An interesting term coined in 2007 was “ludonarrative dissonance”, which describes the separation of the way a video game is played and the way the story is perceived. Chris Hocking, who first introduced the idea, used it to point out a flaw in Bioshock. The game promoted the rejection of Randian philosophy yet rewarded the player for acting in self-interest (to oversimplify his argument, of course). The dissonance idea is still relevant 6-7 years later and still illustrates an important flaw in many triple-A games: the Uncharted series has the protagonist make light-hearted jokes about brutal, senseless murder; the Gears of War games have tough, hulking supersoldiers cowering helplessly behind chest-high walls; and the Resident Evil series takes almost perverted delight in constructing the most horrifying monsters imaginable, but then requires the player to mow these monsters down by the hundreds.
