[MUD-Dev] Meta-games (not META list ;))

[ceo]

In a forums conversation with non-MUD/MMOG game developers recently,
I came out with this (to try and help them understand why the
"gameplay" of a particular game is a lot more than just the rules
and behaviours the designers INTEND people to play / act out...):

  "When you play a computer-game, the "game" you are playing is not
  usually the same "game" as the "game" played by everyone else who
  plays that computer-game; it'll be the same as some of them, but
  there are many different "games" that people play with the same
  tool (computer game). This is a concept which MMOG desigerns have
  (been forced to...) come to terms with over the past 5 years (or
  much earlier for some of the more enlightened MUD admins), and
  which is now pretty much taken for granted. It's the key to
  understanding why there are always griefers in every MMOG (amongst
  other things which it explains).

  ...

    I.e. I can be sitting in front of your computer-game, but the
    "game" I'm playing might be, for instance "how big a score can I
    get in 5 minutes", or it might be "I like seeing fluffies get
    swallowed". In the latter case, I might ignore the mechanics of
    your game, and play it in order to see as many fluffies get
    eaten as possible - even though this forces me to cope with the
    ultra-hard jelly incursions etc. Players of these meta-games
    will typically ignore the game-rules if it suits them as part of
    their game - so e.g. if they like killing fluffies they will
    intentionally commit suicide in order to restart the game with
    full fluffies, rather than play through as far as they can go,
    because it's a more efficient way of getting back a full
    complement of fluffies.  "

  [note: in the game under discussion, the main point is that you
  are *supposed* to protect the fluffies :)]

Initial reactions showed that most of these game developers had
never consciously thought about game design like this...which I
found very surprising. But then, there are a lot of games
developers, and not nearly so many specialist games-designers. So
perhaps it's just something that games-developers in general haven't
really picked up on so much (whilst being common knowledge amongst
designers).

But then some of the recent discussions here - especially about
"Ghost-Mode" - have left me wondering how many people on this list
actually think about meta-games? And how much importance do they
(we) attach to them when looking at game design? I know there's
always a certain amount of getting heavily involved in a debate, and
temporarily not seeing the wood for the trees, but people kept
coming out with statements that suggested they really didn't
appreciate that the way they played the game was most likely NOT to
be the same way as a random other player of the same game (OK, tht's
an unfounded assumption :). But the range of meta-games that people
do play is so diverse, and the number so great, that I think it's a
fair guess).

The funny thing is, when I did a google search for MUD-DEV
conversations about meta-games, I couldn't find any. Is it just that
we've discussed this before under a different nomenclature, or is it
something that's only ever been mentioned in passing, never quite
becoming a hot topic? :)

But then again, I always have problems finding things in the
archives, so that could well just be me being rubbish again ;).

Adam M
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