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A single bead of sweat trickled down into his right eye.
He removed his glasses and lowered his head to wipe his eyes.
Focused. He was focused.
He got it right, but he was still behind.
He just needs one more to pull ahead, and the other two people beside him knew that.
They knew it all too well.
They shifted their weight uncomfortably, waiting for him to speak.
Everything seemed to be moving slowly, but he knew it was just the adrenaline rush.
He fixed his glasses and drew a deep breath.
And then another.
He could feel time speeding up back to normal.
He also felt the gaze of the older man across the room.
He glanced up to see the older man looking at him expectantly.
He gathered his nerves and said, "StarCraft 2, for $500."
Satisfied, the older man continued on.
"Analyzing the cost-effectiveness of certain unit compositions are very important to gain an advantage in this stage of the game."
Two thuds echoed on the stage.
"John."
#@%$!!! He was too slow!
Disappointed, he looked to the person on his left.
A hint of a victorious smile was visible on John's face.
He felt his chest tighten as John drew himself up to speak.
Brimming with confidence, John asked, "What is the metagame?"
Endorphins flooded his body. This was his chance!
"No-"
His hand slammed down on the button with unshakable conviction.
"-sorry. Alex?"
"What is the late-game?"
The older man smiled.
******************************************************************************************
What did I just read?
This short story was written to entertain you while subliminally educating you on the proper use of the word "metagame". Metagame is NOT the same as late-game, and means "beyond the game".
Beyond the game?
It's in the sense of "outside the game", such as disconnecting your opponent's internet or calling someone up to break his hands in the middle of the match.
Meta- (from Greek: μετά = "after", "beyond", "with", "adjacent", "self"), is a prefix used in English (and other Greek-owing languages) to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.
Beyond the game! (Beyond the game!) The World Cyber Games!
*dances*
Edit: Changed "meta-game" to "metagame".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta#Words_using_the_term_.27meta.27_or_.27meta-.27
 
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 WCG theme song is cheesy as hell.
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(Not to troll but honestly I disagree...)
Our modern use of the prefix "meta-" derives only incidentally from the actual Greek meaning, which in the classical era was simply "after" - the same as the Latin "post". Instead it derives mainly from example - Aristotle (or his compilers) called the book after "The Physics" "After the Physics" (meta-physics) because it came next. But it dealt with things like the soul and the good life, which the common worldview then (and still) conceived of as greater than and guiding our use of the actual "facts of life" (physics).
The strategy game use then depends on this and the development of the Chess "metagame" - the set of tendencies and human facts of life that guide play of knowledgeable players. Even here confusion creeps in: while it ought technically to apply only to things like how a particular player will respond to an opening (given his psychology, knowledge of the game, etc.), it's also used to talk about the more complicated facts of the game themselves (which openings counter which, which moves are bad). That latter should be incorrect but is too common to disregard.
In Starcraft this dual definition (the "technical" and the common) carried over so that we widely use "metagame" to refer not just to changes in common style (the different mentality necessary to counter 2 gate as opposed to FE , the fact that 14CC against Kwanro is insane unless you're Flash) but also the facts.
That is, a 2-fac opening is an opening - and just a part of the game. Due to the map, opponent, your own confidence, etc. it may be a good or bad choice (maybe a 14CC was better) - that's the metagame. But we commonly use "metagame" to refer to both the existence of the opening and the choice to use it.
Or at least, that's how I understand it.
But what I really object to is your equating cheating - disconnects, causing distractions, etc - with the metagame. The most of this post was just offering a different perspective.
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I welcome all criticism.
@Musoeun
Interesting points. The whole thing with Aristotle, I"ll give you that (the Greek definition does mean "post" or "after"). However, in terms of the modern English language, it has been defined as such that it means "beyond" (score one for butchery).
Therefore, as you mentioned, in chess, the word metagame is used to describe how opponents react to knowing how each other plays. But while people misuse the word (and thus spread it's misuse), it is still incorrect (the same way bad grammar could spread, but it still remains incorrect).
As for examples, I made them off the top of my head. You can find more (and more well written!) here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagame#Examples_of_metagaming
The first example of metagaming in the above link is a great example for the StarCraft definition of it:
There is a special set of moves in chess which allows a player to win in four moves. Competitor A has been watching Competitor B play chess, and the past five games in a row Competitor B has attempted to use this four-move win. When Competitor A sits down to play against Competitor B, Competitor A will be metagaming if he/she plays in a way that will easily thwart the four-move checkmate before Competitor B makes it obvious that this is what he/she is doing.
Replace "moves" with "build order", and there you go!
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Chill gonna be all up in here soon.
One day I will aggregate all the metagame threads made in the last 7 years and examine if the time intervals between each major thread about metagame have any sort of consistency.
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Australia8532 Posts
If you hadn't referenced the cheesiest intro ever seen by man i'd laugh 
So how exactly do i get beyond the game?
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On March 11 2011 06:21 Entropic wrote:
Chill gonna be all up in here soon.
One day I will aggregate all the metagame threads made in the last 7 years and examine if the time intervals between each major thread about metagame have any sort of consistency.
This makes me so sad, considering I've only been around here for two of them. Do I even want to post...? I think I'll take a pragmatic approach this time.
Grammar is a nice but deceptive analogy. This is purely semantics. In this case, general usage is definitive. This is the nature of language.
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There is no general usage anymore. If you ask five people to write what they think metagame is, you'll get five different answers. The word has become valueless, so it's much easier to just coin a new phrase or say exactly what you mean.
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HAHAHAHAHAH OH MAN THEY DID SO MUCH HERE THAT IS AWESOME.
HAHAHAHHAHA
AWESOME
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EPT
