Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide:
What is Metagame, and Why Does it Matter in Starcraft 2?
Metagame can be defined as the game outside the game, or as a group of external factors that are not part of the game’s rules or design, but that can have a significant influence on its progression and outcome. It’s originally a mathematical term, but is now applied to all types of games – both computer games like Starcraft 2, and others – as well as to competitive situations in sports, politics, military activities and financial markets.
Metagame essentially depends on human behavior. It’s all about how other people – whether we’re talking about your current opponent or the general SC2-playing population – are playing the game, as well as how they’re thinking and talking about it. And it’s also about your own playing style, habits and perspectives. This is why metagame is never a static concept; it continues to evolve over time as the player community changes in composition, active players become more proficient, they adjust their play to accommodate the way their opponents act, and game upgrades and tweaks are released.
One geographical area’s prevailing metagame can also be quite different from another’s. For example, Zerg players in Japan might use a rather different set of strategies and tactics than Zergs in the US, or in Australia or Germany. When gamers from different parts of the world compete against each other, they’re also helping the metagame develop by picking up tricks from each other and incorporating the specific defensive methods necessary for playing their far-flung opponents into their overall style.
The key to using metagame to your advantage is your ability to pick up on and utilize information about what your opponents might be expected to do, as well as what your own reactions will be. This means you must start by observing and researching, and then keep on doing this for as long as you’re an active player, given that metagame is a moving target. If that sounds exhausting and time-consuming, just remember, though, that it’s something you should use in conjunction with your game-based strategy, and not as your main strategy.
In practical terms, knowing your opponent involves figuring out what makes the people you play against, or with – and to at least some extent also the geographical or other sub-community they belong to, and the Starcraft 2 community as a whole – tick. This kind of knowledge comes best with experience, but you can also get a good feel for the trends and opinions that are influencing how the game is played by reading various SC2 blogs, forums and other web-based information sites regularly. Chatting to other gamers can be useful too.