Defining Meta

[MrGreenWithAGun]

When we talk about meta in a game, it seems to me that the entire concept revolves around giving a player things to think about, to strategize over, beyond that of the primary objective of the game. In this sense, the player can actually play a game within the game where the second game has a different objective that they must think about.

 

Let's take CTF as the game. The objective - the primary objective - is the flag. (In slayer it would be killing opponents.) The primary objective always results in score.

 

Within this game a meta game is added by rockets being added to the center of the map. The rockets add meta to the map by offering a second game within the CTF game. The rockets become a secondary objective. And while you don't score by acquiring them, these secondary objectives (from any meta game) always leads to gaining advantages that can indirectly help in scoring through the primary objective.

 

My point of defining meta as offering the player something to think about is that it isn't the rockets that create the meta, but the game that the player enters into in order to acquire the rockets. For example, the game of acquiring the rockets requires that they time the spawning and control the spawn location. These are conscious decisions on the part of the player that they think on and process during the game play for the purpose of improving their advantage.

 

But now you introduce rockets through ROD and you have no way of knowing what part of the map to control or when to control it. All thinking on acquiring the rockets is lost to randomness. In other words, the player cannot engage in this meta game, because the rules of the game become elusive or indeterminate. This is why ROD shallows the game - the player is left to think only on the game of capturing the flag, nothing else. This makes the game boring.

 

 

 

It is from this perspective I would say that meta is defined by what you think about or engage in through your thinking and strategizing and never through the sub objective (whether it be a power weapon, a vehicle, spawn manipulation, movement manipulation, etc.).

 

Comments? Insight? I am most interested to learn if other people have a different meaning or perspective when they use the term meta...

[ABearInTheWoods]

[Cursed Lemon]

An easy definition of meta is anything that causes the player to not move in a straight line (literally or metaphorically) towards the main objective. This accounts for every addition (or subtraction) to the game. You add something, you add to the meta, because the player is now forced to make decisions based on priority. It's that simple. 

 

Therefore, nobody should be concerned with adding "more meta" to the game. There's enough already. 

 

Randomness is not added meta, as you said. Randomness is randomness.

[a Chunk]

 

[Hitman]

 

THE META IS REAL

[Teapot]

An easy definition of meta is anything that causes the player to not move in a straight line (literally or metaphorically) towards the main objective. This accounts for every addition (or subtraction) to the game. You add something, you add to the meta, because the player is now forced to make decisions based on priority. It's that simple. 

 

Therefore, nobody should be concerned with adding "more meta" to the game. There's enough already. 

 

Randomness is not added meta, as you said. Randomness is randomness.

 

Instead of adding meta, should we maybe change the emphasis of the it? From Halo 2 - Halo 4, how has the meta changed other than it coming down to the map?

 

Halo 4 to me felt like it had very little depth to it.. that might just be because of the emphasis on team pushing/baiting and stuck playing station 9, and dispatch.

[MrGreenWithAGun]

An easy definition of meta is anything that causes the player to not move in a straight line (literally or metaphorically) towards the main objective. This accounts for every addition (or subtraction) to the game. You add something, you add to the meta, because the player is now forced to make decisions based on priority. It's that simple. 

 

Therefore, nobody should be concerned with adding "more meta" to the game. There's enough already. 

 

Randomness is not added meta, as you said. Randomness is randomness.

edit...

 

fair enough...

[Cursed Lemon]

The meta hasn't really changed much across the Halo series. Of course, H1 had static weapon timing, item nading, and better weapon balance than any of the other Halo games, but overall the "formula" of Halo has mostly been the same. Obviously, adding loadouts/armor abilities/PODs has been the biggest change to the meta aspect of Halo, but definitely for the worse, as Halo has not become a class shooter for it and the copious amounts of randomness ruin the game. 

 

The meta aspect of any given addition to the game is completely and totally separate from whether or not that addition was a useful or a shitty idea. 

[Velo]

The meta hasn't really changed much across the Halo series. Of course, H1 had static weapon timing, item nading, and better weapon balance than any of the other Halo games, but overall the "formula" of Halo has mostly been the same. Obviously, adding loadouts/armor abilities/PODs has been the biggest change to the meta aspect of Halo, but definitely for the worse, as Halo has not become a class shooter for it and the copious amounts of randomness ruin the game. 

 

The meta aspect of any given addition to the game is completely and totally separate from whether or not that addition was a useful or a shitty idea.

 

Don't be ridiculous. Binary rifles falling out of the sky adds so much meta!

[RandyROFLSTOMP]

Meta, short for metagame, represents the games within the game. A match is nothing more than a series of decisions made by the player. In CTF I can decide to pull a flag. The meta involved in flag running includes decisions like do I juggle for speed or walk for stealth? In Slayer a power weapon comes up. Do I stay in my power position or do I go for the power weapon? Even in a 1v1 firefight, do I challenge or back down?

 

The question the game causes you to ask yourself is "how do I win the match?"

 

The question metagame causes you to ask yourself is "how do I maximize my advantage in this specific situation?" And you keep asking yourself this question over and over again until you answer the first question of "how do I win the match?"

 

Halo has tradionally had fairly deep meta due to factors like a single consistent movement speed that allows for player movement prediction, flag running mechanics that give the carrier a number of different options each with pros and cons, drop spawning weapons and power positions on maps that force players to choose between the two, and even more abstract concepts like what formation should my team push in.

