or “Where the heck did that come from?” Also, happy holidays everyone! It’s still Christmas here, and hopefully you’ve had a really good time today. I know I did. Otherwise I wouldn’t be blogging at 00.19 AM xD
What am I going to try and discuss in this post, you might ask yourself? I’m going to try and talk a bit about the notion of “meta” in games, and how this affects the aesthetics of a game. Meta is such a big, new, hipster-ish notion, I know, but I find that it’s really really interesting and it’s something that a games designer should think about when designing his games. Let’s delve into this!
hmmm...this would've been easier in medieval times...
First, let’s skirt a bit around what exactly “meta gaming” or “meta element” in gaming is. It’s something that you, as a player, do outside of the game, to affect the game state. Now, that’s a little bit difficult, taking into account that I’ve (and by I, I mean Costikian, Newman and the rest of the people who have actually written stuff about games) been saying that a game is an immersive experience and that the player has to BELIEVE in the world of the game to be able to experience it fully. This is where the MDA kicks in. As I’ve said before, the “A” in MDA stands for Aesthetics, what the player experiences during gameplay. Rage, sadness, joy etc., and so, as a game designer, you should ask yourself before creating some aspects of your game, if your player should be aware of the outside world, or just be mindlessly immersed in your creation.
The answer, at a first glance, is the latter: you don’t want your player being aware of the existence of the door that leads outside, of the ice-cream truck that’s doing its rounds, of the girlfriend who’s been calling him for the last 2 hours. In theory, that works, of course, and that’s how it should be. Catch your player and don’t let him go. But here’s where the Aesthetics kick in: will he appreciate that you’re reminding him of the real world? That he can exit, or better yet, transpose something of the game in the real world? I think some players might. So that kind of covers what the “meta element” is.
But how can you put it in? Well, here’s how I’ve come to think about this post in the first place. I was playing Stronghold (the first one) today and, when I first accessed it, it wished me a Merry Christmas. I blanked. Honestly, for a few seconds, I was looking at the screen and couldn’t believe that they’ve thought of it. They have implemented (and unfortunately I don’t know the other occasions this happens) a system in which the game can access the date of your system and, if it Christmas, it wishes you a Merry Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised. Then, after an hour or so of play, my advisor (I call him Bob) asked me if I don’t want a snack. I thought it was some sort of event and I scoured the map to see if my peasants needed food but no, Bob was reminding me that I should take care of myself, although I was playing the game. This happened again half an hour ago, when, at 12:00AM, he told me it’s kind of late. Again, reminding me that I’m rooted in the real world and that maybe I should rest a bit. As a side note, this also happens in Guild Wars, where you’re reminded hourly for how long you’ve been playing and every 2 hours you’re asked to rest a bit.
just look at how happy Bob is...
Why is this good? Is this good? From my “gamer” point of view, it is, because it shows me that the game is trying to take care of me and it actually cares about me, and I should, probably, care about it too. It really gave me some fuzzy feelings inside with the Christmas thingy.
Yes, you might say, but how can we implement “meta elements” in our games? Well, it’s simple. If you feel like your game could do with some “meta” in it, then ask yourself “what is our game about?” If it’s a board game, it already has some meta in it simply by having the players physically seated next to each other and probably talking between them. Another good example are trading card games and war games like Warhammer 40k. In trading card games players arrange their decks, buy and trade cards outside the game, so they are actively involved in the game even when they’re not competing against each other. There are a lot of meta elements there. In Warhammer’s case, players paint their units, buy paint and brushes etc, all of this without actually setting a unit into play. Magic: The Gathering even went a step further with a spoof set of card with meta-like instructions. Here’s an example:
I'M BATMAN! AND I PLAY A MOUNTAIN...
As far as digital games go, even if your game doesn’t make the player go buy some extra tokens from the corner shop which he can exchange into health potions later on, you can still do a lot of meta. From simply including an “event” calendar into the game system which detects things like the major holidays (yes, not politically correct, I know) to major tweaks like a system which connects with Facebook and allows you to send personalized postcards from checkpoints in the game to friends or something special for your or their birthdays, everything’s “meta”. Don’t even get me started on integrating Twitter. Heck, even a game such as Pop Cap’s Insanaquarium had “meta” in it by allowing you to save your fish tanks as screen savers for your computer. It’s still in the digital world, but it’s outside the game, so it’s meta. Plus, unlike most of the Facebook games which are like “Get more friends to mine more kitty-dust”, from my point of view, digital meta should be beneficial and not pose a very big challenge to the player, just be something optional, something that will allow him to feel better in that day, to give him a positive Aesthetic.
As far as my opinion on this matter goes, I believe that if the designer thinks that his game will be played a lot, he should include “meta elements” as at least a kind of easter eggs, if not design a few mechanics which would be “meta” related.
Wiz out.
i believe it's a daily quest o.O
References:
Hunicke, R., Leblanc, M. & Zubek, R. (2004) MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research. In Proceedings of the Challenges in Games AI Workshop, Nineteenth National Conference of Artificial Intelligence, p.1–5.
Internet, Bitmob.com [accessed on 26/11/2011]
Internet, Gamespot [accessed on 26/11/2011]
Internet, The Gatherer Magic:The Gathering Card Database [accessed on 26/12/2011]
Internet, xeophin.net [accessed on 26/11/2011]
Rares's CGS blog 