What is metagame?

Question

What is so called meta-game in StarCraft 2?

What other games have this meta-game?

Asked by Łukasz Lew

Answer

A meta-game for any game is the way that the game is played. Knowing the metagame is not just knowing the mechanics of the game, but knowing what to expect your opponent to do. It is the relative frequency of each possible tactic, maneuver, build, etc.

One of the easiest to understand examples of this is with Magic: the Gathering. Knowing the metagame in Magic is knowing what styles of decks you might come up against. If you see an Island come out turn one, is he going to be trying to lock you down, draw you out, make evasive creatures, or any variety of things blue can do? You don't know if you don't know the metagame.

In StarCraft, for a more localized example, Protoss should wall off against Zerg, but not against Protoss or Terran. Zerg might 6-pool, and if you don't wall off then he's probably going to beat you. As Protoss continues to wall off and 6-pools continue to be ineffective, Zerg players might stop using that strategy. As Zerg players stop 6-pooling, Protoss players might not wall off as often, making the 6-pool effective again. You have to know the current mindset of other players to make the optimal play. That is the metagame.

The metagame is always evolving for any game, so you have to keep playing or reading about your game to keep up with the current metagame.

Answered by StrixVaria

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