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

[ceo]

Crosbie Fitch wrote:
> From: ceo

>> 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? :)

> You seem to describe games where players have decided, at some
> effort, to create alternate objectives.

> Do you mean that meta-games are games that have been designed to
> encourage this alternative play?

The way I was using the terminology was that:

    Meta-Game = the actual effective game a player plays whilst
    sitting at a computer, interacting with an application (that
    happens to be an app called "a computer game")

So, a meta-game is NOT a type of computer game; it is an activity
that can be performed with the aid of a computer-game (hence "meta":
around, beside, with).

In my observations, most people play meta-games most of the
time. There are few computer games that do not support (as in, "make
it easy/possible") meta-game invention and play - and these few tend
to get panned by critics as being "boring" or "too linear".

...but this is not to say that a game is superior just because it
has more meta-games. It increases the variety of leisure activities
you can perform with it, but that increase may not be attractive. A
simple example is that many computer games can be simulated using MS
Windows.

  E.g. a shooting gallery: open lots of windows, and try to close
  the ones that were notepad, whilst leaving open the ones that were
  MSIE. Use the clock on the taskbar to time yourself.

But if you tried to persuade people that Windows was "really fun"
you would probably get some *very* strange looks. Even stranger if
you tell them "I got a high score on windows yesterday". Hmm.

My thinking at the moment is that the main reason for the wide
(often near-universal) appeal of games (in general - not just
computer games) is that they support a variety of meta-games, and so
even though every individual is very different, with different likes
and dislikes, they can share the same game, and each enjoy it in
unique ways.

In which case being aware of the meta-games that will be
invented/discovered and played with your MUD/MMOG is essential to
widening it's appeal. In fact it's probably essential to the design
process full-stop, since it's intimately bound up with how the game
will be perceived (differently, by the same person, according to
which meta-game they happen to be playing today) and played.

NB this aspect of being perceived differently even by the same
person was one of the main drivers of the forum thread - people were
struggling to agree on how they perceived a particular game, and of
course their own perceptions changed from time to time as they
started to play the game differently.

So...I'm sure that specialist games-designers are fully aware of
this, and it's just random chance that I've not come across a
discussion/article on this anywhere before.

Adam M
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