and am fully on board with resisting a firm interaction/un-interaction split! It’s all one thing!
Interestingly, and seemingly contrarily, I read this just after reading this piece on Gamesline, which I also liked even though it fully embraces the language of ludonarrative dissonance. To attempt to translate that article’s concerns into your framework, I think the problems people describe as “ludonarrative dissonance” could also be described as cases where a game’s internal contradictions fail to add interesting texture. Sometimes the contrast between semi-playable setpiece and regular play is awesome, and sometimes it just makes me wish a 30-hour trudge was 27 hours shorter and focused on the riskier textures.
I saw Rose's piece on my timeline yesterday and thought "uh-oh", but I think we are covering a couple of different things - she focus on the similarity in which games convey similar messages (which I also disagree with! and i like to think that it's a symptom of time more than anything. were people calling platformers "jumpslop" in the 80s?) and on how players are able to "break" the message, like in citizen sleeper, if they optimize or get lucky enough (another disagreement, as, ultimately, the decisions as players shape the story: making citizen sleeper frictionless is something you want to do, and arguably, the whole objective to beat the game),, but I agree with you that it's possible to not get interesting textures from the contradiction, which for me is a failure of narrative, not of form.