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For other uses, see Metagaming (disambiguation).








Examples of metagaming[edit]

  • In role-playing games, a player is metagaming when they use knowledge that is not available to their character in order to change the way they play their character (usually to give them an advantage within the game), such as knowledge of the mathematical nature of character statistics, or the statistics of a creature that the player is familiar with but the character has never encountered. It can also include plot information, such as renaming a character with a false name to their real name before it is revealed.
  • In modern computer games, particularly in casual, mobile and tablet games, the out-of-game play achievements which give you bonuses in the game itself are considered metagame elements as they are games outside of the real game. Also known as Reward systems, Achievement games, augmented reality games and gamification.[3]
  • In the cooperative card game Hanabi virtually all the strategy is dependent on metagame, such as the widespread convention that players discard unclued cards from a fixed side of their hand and add new cards from the opposite side. The metagame can go several levels deep. For instance, one may indicate that an unclued card just added to a hand is a playable 3-White by cluing the 4-White in a different player's hand (this is known as "finesse"). But if a player is aware that everyone in the game is familiar with finesse, they may merely pretend to finesse in order to get some other card played: perhaps it was not a 3-White, but some other card that was nonetheless also playable.
  • As an example, PHD Richard Garfield shares an experience of a competitive game where players can team up to gain an advantage, but if they decide to betray their allies way before the end of the game, for several games, other players will learn not to trust them to the point where no one will be willing to establish a partnership with this players considerably reducing their chance to win the game. Referring to the metagame as the game beyond the game.



Adaptation to a specific gaming environment[edit]

Another game-related use of Metagaming refers to operating on knowledge of the current strategic trends within a game. This usage is common in games that have large, organized play systems or tournament circuits and which feature customized decks of cards, sets of miniatures or other playing pieces for each player. Some examples of this kind of environment are tournament scenes for tabletop or computer collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone, tabletop war-gaming such as Warhammer 40,000 or Flames of War, or team-based multiplayer games such as Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Paladins.

The metagame in these environments is often affected by new elements added by the game's developers and publishers, such as new card expansions in card games, or adjustments to character abilities in online games.[6] The metagame may also come from within player communities as reactions to win over currently-popular strategies, creating ebbs and flows of strategy types over time.

Computer games[edit]


Role-playing games[edit]


See also[edit]


  5. ^ Garfield, Richard (1995), Lost in the Shuffle: Games Within Games 
  6. ^ Von Allen, Eric (December 15, 2016). "Pros react to Dota 2 Patch 7.00". ESPN. Retrieved December 29, 2016.