this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 69 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (22 children)

I'll never forget an old MTG article about the 3 different types of players. I've found that it applies to most games and a lot of life too. There are Spike, Timmy, and Johnny.

Spike players just want to win. They don't care if the way they win isn't fun or interesting. All they care about is the W.

Timmy players are all about style. They don't care if they lose as long as they do something big, flashy, and cool.

Johnny players are in between. They want to win with style. They want the big flashy move to win them the game.

All three players are having fun but they define "fun" in their own ways. Games should try to have ways to satisfy all three types of players.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 36 points 2 months ago

You forgot the funnest two, Melvin and Vorthos!

Melvin is the mechanics guy, he plays because he loves the complex interaction between different parts. This is the guy building fully automated redstone in Minecraft.

Vothos is the lore master. He might not even be good at the game but he can recite the history of Tamriel in elder scrolls verbatim.

[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

You are forgetting about Steve. Steve doesn't care about winning, Steve only wants you to suffer. He will play a mono blue deck (or red with tons of removal) full of counters and spells to bounce back permanents to your hand. He will have a single 1/1 flier to poke at you every turn while he stops you from playing the game completely. Go fuck yourself Steve. (also Teemo main in league)

[–] troglodytis@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Shuckle is the best pokemon

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago

Jigglypuff flashbacks intensify

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[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Isn't there like a Winston?

Winston is a filthy casual. Complicated rules, paragraphs on the card, any automation, doing too many things in a single turn are all reasons he doesn't have fun. He isn't very bright. He is the antithesis of Spike. He has fun by playing the game for a reasonable length of time.

Losing on turn 1 is the culmination of everything Winston hates.

Source: Am a Winston...

Right now Winston stops playing every CGC because of incessant power creep.

[–] KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

This is a great thread. I'll add Jesse.

Jesse is there to hang out with his buddies and wants to just BS.

The game is just common ground for a Jesse or group of Jesse's to shoot the shit for an hour or two at the end of a long day. Previous generation would find your Jesse hanging out at the bar, or sports ball games. Jesse's really started appearing in games en masse during covid. They aren't necessarily good at the game, often bad, but that doesn't matter.

My gaming group are all Jesse's.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm definitely johnny. I find a playstyle/character/build/whatever applies I like and then I'll minmax the shit out of it. But I won't just switch to what's meta.

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[–] watson@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

wtf is “the meta”?

Edit: thanks for all of the excellent replies!

[–] remon@ani.social 41 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)
[–] watson@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

That’s pretty much what I thought from context, but where did the term come from?

Edit: thanks for all of the excellent replies!

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It comes from the word metagame, i.e. the game beyond the game. I think it originally comes from game theory (the field of mathematics), later it began to be used in both game development and game playing (with slightly different meanings).

[–] watson@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Eureka! Now I’m definitely familiar with that concept as a part of game design theory, I just haven’t heard that term before.

This is exactly the answer I was looking for. Thank you.

[–] remon@ani.social 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Not sure, but it has been around for a long time (20+ years).

I guess because the "ideal" way to play is usually found out by theorycrafters so they aren't playing the actual game, but the "meta game" of finding out how to best play the game.

[–] watson@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Not only have I been gaming for 40+ years, I’ve written a bunch of games. I’ve never heard this term.

But I’ll take your word for it ;)

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Been hearing this term for a long while. It's specially prevalent in games where there's a strong competitive scene or in games where you can practice min-maxxing. You won't use the term (normally) in a game like The Sims or any other game where there is no "goal" to achieve; but if there is a goal (even just a boss fight) and there are multiple alternatives to tackle it, you will hear the term eventually.

[–] watson@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe that’s why I haven’t heard it… I do my best to avoid multiplayer games. Is it something one would only see/hear in multiplayer games? My interest is in the origin of the term.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In relation to gaming it gained popularity in 1995 (Magic the Gathering).

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[–] remon@ani.social 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I remember it from early StarCraft, where balance patches would often "shift the meta" making some build and strategies so good (or bad) that you basically had to use them (or couldn't use them) if you wanted to be competitive.

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[–] FishFace@piefed.social 7 points 2 months ago

The concept of "the meta" arises from the idea of players playing a metagame in which they're picking strategies which work well against the strategies other players pick. The idea I think was that it wasn't necessarily the best strategy, but it was one that reliably worked against those strategies others pick, so it highlights the possibility that there are unexplored strategies.

But because it identified popular strategies it became used just to mean that even in single player games where there is no metagame at all.

[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When I heard it used back in the days if collectible card games, it seemed like it was describing the abstract 'game' rather than a particular game between two players. So a particular card (or weapon or ship) can be good within a game, depending on your opponent or play style. But sometimes a card or strategy is found by the community to be highly effective so in the 'metagame' it comes to dominate.

New cards would come out and change the meta. Even if you don't buy then or use them, knowing that they exist and are effective changes how other players build decks and so you might need to change your play style to adapt to the new metagame.

[–] watson@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In another comment, someone referred to it as “the game beyond the game” that the term was actually short for a “metagame”.

