Metagame: Difference between revisions

Metagame (edit)

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 : ''For the documentary, see [[Metagame (documentary)]].''
-The '''metagame''' refers to the collective decisions that are made outside of a game that affect [[tournament]] play.  A metagame is said to have a "shape" or "state" which refers to the commonly employed practices and strategies in tournaments. In ''Smash Bros.'', the most basic decisions that give form to the metagame are the [[player]]'s decisions on what characters to use and what stages to practice on. More complex decisions include deciding on what character and stage combinations will counter the most popular characters and styles.
+The '''metagame''' refers to the collective decisions and circumstances made outside of a game that affect [[tournament]]s and other competitive play.  A metagame is said to have a "shape" or "state" which refers to the commonly employed practices and strategies in tournaments. In the ''Smash'' series, the most basic decisions that give form to the metagame are the [[player]]'s decisions on what characters to use and what stages to practice on. More complex decisions include deciding on what character and stage combinations will counter the most popular characters and styles.
-Metagames typically continuously evolve and developing the metagame involves deciding what strategies to use or alter that can most effectively counter others in tournament play. If a metagame does not evolve or becomes overly centralized around few strategies, competitors may start to find the game boring and tournaments will suffer a lower turnout. Competitors tend to be vocally dissatisfied until the tournament rules are remedied. For example, one of the commonly cited reasons to ban {{SSBB|Meta Knight}} from tournament play is the frustration he causes among competitors because of his overwhelming dominance in ''[[Brawl]]'' tournament results as well as his overuse as a [[main character]].
+Metagames tend to continuously evolve based on experimentation over time and changes made to the format, either collectively agreed upon by the [[community]] or by direct intervention from the developers. Some games have a metagame that stops evolving, usually by the players finding a perfect strategy to win every time. This means the game is "solved" and competitors may start to find the game boring and tournaments will suffer a lower turnout. An example of this is in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', where one of the commonly cited reasons to ban {{SSBB|Meta Knight}} from tournament play is the frustration he causes among competitors because of his overwhelming dominance in ''[[Brawl]]'' tournament results as well as his overuse as a [[main character]], bringing the community dangerously close to solving the game. This means that an evolving metagame is the sign of a healthy community.
 Decisions that form the metagame generally do not include those on what should be [[tournament legal]], although each usually influences the other. For example, what stages are legal may greatly influence character viability. Stage lists that do not include [[stage hazard|hazards]] that hinder less mobile characters, such as the panning camera and obstacles on [[Rainbow Cruise]], may produce tournament results that include more characters that are less agile. If the stage list includes [[Onett]], which greatly favors {{SSBM|Fox}} and {{SSBM|Falco}} in ''[[Melee]]'', it may lead to greater use of those characters.