Metagaming

DEFINITION
2: Metagamers

Perhaps the second most deadly sin of all, the Metagamer is a player who will use information that they learned from an OOC source and act on it in an IC manner.

''For example, the Metagamer might hear on an OOC  that someone is attacking a friend of theirs in a Tavern. Now, the Metagamer might be on the other side of the world at that point, and have no IC reason at all to travel to this Tavern.''

''However, acting on the OOC Information, they travel across to the Tavern anyhow, and help their friend out ICly, As If By Magic. The Metagamer may also use information gained from OOC sources to solve IC problems too. They may magically know who it was that stole a particular item. They may magically know where to find something they would have no IC knowledge of.''

In short, Metagaming is the sin that is most likely to get you into trouble with both Staff and Players; the former when they find out, and the latter when they have their scenes retconned because of it.

I'm going to harp on about Metagaming a little, just in case I haven't drilled into people just how much trouble this will get you into if you do it. The definition of Metagaming is above, and covers things that I'm going to elaborate on:

METAGAMING: CHANNELS
By far the most incidious form of metagaming is that which is carried out on channels, as it often comes across as being an innocent question, and the helpful nature of the general playerbase - on any game - often works right into it.

 Dave says, "Does anyone know where the Silver Raven hideout is?"

 Lebatheron says, "Sure Dave, it's just over near Wildcat Keep, in the forest."

This is the WRONG ANSWER to give someone, and is an example of how Channel Metagaming works. Dave has asked an OOC question on an OOC channel about the location of an IC place. Lebatheron OOCly told him where to find it. Dave now OOCly knows where to find it, and will most likely turn up there ICly within a few hours, or tell someone else ICly where to find it, even though they might have no IC reason to know that location.

IC information about IC things should remain IC and be attained via IC sources.

The correct answer to give is:

 Dave says, "Does anyone know where the Silver Raven hideout is?"

 Lebatheron says, "That's IC information. This is an OOC channel. Find out ICly from an IC source."

Sometime's you'll get the answer of "My character would know". This is the biggest scam that a Metagamer can use on you. If they think their character would know, then the chances are that the player would already know as well. In a nutshell, they wouldn't be asking.

However, sometimes people may ask OOCly about IC things that may be "common knowledge". If you're asking a question like this, or giving an answer, then either ask via [ansi(m,Staff Request (always the safest way) or think long and hard about it before you ask it. Information like who the last Empress was, or who the Prince is, or who the Duke of Hedgehem happens to be, are things that can be considered common knowledge, and used IC after being found out via OOC means.

Asking on channel about personal details, such as if someone is Shadow Touched, or who someone is married to, or having a relationship with, is not common knowledge.

'''Metagaming on any channel will get you banned from it. This includes '''

METAGAMING: THE WHO LIST
Though it may not seem obvious, the WHO list can also be a source of metagaming.

For the most part, use of the WHO list to find locational information that leads to RP is fine. If you see RP being held in an IC and public location via OOC methods, then it is perfectly acceptable for whatever reason - even none at all - to go there for RP.

For example, if you checked WHO and saw people gathered in the Lightholder Tavern, then by all means go there for RP. Or if you found out the IC location of someone who wants to RP with you by asking them OOCly. That's fine too.

However, if you saw some people in a private area, and knew they were having a secret meeting, and decided to go there to arrest them all, then that's metagaming using the WHO list. Your character doesn't know that they're there, right now, but the player does via the use of WHO. Because the player does, the character suddenly does too, and that leads to problems when they turn up there but have no IC reason for doing so.

I've banned people from my events for doing that in the past.

The other issue that arises from WHO metagaming, which is rare but still worth mentioning, is when people see other people in a private area, and then talk about it in RP. For example, a player might OOCly see that two people are RPing a secret meeting in the Silver Raven hideout. They then ICly tell a friend, via RP, that a secret meeting is being held in the Silver Raven hideout, even though they wouldn't ICly know about it.

METAGAMING: STAFFERS
Paging a Staffer and asking them for what I like to call "Divine Information" is metagaming. Plain and simple. I've seen it more times than I like to remember, and it's usually followed by something we call the "Favourite Parent" syndrome, in which a player will try and get OOC information to be used ICly from one Staffer, get denied, ask another Staffer, get denied, and then ask another...

'''Staffers won't give you IC information via OOC means. They will get pissed off at you, though. Staffers, oddly enough, talk to each other, too. If you piss one Staffer off, the others usually hear about it.'''

(This works both ways, too: If a Staffer really likes you, the others generally hear about it.)

METAGAMING: LOGS
Logs are, by far, the number one source of Metagaming, which sometimes makes people reluctant to post them, for fear of personal information being used on a public level by people they've never even ICly met.

Using an example from Gateway - Part II, I'll elaborate:

''"Ah, right." Zanorin states, as if that part of the whole "how to use" part didn't occur to him beneath all the technical issues. He glances around the room and, after finding a suitable location for the placement of the sphere, places the item on the polished brownwood headboard near to the Emperor's bed. From another pouch on his belt he produces a wooden stand for the sphere to rest in without rolling away. The gold plaque on that stand reads: 'Silvan Nevrast'''

Now Dave, who is a Freelander ICly, could read this and ICly RP that Zanorin Drakesfire visited the Emperor. He might also RP that he knows that Zanorin gave the Emperor a magical sphere called the Silvan Nevrast, that opens a gateway to Crown's Refuge, and can be found above Talus Kahar's bed in his Royal Chamber.

How does Dave know all this ICly? He doesn't. He wasn't in the room. He hasn't met either the Emperor or Zanorin before. He hasn't even been to the Palace. Yet somehow he's just told his buddy all of this information. His buddy, shocked, might go and ICly tell a Scourge, who might then come and investigate...

Then all of the events that stemmed from Dave's metagaming will be retconned, scrapping hours of RP, and Dave will be BANNED from the MUSH for a Month.

This is the purest and most sinister form of Metagaming going, and if you want to keep your character, you'll avoid ever doing it, because I have a Zero Tolerance policy when it comes to Metagaming that stems from reading logs, and I don't stand for it.

METAGAMING: REPERCUSSIONS
Most people, I dare say, already know most of - if not all - all that I have written before this line, and the cases of metagaming are generally quite slim, and sometimes even accidental. I can think of three cases this year, and one of them wasn't actually metagaming at all.

'''However, this serves as the definitive guide to metagaming and its many sources, and does not assume to point a finger at anyone and say "You are a metagamer". Nor has it been posted because of someone metagaming recently.'''

That said, should anyone metagame in the future, across JTS should Brody adopt this Guide for OtherSpace and Necromundus in turn, they might expect the following things to happen to them:


 * XP Deductions
 * Retconning of RP/Scenes
 * Public announcements of the above
 * Banning from RP/Events/Arcs
 * Banning from the offending character for a week or more
 * A complete sitelock
 * General humilation and contempt from players and Staff alike.

RP Safe. RP Smart. Don't Metagame. :>

- Rarrie