Meta Games

Games based on the effects and outcomes of other games.

Some games are constructed around what happens in other games. These "indirect" games are Meta Games, and as such, they usually put totally different demands on the participants than do the underlying games. In some cases, for example in betting on horse or dogs races, the underlying game may not be a proper game (and the participants may not be aware that they are participating in a game), but the participants of the Meta Game treat the activity as a game.

Examples

Tournaments are a common form of Meta Game where individual results of games are used as input to the Tournament. For some sports, for example Soccer, Hockey, and Basketball, playing the game in Tournament form is the normal way of organized games.

Betting on the outcome of games is a classic form of Meta Game. In these Meta Games, the skill required by players ranges from having the actual actions used in the games to having knowledge about the current condition and tactics of the participants in the game being bet upon.

Using the pattern

Meta Games can be designed so that their gameplay is part of the underlying game, adds to the underlying game but is optional, or is independent of the underlying game.

The actual Meta Games are, in these cases, created by passing these as Trans-Game Information to other games, for example by High Score Lists, explicitly supporting Tournaments, or letting the inner games of Games within Games affect the outer games. Games that have Optional Goals, for example Easter Eggs, can be completed in several different ways. In these games, players can have a Meta Game that consists of trying to complete as many Optional Goals as possible, and the number of Optional Goals completed may, in turn, form a kind of Score.

One of the main reasons for independent Meta Games is based around guessing the outcome of the underlying games before the game session has ended or, in some cases, even begun. This makes the skill of playing the Meta Game into a kind of Strategic Knowledge, whatever the skill of playing the underlying game is. A common way to create an independent Meta Game is to have Betting on the outcome of a game affect Ownership of real-world objects, creating Extra-Game Actions and Player Defined Goals if done by the participants themselves.

The other main reasons for independent Meta Games is to create Perceivable Margins or minimize the effect of Luck. This is usually done by creating Tournaments where the goal is to win a certain number of individual games. One of the simplest forms of Meta Game based upon this format is a Tournament of Quick Games, such as a best-of-three game of Paper-Rock-Scissors. Meta Games are also a way to change Single-Player Games to Multiplayer Games by allowing players to compare results of separate game instances or in other ways have an effect on other players' game instances.

Can Be Instantiated By

Action Programming, Algorithmic Agents, Back-to-Back Game Sessions Asymmetric Starting Conditions

Tournaments

and especially Global High Score Lists, create the well-known Meta Game of trying to beat the previous players' Scores.

There are several types of Meta Games that can be used to let players compete against themselves or have additional challenges from a game which may require several game instances being played. High Score Lists and Speed Runs allow players to try at have better gameplay performance that previous players while Easter Eggs can give purpose to carefully exploring Game Worlds. Open Destiny encourage players to replay games to see what variations in outcomes are possible for Player Characters or Non-Player Characters. Achievements of all types (i.e. Goal, Grind, Handicap, and Testing) can be used to let players have explicit Meta Games in wanting to collect them.

Handicap Systems, Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership, Massively Single-Player Online Games, Mules, Zero-Player Games

AI Players together with Zero-Player Games

Betting together with Self-Facilitated Games

Minigames together with Trans-Game Information

Can Be Modulated By

Time Limited Game Instances

Consequences

Meta Games make their underlying games have Extra-Game Consequences that affect the Meta Games through Trans-Game Information. This can modify players' Risk/Reward choices in the underlying game and allow Spectators of one game to be players in another game where they can make use of this Trans-Game Information. This can also make Single-Player Games have Multiplayer Games built on top of them simply because players can compare their game sessions. As people can create Meta Games based on any game design, avoiding the presence of the pattern is beyond game designers control. This however shows how Meta Games allow players to create their own Player Defined Goals.

Meta Games built on having inner games with Time Limited Game Instances, e.g. Poker, make it easy for players to have Negotiable Game Instance Duration for the Meta Games since players can after each finished game instance make a decision on continuing to play or not.

Since Meta Games can create Perceivable Margins regarding player skills, they do modulate Game Mastery through making it easier to notice those who are experts in a game. One way this can materialize is through the use of persistent Handicap Systems that rate player skills, something found for example in Go and Golf, and these ratings in effect become a form of "meta" Score. For Unwinnable Games, having Meta Games on top of them can provide goals and motivations on trying to progress further than one otherwise might care to do. All Meta Games that require players to engage in several game instances of a game give this game Replayability.

Meta Games based on players having Creative Control on how to construction Algorithmic Agents, e.g. Crobots, can give rise to games with No Direct Player Influence.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Extra-Game Consequences, Perceivable Margins, Player Defined Goals, Replayability, Trans-Game Information

with Algorithmic Agents and Creative Control

No Direct Player Influence

with Handicap Systems

Score

with Single-Player Games

Multiplayer Games

with Time Limited Game Instances

Negotiable Game Instance Duration

Can Modulate

Game Mastery, Risk/Reward, Spectators, Unwinnable Games

Can Be Instantiated By

Action Programming, Achievements, Algorithmic Agents, Back-to-Back Game Sessions, Difficulty Levels, Easter Eggs, Global High Score Lists, Goal Achievements, Grind Achievements, Handicap Achievements, Handicap Systems, Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership, High Score Lists, Massively Single-Player Online Games, Mules, Open Destiny, Public Player Statistics, Speed Runs, Testing Achievements, Zero-Player Games

AI Players together with Zero-Player Games

Betting together with Self-Facilitated Games

Minigames together with Trans-Game Information

Can Be Modulated By

Time Limited Game Instances

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

An updated version of the pattern Meta Games that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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