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Metagame: the Larger Social Context
Throughout this schema, we have investigated many kinds of play communities, from the elemental social roles of actor and counteractor to the complex social tangles of forbidden play. Each offered a different instance of the interplay between the game and the outside world, between social interactions on both sides of the magic circle. We finish this chapter by presenting a powerful concept, one that can help us make sense of the relationship between the artificiality of game play and genuine social reality. This concept is the metagame. The Latin root "meta" means between, with, after, behind, over, or about. Thus metagame means "the game beyond the game" and refers to the aspects of game play that derive not from the rules of the game, but from interplay with surrounding contexts. Metagaming refers to the relationship between the game and outside elements, including everything from player attitudes and play styles to social reputations and social contexts in which the game is played. Post-game locker room conversations about the match are metagame interactions. Memorizing words in the Scrabble dictionary is a metagame activity, the honing of in-game skills. The typical playing strategies of a particular Go master are metagame information, useful if you are playing against him in a tournament next week. In all cases, the metagame refers to the way a game engages with factors permeating the space beyond the edges of the magic circle. Game players use the term "metagame" in several different ways. For example, in live-action role-playing games,"metagam-ing" is when a player gains an advantage by using information that his or her character would not possess—and it is generally considered cheating. Some forms of metagaming, such as trash-talking to distract your opponent in a Racquetball match, fall into the category of unsportsmanlike behavior. Still other kinds of metagaming, such as painting and preparing wargaming figures, are thought of as valuable pursuits. These various uses of the term essentially all refer to the same thing: activities that link the game to outside contexts.