While their explanation was more concise, you both definitely answered my question. Thank you.

[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes, concise is not my strength. I avoided getting into the etymology of 'meta' and how it comes from an ancient librarian dealing with untitled manuscripts... So thought I was doing well!

[–] watson@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

i’m actually quite familiar with ancient Latin and Greek. So I understand the etymology of the term. There’s a fine line between descriptive and verbose.

And nonetheless, thank you very much for your answer. And, in no way, was I making a criticism.

Btw, “meta-“ is the Ancient Greek prefix meaning “after” or “beyond”

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[–] Million@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago

The meta in any given game is "the most effective tactic available" or just information acquired outside of the game to be efficient.

Like you could pick a class like warrior in some game and hours into playing realise that its the most difficult class to play, meanwhile the sorcerer is easy and good out the gate, so people would look up the best class/gear/shortcuts/exploits even before starting a game to be the most efficient, instead of just playing what they like.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

While Million's explanation is good, I'd like to try my own phrasing:

In this context, setting up your character's armor by 'the meta' would basically mean picking the armor with the best stats, that maybe synergize with each other and/or the playstyle/class build that is the most overpowered, most broken.

You could maybe call that 'optimizing the fun out of the game'.

What this person, OP, is saying is... nah, I'm just gonna pick the armor/clothes I think look the best, knowing that will make things harder for me than just choosing the 'optimal' armor, and I'll either git gud at the game, or die trying.

Its... kind of like how DBZ characters wear weighted clothes.

Its an intentional, chosen handicap, in a gameplay mechanics sense, that makes things more difficult, so training / playing the game is harder... but if you can handle it, you're probably going to be better at the game.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 35 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Yet somehow still end up as a Skyrim stealth archer.

[–] Drekaridill@lemmy.wtf 11 points 2 months ago

This time for sure, I'll throw away every bow I get, just blade and magic this time! Oh wow, you can conjure a sword that does way more damage than the swords I have access to. Let's see what else I can conj- and I'm a stealth archer with a bound bow, damnit...

The humorous bit to me is I have never even been tempted to stealth arch. I just started flaming people to death from level one and never stop. Why, yes, I will kill alduin with double handed flames, thank you very much!

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago

Never happened to me, but I hate shooters.

Especially in RPGs, you shouldn't want the most efficient build possible because those are boring. You should instead want something that is fun to play and fits your character.

I immensely enjoyed dual wielding swords and using the time stop shout. Its DPS was so high, they could kill an entire room of enemies before the time stop ended. making them all fall to the ground at the same time while you sheath your swords like a badass.

Or the time I played in VR a stealth conjuration/necromancer. I could just sit on the floor and nobody could find me. While my minions did all the fighting. If an enemy died, their corps would be raised and added to my army.

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I always liked stealth, but I was a stealth mace cat person. CLANG!

[–] jpablo68@infosec.pub 21 points 2 months ago

happened to me with one of the Need for Speed games and the Volkswagen Golf R32 even with everyting maxed out I couldn't finish one of the races so I gave up on the game, I refused to use other car, I really like the R32.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The kind of corrolary to this is that any game that is stagnating eventually becomes just a fashion show of cosmetic competition.

With MMOs, you can see that by the end stage of its lifecycle, no one is even really playing the game for the sake of playing the game, the community is probably insular and ossified, and is just literally competing in terms of style.

With MTX games full of cosmetics from day one?

Yep, the game is functionally dead on arrival, expect little to no meaningful free game updates, lots of stuff will just be broken and probably never really fixed...

...because the whole point of such a game is just to be a platform, a marketplace, for selling you 'digital goods', and it just uses the form of a game, and often all the dark patterns, to lure you in and keep you addicted to it.

EDIT:

Upon further reflection:

A Gacha game very much is, imo, a psuedogame, in the same way a pseudoscientist is fundamentally an impostor, only superficially behaving as the true thing behaves, which it fundamentally is not.

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I think that's only part of it. Take a game like any monster catching one. There is going to be a meta, a "tier list" that tells you that these monsters are the best of the best. And that's fine. But the problem is when the game is poorly balanced so if you don't play the meta, you can't complete the game. If I can't beat the game using what I like, the game is just telling me that I shouldn't play it.

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Same but i pick the largest fattest slowest guy because i find it funny to kill the lightly armoured fast moving players with a fat slow guy.

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This is me in any game too. If the game offers you a bunch of alternatives but makes it impossible/insufferable to play outside the meta, then the game is not worth my time. I should play a game the way I want, not the way the developer decides to force even though they gave me other alternatives.

[–] thebustinater@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago

What if the cutest gear IS the meta?! Never say never

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

pick the meta ? what is the meta ?

[–] embed_me@programming.dev 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's a video game term, picking the meta means picking the characters considered the strongest in the present state of the game. (Presumably a game that receives constant patches to achieve balance between old and new characters so that all characters are viable to play)

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[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago

One of the things I like about Horizon Zero Dawn is they introduced cosmetics so you didn't have to compromise your visual style for the right set of numbers for your current opponents.

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