Founder & CEO at WebPick Internet Holdings Ltd.
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Whether you talk to developers or gamers, the term “meta-game” has a different meaning. For a gamer, the term normally describes a player’s use of real-life knowledge concerning the state of the game to determine their in-game actions. In a sense, it’s a way to outsmart the machine by transcending rules and systems through interaction with other players. In the gaming community, it can often be seen as a form of cheating through sharing gameplay tips and hacks with others.
For game developers, the meta-game (also known as meta) refers to systems and mechanics they create to wrap the main gameplay with a set of rules and logic. As Stanislav Costiuc explained in his recent Gamasutra article, meta-game systems are not connected to the mechanics of the “core gameplay.” They are “looping systems that wrap themselves around the core gameplay—they can affect it, but they don’t take part in it.” Even though the meta will be inevitably connected to the core game, it will run independently. This helps developers add a layer of complexity that wraps the gameplay. For example, app developer Plarium took the casual game of “match 3” to the next level so that players ultimately can build an entire digital zoo — a much more complex, interesting and ambitious goal for the player.
Costiuc concludes that most mechanical meta-games revolve around a progression or economy that wraps the core gameplay without directly utilizing it. These systems bring additional mid- and long-term goals to players, keeping them engaged for longer. In its simplest form, an example of a meta mechanic is a persistent high score table linked to your game.
Roblox lesson about the power of connecting games through meta.
Any app that hosts multiple games under an ecosystem fully understands the crucial value of meta-gaming. Think of Apple’s Game Center, which gives users the ability to play online games against friends. Possibly the best example of leveraging the power of connecting games through meta is Roblox. The platform hosts a collection of more than 50 million games created by its community of players. You can think of it as a YouTube for gaming, with a huge library of user-generated games with multiple social features that include the ability to add friends and chat with them while playing.
According to a report from The New York Times, the platform has “exploded in popularity since the beginning of the pandemic,” reporting an average of “31.1 million daily active users in the first nine months of 2020, up 82% from a year earlier.” This year is bound to be even bigger for the company, which recently announced a round of funding that values the company at $29.5 billion ahead of an imminent IPO.
As the Times notes: “Inside the Roblox online universe, players’ avatars can interact and play millions of unique games set in different worlds, from tropical islands to haunted castles. Players pay money for premium memberships, as well as for items and clothing for their avatars.” Brands and advertisers have noticed the success of the platform, and an AdAge report noted that the platform has been “attracting brands that want to create their own digital worlds and launch virtual events.”
To what extent can meta really impact engagement?
Recent research by one of our portfolio companies, AppCentral, measured the impact of giving players games within an existing ecosystem that has a meta-game that binds them. To do this, it took 10 different unity games and aggregated them into a single app. The end user would see 10 different icons (one for each game) within a single app. It promoted two versions of the game until 3,000 players downloaded each one. The first version had a shared meta, which connected all 10 games through a coin that players would receive inside each game as they completed a level successfully plus a leaderboard that showed performance and achievement across all games based on the overall number of coins collected. The second version was more like a traditional arcade, in which games were not interconnected and could be enjoyed as individual entities.
The outcome of the test was eye-opening. Players of the version of the game with shared meta spent on average 4.15 hours per week on the app compared to the three hours that users from the other group did. That is more than a 35% increase in time spent on the app. The logic is simple — players wanted to collect more coins for the leaderboard, which meant that players were willing to try more games to achieve this. In fact, the average amount of games played per user on average for the version with the meta was 3.9 compared to 3.3 for the version without.
The future for game creators and developers.
Belonging to a bigger ecosystem and the benefit that this brings is not a new concept. Apple’s Game Center, YouTube or even Fiverr are great examples of platforms that help creators thrive through shared rules and rewards — from ratings to financial incentives. This enables content creators to unleash their creativity and tap into a well-oiled distribution and monetization ecosystem, which means they can focus on what they do best.
The big dilemma for mobile game creators will be where to host their creativity — and, as a result, which tools they should use to develop new games. What is clear is that meta should be taken into account as a key for any game to succeed. The environment in which a game exists has become just as important as the game itself — and it could make or break its chances to succeed.
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