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

Can Be Instantiated By

Handicap Systems, Massively Single-Player Online Games, Mules,

Meta Games can be created through requiring games to be played several times. Tournaments are classic examples of using Minigames together with Trans-Game Information to create Meta Games but another example is Back-to-Back Game Sessions. These are typically in games with Asymmetric Starting Conditions (e.g. Chess and Memoir '44).

There are several types of Meta Games that can be used to let players compete against themselves or have additional challenges from a game. Both these may require several game instances to be played, but this differs from the previous cases by not specifying how many game instances are needed or if more than one is needed and if the games have Time Limited Game Instances players can have good control over how long time the Meta Games should take. 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.

The above suggestions for creating Meta Games can work for individual game consoles. However, by automating the transferal of Trans-Game Information players can be offered Meta Games involving many more players up to all players that have ever played the game. Examples of patterns that support these types of Meta Games includes Global High Score Lists and Public Player Statistics.

A less common type of Meta Games are created by not letting people be players of a game, i.e. be Zero-Player Games, but challenges them to create the AI Players that are to play the game. Action Programming is the simplest form of this, since the Agents do not need to be able to react to the environment; creating Algorithmic Agents is more complex since these do have to be able to react. However, as 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness shows, the pattern Zero-Player Games can be enough in itself to create Meta Games.

While game designers can create Meta Games for players, players can often easily do so themselves if they are inclined to create Self-Facilitated Games. The simplest examples of this is Betting on the outcome of a game. Related to this are games with Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership; here players can also easily create Meta Games using Betting but with the game elements themselves as the prizes. Marble Games and Magic: The Gathering are examples of games where this kind of Betting occurs.

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, 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, Tournaments, 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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