What is "meta game"?

mikeabboudb14_ESO

This term is relatively new, or at least i have only recently heard it applied since returning to this game. What exactly does it mean in context of ESO and other games?

Turelus

It means the current "flavour of the month", basically what everyone is currently using because it's been decided by the majority to be the best options for that build.

tinythinker

Two meanings:

1. The game within the game. Knowing how mechanics and coding and popular views shape game play. Like in philosophy, the meta-game.

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

Both speak to what builds and group composition choices are most popular at a given time.

FearlessOne_2014

tinythinker wrote: »

Two meanings:

1. The game within the game. Knowing how mechanics and coding and popular views shape game play. Like in philosophy, the meta-game.

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

Both speak to what builds and group composition choices are most popular at a given time.

What this guy said

Turelus

tinythinker wrote: »

Two meanings:

1. The game within the game. Knowing how mechanics and coding and popular views shape game play. Like in philosophy, the meta-game.

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

Both speak to what builds and group composition choices are most popular at a given time.

I've been doing RP (D&D, Pathfinder etc.) for years and heard/used the term meta and never once realised it was an acronym, yikes I feel stupid. +1 Insightful.

Personofsecrets

mikeabboudb14_ESO wrote: »

This term is relatively new, or at least i have only recently heard it applied since returning to this game. What exactly does it mean in context of ESO and other games?

Metagame is often described as the game outside of the game.

Talking about a metagame can be used as a heuristic (way of knowing or finding out knowledge) and has properties of a dialectic (where we come together to find out the truth).

Simple example:

During a game of Rock, Paper, Scissor, a player chooses their next move based on what their opponent is going to do. That player isn't simply just randomly choosing their move, but they have created a Metagame, a game out side the game (What is my opponent going to do?), in order to inform their move.

Complicated Example:

With many assumptions about a given trial about how the internal mechanics of the game work, players from many different areas come together and form a Metagame (Common truth) where they collectively decide how to best win (or what winning even means in some cases) during that trial.

I hope that this explanation clears some things up for you @mikeabboudb14_ESO

Personofsecrets

Turelus wrote: »

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tinythinker wrote: »

Two meanings:

1. The game within the game. Knowing how mechanics and coding and popular views shape game play. Like in philosophy, the meta-game.

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

Both speak to what builds and group composition choices are most popular at a given time.

I've been doing RP (D&D, Pathfinder etc.) for years and heard/used the term meta and never once realised it was an acronym, yikes I feel stupid. +1 Insightful.

In this specific instance the acronym may work @Turelus , but in general I don't find the acronym appropriate. Meta is a word used in many different areas to help explain things.

Meta (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning "after", or "beyond") is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction behind another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.

- Wikipedia

mikeabboudb14_ESO

Thank you for your reply's Essentially we are using the term to indicated we are playing the game to the best of our ability and understanding as shared with others doing the same.

Turelus

Now y'all just went and confused me.

I mean I guess meta builds it makes sense as an acronym, as meta-gaming not so much (especially with RP).

Edit: also according to @Demion and his reply on Twitter it's also a term word for fishing in Swedish!

I think this might be the most enlightening and yet confusing thread I've ever read on these forums now.

KerinKor

mikeabboudb14_ESO wrote: »

This term is relatively new, or at least i have only recently heard it applied since returning to this game. What exactly does it mean in context of ESO and other games?

The word 'meta' is very old (Google it sometime) it's just been mis-appropriated by some gamers trying to look kewl who use it to mean something it doesn't .. the PATRIOT Act being one of the most laughable examples.

KerinKor

tinythinker wrote: »

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

A classic case of making up an acronym .. or in this case taking an old word with a well-defined meaning .. and then dreaming up something it could stand for.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

It's kind of a maliable term depending on the game and the location of the game. To use an example from another game, online poker, one of my buddies asked me if I usually raise the standard of 3 to 4 times the bet, and I told him that normally I would but the website I play on has buttons for 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4ths the pot so the meta there is to just use one of those.

Pheefs

In the SecondLife RP Community meta-gaming, god-modding, & story-jacking are all almost synonymous.
& its a bad thing.

I guess from the RP side "meta" is taking from the greek, & we usually mean they are using Player knowledge as Character knowledge & kinda cheating with it.

Banana

What the streamers tell us we should be using

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Banana wrote: »

What the streamers tell us we should be using

Haha, truth. One thing people fail to realize is that the meta game is often NOT the best mathematical game, but rather what was the best mathematical game before the theory crafters decided to unveil their uber builds to the world. Many of them have long since moved on to something better.