 

Meta, the game within the game: Haloception.

[MrGreenWithAGun]

Ok reading all these replies I take it you all look at meta as what comes with the game, and that includes what the maps offer. I was not concerned with what meta is added to Halo 5 that does not exist in previous titles, if that is what anyone was thinking. I am more interested in how a player can add meta to a map via forge. For example, if they use an IOD for rockets in one location on a timer, that allows a game of acquire the rockets within the larger game. But ROD doesn't permit this kind of game due to the lack of rules that dictate where and when they spawn.

 

But now I take it that by adding IOD or ROD either case is adding meta, just some meta is better than others. Is this a better way of using the term?

[RandyROFLSTOMP]

I am more interested in how a player can add meta to a map via forge.

 

Sidewinder/Avalanche had the area you could throw your flag through to the other side but couldn't walk through. Battle/Beaver had the top window that could be used, with an organized team, to cap a flag in seven seconds. These all require flag dropping to work though.

 

Simple forms of meta include placing power weapons in non-power positions. If you place a power weapon in a power position, no decision needs to be made. If you place a power weapon in a non-power position players need to decide which is more valuable to them.

 

The general layout of a map can produce meta with flanking routes. The exact opposite of this idea would be Husky Wars where two teams spawn at each end of a single long hallway. There are no positioning decisions to be made when the map consists of a single path.

[IKorlash]

Onslaught.

[Teapot]

Yeah, you can come up with plenty of examples of additional "meta" through map design. You have the option to run the flag on either pink or carbine side, or bottom middle. However, the fastest and most open route is top middle. If you can secure that risky quick cap, you're good.

 

Ivory tower CTF. There was an amazing flag bounce that got it out of their spawn on top wood, through the right window, below airlifts, and bounce down to around sword spawn. You cap it under main lift so you just through the flag about 60% of the cap point.

 

Those or more obvious examples for objective, but generally speaking, korlash has a point. Onslaught's meta is rather simple or forced. There's really no other proper way to play it lol.

[Joseph]

Don't be ridiculous. Binary rifles falling out of the sky adds so much meta!

 

added a new meta of me getting pissed off constantly 

[HAGSTROMS]

I totally agree with the OP on the contribution power weapons make to the meta game. However, I would add a little bit to the definition in that meta-game is also hugely important in 1v1 encounters. Ninjaing someone is a great example of this. One player simply outsmarting the other or doing something unexpected. This sort of meta is also seen in a player using sight-lines, jumps, or double-backs to gain any sort of edge over their opponent. These things are often not related to power weapons but are nevertheless a big part of the Halo meta-game. 

[Doju]

New ways to nade weapons was a good example of evolving meta.

[chaosTheory]

Meta is hang em high when Im down by camo 55 seconds into the match and my partner dies and I have to decide whether to go for camo and give him a terrible spawn in the open or take the time to go to bottom ramp to random him out and risk not getting the camo.

 

Meta is when I'm on the other side of that at top blue and I throw a nade at the random spot and either kill the guy going there for the spawn trick, or force him off the spot so his teammate comes up there. Or I can just try to kill him as he goes for camo and nade the spawn on the other side. Asuming he goes for cam and gets it, meta is now when I have to decide whether or not to get the easy kill on the spawner and risk letting him get rockets without contest or me focusing on trying to find and kill that camo dude before he gets rocks.

 

That is like TEN SECONDS of a single h1 match.

[Teapot]

Meta is hang em high when Im down by camo 55 seconds into the match and my partner dies and I have to decide whether to go for camo and give him a terrible spawn in the open or take the time to go to bottom ramp to random him out and risk not getting the camo.

 

Meta is when I'm on the other side of that at top blue and I throw a nade at the random spot and either kill the guy going there for the spawn trick, or force him off the spot so his teammate comes up there. Or I can just try to kill him as he goes for camo and nade the spawn on the other side. Asuming he goes for cam and gets it, meta is now when I have to decide whether or not to get the easy kill on the spawner and risk letting him get rockets without contest or me focusing on trying to find and kill that camo dude before he gets rocks.

 

That is like TEN SECONDS of a single h1 match.

<3 that's why I say the meta hasn't really changed since halo 2. Do we have the number advantage? Are we winning or loosing? Halo 1's spawn system alone utilizes more teamwork/chemistry than any other mechanic. You could be amazing and still lose cause of your teammate's decisions, not overall skill.

 

That's why damnation is such a crazy map to me. What other levels have a similar meta or even design?

 

There's a constant battle of many factors playing halo. What other game makes you second guess easily killing a player in the open on the chance that his teammate will proximity spawn? I don't think I ever kill people near shotty spawns if I know his partner is dead (HeH). In regards to letting camp go for rockets.. I haven't learned how to nade rockets to me from all locations, but I'll still made the rockets elsewhere in your situation. Hopefully it just doesn't fly back to them, but it creates a break in what's expected, and will make them think of their next step

 

It's the reason why I play Halo CE, Shadowrun, and Monday Night Combat., These games all include incredibly versatile options and abilities, and the meta doesn't get stale. Decent learning curves, but even bigger skill gaps, and most importantly, the individual is very empowered allowing individual skill to shine..

 

#wheresjohnhoward