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Ludonarrative dissonance

Also said as Story and gameplay clash

What the rules make you do contradicts what the story says is going on. Clint Hocking named it in 2007 in a blog post about BioShock.

Players believe what they do over what they are told. If the script calls your hero gentle and the game pays per kill, the script loses, and every later cutscene sounds slightly false.

“The hero is written as someone who hates killing, but kills are our only source of XP. That is ludonarrative dissonance. Pay 10 XP for sparing and 2 for killing, or rewrite the hero.”

Hocking's point was that BioShock's rules reward looking after yourself while its story asks you to help Atlas with no choice in the matter. Harvesting a Little Sister pays 160 ADAM against 80 for rescuing her.

A plot hole is the story contradicting itself. Dissonance is the rules contradicting the story, even when the story is airtight.

Name a word, or describe what you mean in everyday language.