Meta (prefix)

One can play this type of metagame and choose which rules apply during the game itself, potentially changing the level of difficulty.

According to Nigel Howard, this type of metagame is defined as a decision-making process that is derived from the analysis of possible outcomes in relation to external variables that change a problem.

[6] Any subject can be said to have a metatheory, a theoretical consideration of its properties – such as its foundations, methods, form, and utility – on a higher level of abstraction.

The earliest form of the word "meta" is the Mycenaean Greek me-ta, written in Linear B syllabic script.

[9] Nonetheless, Aristotle's Metaphysics enunciates considerations of a nature[clarification needed] above physical reality, which one can examine through certain philosophy – for example, such a thing as an unmoved mover.

Douglas Hofstadter, in his 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach (and in the 1985 sequel, Metamagical Themas), popularized this meaning of the term.

The book, which deals with self-reference and strange loops, and touches on Quine and his work, was influential in many computer-related subcultures and may be responsible for the popularity of the prefix, for its use as a solo term, and for the many recent coinages which use it.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it as "showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category: cleverly self-referential".

Alfred Tarski solved this difficulty by proving that such paradoxes do not exist with a consistent separation of object language and metalanguage.

"[14] Metagaming is a general term describing an approach to playing a game as optimally as possible within its current rules.

In some games, such as Heroes of the Storm, varied level design makes the battleground a significant factor in the metagame.