OOC: Blog Banter #5 Metagaming

I’m not part of CrazyKinux’s EVE Blog Pack, but that shouldn’t stop me from posting on the current blog banter on metagaming, right?

This month’s topic comes to us from Mynxee of Life in Low Sec. She asks “Alts and Metagaming: Is playing two accounts who are logged in at the same time and work together (hauler/miner, explorer/combat associate, trade alts in trade hubs) a form of metagaming that is ‘ruining the game’”?

Everyone else has explained in detail what metagaming really is and how it works in EVE, but I want to examine the issue from a role-playing perspective rather than a purely game-mechanical one. Fortunately, EVE binds these two very closely together, as RPGs should.

So when does taking action based on information we possess as players but not as characters cause problems?

In roleplay, this varies because it depends on the impact on other players. A friend of mine from SWG used to say, “if you’re not metagaming, you’re not trying”. This really was a joke, but every joke contains a kernel of truth. In this case the truth is that we all metagame sometimes. Getting online when you know your friend is playing, convincing your RL brother to play, all these things are metagaming to one extent or another.

But when we’re talking about purely IC interactions, it can cause real problems. For example, I know OOC that Mynxee and Roc Wieler (the characters) have some sort of relationship. That’s cool and entertaining and fascinating to me, the player. But if Casiella ran across Mynxee in Molden Heath and asked her about that relationship, it would be very uncool. That’s the dark side of metagaming.

The great thing about a real sandbox like EVE is that even when it happens in game mechanical terms (ref. the BoB defector that disbanded the alliance), you can find reasonable IC explanations. Why can’t we assume that the actual character turned on his old alliance? He took the action to kick the corps and thus disband BoB, so there’s no reason for our characters to have trouble grasping this if they have any knowledge of the entire affair. The fact that it involved his play on another character and deciding he liked GoonSwarm better really doesn’t matter.

Like a lot of things in life, the answer comes down to “it depends”. If you’re using OOC knowledge to benefit your character in a way that hurts other people and defies what should be realistic in the confines of the fictional universe (moving into godmoding), then that’s a problem. But if you’re doing so in a way that results in more fun for everyone involved, then it’s a bonus due to the ingenuity and creativity of players. That can mean just increasing gameplay like the fun people have had in Delve over the last several weeks, or it can mean using alts to fill in holes when you don’t have other folks to accompany you on a low-sec run or for a role in a given storyline.

UPDATE:

• Epic Misadventures, This is my Alt – There are many like it but this one is mine.
• Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, I Missed This Month’s Blog Banter!
• A Mule in EvE, Meta what? Is it hurting EvE?
• Morphisat’s EVE Online Blog, Me, Myself and I
• One Man And His Spaceship, Me and My Shadow
• Ombeve, Blog Banter edition 5
• Diving into PsycheDiver’s Psyche, CK’s Blog Banter #5: Everybody Needs Somebody
• Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter
• Ecliptic Rift, OOC: Blog Banter #5 Metagaming
• The Ralpha Dogs, Me, Myself and I
• Mad Rant, “Blog Banter – It’s my party, and I’ll alt if I want to….”
• EVE Chick, The Handicapper General
• The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, “…you see mate, it’s a matter of leverage, savvy?…”
• New Eden Diaries, It’s only a game
• Oz’s House of the Evil Dead, If You Can’t Ride Two Horses At Once, You Shouldn’t Be In The Circus
• Diving into PsycheDiver’s Psyche, Everybody Needs Somebody
• CrazyKinux’s Musing, Leave what you know at the door please!
• Diary of a Pod Pilot, [OOC] EVE Blog Banter #5 Metagaming
• Roc’s Ramblings, February Blog Banter – Meta Me

I’ve also linked the main post at the top here. Will update if I see more!