If you're using the meta you're probably about 2 months behind where you could be even if it's still better than a majority of your opponents.

Victus

KerinKor wrote: »

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tinythinker wrote: »

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

A classic case of making up an acronym .. or in this case taking an old word with a well-defined meaning .. and then dreaming up something it could stand for.

Otherwise known as a Backronym.

Takes-No-Prisoner

Meta (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning "after", or "beyond")

The 'beyond' game, or 'meta' game, usually refers to high level play.

High level play can be associated with things like, mastery of classes, skills, and someone who is deeply knowledgable about mechanics/sub-mechanics of which the game is built on.

Major Defile can be considered a very basic mechanic.

Weapon Animation Canceling could fall under a sub-mechanic. A mechanic developed by, and employed by higher leveled players to make their combinations of attacks come out faster.

Super bonus edit:

The term 起き攻め or 'Okizeme' or 'Oki', which means "Rousing Attack" or "Wakeup Offense", also plays a somewhat losely similar role in ESO PVP and other Fighting Game communities like Street Fighter, where the opponent scores a Knock Down/Stun/etc. and punishes with intelligent follow up attacks that properly read what the enemy target will do next.

WalksonGraves

the real meta(game within a game) is fishing and furniture.

Shad0wfire99

mikeabboudb14_ESO wrote: »

This term is relatively new, or at least i have only recently heard it applied since returning to this game. What exactly does it mean in context of ESO and other games?

It's the thing that everyone cries about being overpowered, signaling the beginning of an avalanche of nerfs.

Aurie

I've often wondered what exactly 'meta' means in gaming context.

Now I'm even more confused!

WalksonGraves

Turelus wrote: »

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tinythinker wrote: »

Two meanings:

1. The game within the game. Knowing how mechanics and coding and popular views shape game play. Like in philosophy, the meta-game.

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

Both speak to what builds and group composition choices are most popular at a given time.

I've been doing RP (D&D, Pathfinder etc.) for years and heard/used the term meta and never once realised it was an acronym, yikes I feel stupid. +1 Insightful.

No one uses that stupid acronym outside of this website, you know a greek word.

tinythinker

KerinKor wrote: »

show previous quotes

tinythinker wrote: »

2. Most Efficient Tactics Available

A classic case of making up an acronym .. or in this case taking an old word with a well-defined meaning .. and then dreaming up something it could stand for.

Glad you got your daily dose of smug. Have a

My original reply is very on the nose for using a phone in under 20 seconds, but since some folks have broken out sources like Wikipedia and I have a few minutes at a real keyboard I will elaborate.

Meta as has been pointed out comes from the Greek language and in English the relevant popular meaning is to examine from a different or deeper level. So we can look into something to appreciate its deep structure or its additional meaning beyond obvious value or function. So yay, philosophy. For RPGs, including MMORPGs, that could be something such as understanding the racism inherent in orcish/goblinoid races by looking at their depictions and the impressions Europeans received about "primitives" during colonization of the Americas, Africa, the Oceanic areas, etc. Or how all quests in MMORPGs are just variations of a basic fetch quest. Those who get really into a game's lore also often engage in "meta"-game speculations.

Buuuuut, the OP asked about how the term is used right here on these very forums. Which means how it is used on 99% of MMORPG forums, which is looking at game mechanics, items, abilities, etc to figure out the logic of the game's design and function in order to know best how to pick your race, class, gear, and so on, to get the best ability rotations, and to have the best group composition to kill things the most fastest ever. Which you will note as being the gist of the first definition in my original comment: "1. The game within the game. Knowing how mechanics and coding and popular views shape game play. Like in philosophy, the meta-game." That nice summarizes everything I've typed so far in this comment.

And some clever gamers (not just on these forums) realized this and made that acronym, which says *exactly* what most people here and in other MMORPGs mean when they say meta: Most Efficient Tactic Available. Not just clever, darn clever. Like a meta commentary on how contemporary MMORPGers use the word meta. Or, you know, maybe just an example of the decline of language to be lamented and chided. Either way.

Speaking of language evolution, it's natural and happens fastest in subcultures before spreading (if the changes spread, which often they don't, which is why people in certain professions or with certain hobbies sometimes sound like they are speaking Greek). Wait, meta is from the Greek. Did I just go meta on a reply to my own comment about meta?

OK, unskew your brain and go wail on some daedra or dunmer slavers.

[And seriously, no hard feelings KerinKor, I really do give you a sincere cookie but I had to poke you a little bit. Just a bit. And thanks for giving me an excuse to elaborate]