Does the author actually define "metagame" anywhere? He seems to use the term throughout the article to mean multiple subtly different things.
To get good, go after the metagame
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Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#22Getting good in almost all games is based on understanding and mastering the fundamentals to the extent that you can make consistently correct (or at least a high degree of 'correctness') decisions based on them. This is true for all esports titles, and probably all games in general. Mastering the fundamentals will make you 'good' to a level that very few people ever reach. It's not until you reach a level where ever…
I absolutely agree. However, in my experience, recognition of the metagame comes way before you actually require it.
This is 100% true. Unfortunately, it inhibits player growth tremendously. Players who are too focused on the meta lose sight of fundamentals. This can manifest itself in weird ways, like LoL players picking up the flavor of the month picks instead of playing what they're strongest on when they can.
When I first started coaching LoL I came in to coach a team where the coaches I replaced suffered from some pretty serious delusions that come from the same place. They had very strong beliefs about playing 'the meta' and the value of certain flex picks at the time. When I took over and took the team back to fundamentals and reduced champion pools by half - winrates skyrocketed. It's really easy to want to copy what you see works for other people, but it's not always the best course of action.
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah meta in games is used very loosely — the M4 in CoD is meta, meaning the best available. I got the feeling reading this that the author is more familiar with the video game usage and worked backwards to give it some more substance.
This is “meta” as in Most Effective Tactic Available, as opposed to the normal use of the word “meta” (“referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.”)
thank you for this! I was reading the article with the latter meaning in mind, and got quite confused. Should read the comments on HN first!
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#24There is also the ultimate version of the metagame i.e. your personal human condition. Blindly pursuing your career or chasing money without understanding the finite duration of your own physical existence, the scale of the universe, where you want to be in terms of life goals and family.
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#25First time I ever understood what "the meta" refers to. Though I've definitely participated in the metagame without realizing it before.
The definition of meta used in the piece doesn't match my understanding. Take his final example where he says that adjusting tactics in response to your opponent in ultimate frisbee is meta. No, that just strategy. Same goes for most of the examples he gives. Looks like I'm getting old, and the word has been redefined from out under me: In video games, however, the metagame has its own meaning—and depending on which…
>Take his final example where he says that adjusting tactics in response to your opponent in ultimate frisbee is meta. No, that just strategy.
Choice of strategy can be "meta", though. It depends on the context. For example in ultimate frisbee the current meta is to play Vertical offense, and so you see a lot of teams training for how to run it and how to defend against it.
Back in 2004 ish, the dominant teams played Horizontal offense, and we only saw Vert for set plays after a foul or other play stoppage.
The meta has changed because the dominant strategies have changed.
Then you can get even more meta, because perhaps your team is playing "long ball" and you know that if you start calling lots of travels, the other team will reciprocate. And you know that because even a contested travel causes a return to the thrower, it will hurt you more than hurting them.
All of that is both strategy and meta.
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#26> Judo — the sport that I am most familiar with — has a metagame that is shaped by rule changes from the International Judo Federation. A few years after I stopped competing, the IJF banned leg grabs, outlawing a whole class of throws that were part of classical Judo canon
It also has the metagame of carefully crafting your weight to optimally fit in your preferred weight class
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is definitely true of chess.
I played a lot of chess as a kid. That's actually where I 'discovered' the real value of fundamentals. Quick wins in chess are universally the result of an opponent making a horrific mistake. Of course, that means the opposite is also true! There is no faking it in chess. You either grasp the game or you get soundly defeated over and over. That is also true of esports titles, which is why I fell in love with them.
would you guys mind giving examples of what you are calling fundamentals?
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#28Getting good in almost all games is based on understanding and mastering the fundamentals to the extent that you can make consistently correct (or at least a high degree of 'correctness') decisions based on them. This is true for all esports titles, and probably all games in general. Mastering the fundamentals will make you 'good' to a level that very few people ever reach. It's not until you reach a level where ever…
IMO, if you get to the point where the metagame matters, unless you are getting paid to play professionally, or you love metagames for their own sake, you should stop or drop down to a lower level league.
Replacing every game by its metagame, as some "board game geeks" tend to do, destroys the diversiry and value of inventing different games in the first place.
"Scrabble is an area control game with a complicated resource tree" may be fun for some, but informal not-technically-enforceable rules like "only play words you have ever used or seen before in a sentence" keeps it fun and interesting and meaningful for people who play games for valuable reasons (like learning, or skill development, or humor) other than just the W and L. If you are afraid to make an elegant or humorous play because it harms your chances in the metagame or to win overall, you are shortchanging yourself and your play partners.
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#29There is also the ultimate version of the metagame i.e. your personal human condition. Blindly pursuing your career or chasing money without understanding the finite duration of your own physical existence, the scale of the universe, where you want to be in terms of life goals and family.
This is the meta I'm struggling to learn at the moment. I constantly gripe that people making similar salaries in my organization don't produce nearly as much as I do...but they seem happy and I'm constantly stressed out. Which begs the question...who's winning?
Re: To get good, go after the metagame
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The definition of meta used in the piece doesn't match my understanding. Take his final example where he says that adjusting tactics in response to your opponent in ultimate frisbee is meta. No, that just strategy. Same goes for most of the examples he gives. Looks like I'm getting old, and the word has been redefined from out under me: In video games, however, the metagame has its own meaning—and depending on which…
Yeah meta in games is used very loosely — the M4 in CoD is meta, meaning the best available. I got the feeling reading this that the author is more familiar with the video game usage and worked backwards to give it some more substance.
I don't think it's that loose actually, at least not the way I see it used. usually the "meta" is about choosing between two or more roughly equipotent strategies/tactics based on what you expect your opponent to do. you predict what your opponent will do by observing current trends in the game. the meta certainly changes after balance updates, but it can also change organically over time as people try different things.