I don’t care about the “current meta” and you shouldn’t either
One of the many things I’m growing increasingly tired of in the modern age of an Internet-connected gaming community is the prevalence of “tier lists” and, by extension, games having what is commonly referred to as a “meta”.
Most of you reading this are doubtless familiar with the concept already, but just in case: the “meta” of a particular game tends to refer to the “optimal” way to play something — whether that means favouring certain characters, weapons, abilities or builds, or outright banning certain things from competitive play.
That last bit is an important part: from competitive play. Having a “meta” is all very well in the case of organised competitions where people want to ensure that things are kept as fair as possible — though honestly, I’ve always felt that outright banning things from competitions displays a remarkable lack of faith in the people designing the games on display — but if you’re just playing a game from day to day in the hope of having a bit of fun? The “current meta” shouldn’t matter one jot to you, particularly in a solo game.
This idea has been around for a while now, but I’ve noticed myself feeling particularly annoyed by it in a couple of recent examples. Firstly, I’ve seen people talking about the “current meta” in HoloCure, the excellent survival shooter (along with its numerous imitators and inspirations). And secondly, while looking up a bit of info on Tower of Fantasy, which I’ve been continuing to enjoy greatly, I was absolutely bombarded with “tier lists” of who is supposedly the “best” character and what are the “best” weapons.
My main objection to this is that it’s just boring. If the Internet’s opinion leaders — who, of course, occupy unelected positions and thus are not in possession of opinions any more inherently “valuable” than anyone else’s — argue that there’s a “best” way to play something and everyone adopts that exact same “meta”, then there’s no variety or interest. We see this frequently offline, too, when people always play the same decks in games like Magic: The Gathering and the Pokémon card game — but it seems especially pointless when attempting to enjoy a single-player game.
HoloCure, for example, is built in such a way that each and every character offers a markedly different play style. Some of them might be more accessible and easy to get along with than others, but that doesn’t necessarily make them “better” or more interesting to play. In fact, once you get good at the game, there’s a strong argument to be made in favour of deliberately playing the more complex or tricky characters as a means of challenging yourself. That doesn’t mean those characters are “bad”; it means that they add longevity for veteran players.
Tower of Fantasy, too, while featuring numerous multiplayer elements where it’s a good idea to specialise the way you play, also doesn’t really benefit from pinning yourself down to too rigid a playstyle, because you spend a lot of your time exploring the game world by yourself. And when you’re doing that, you shouldn’t give a toss what anyone else thinks of your lineup of weapons or the characters you choose to play as, because it’s none of their business. So long as you’re enjoying yourself and getting what you want out of the game, that’s all that matters.
In some games, of course, there’s an “enforced meta” of sorts; Final Fantasy XIV is a good example, with its strictly vertical gear progression. In that game, if you want to do [x] piece of content, you’d better have gear that is up to [y] standard. This is fine, because in a game like Final Fantasy XIV, if someone isn’t geared well enough, then they’re simply wasting other people’s time. By removing that possibility from the equation as much as possible, the vast majority of stuff in the game tends to run pretty smoothly while still offering a challenge.
But even in cases like that where the game has been designed in a particular way, there are still people determined to make the experience actively less fun for everyone with their spreadsheets and tier lists. The ongoing “The Hunt” sidequest is probably the most egregious example of this; while this was originally intended to be a cool activity inspired by the sidequest of the same name in Final Fantasy XIV, it quickly degenerated into large hordes of players calculating exactly when and where which target would appear, and then running a “train” from one to the next, obliterating them in seconds and locking anyone unaware of the situation out of participating.
Well, you might say, it’s an optional activity. And sure, it is — but for a while it became part of “the current meta” to such a degree that people were actively avoiding doing other types of content in the game that rewarded the same all-important “Allagan Tomestone” tokens. That, in turn, had a negative experience on those who felt more comfortable and confident doing stuff like dungeons — or who simply didn’t find melting supposed “boss” after “boss” in a matter of seconds without ever having to worry about mechanics fun. Thankfully, the situation in that regard has improved considerably over time with a greater variety of activities for players to participate in.
When playing a game, the most important thing should always be whether or not you are getting something meaningful and worthwhile from the experience — I hesitate to use the word “fun”, because it’s an inappropriate descriptor to apply to things like horror and tragedy titles. Whether or not you are finding a particular gaming experience rewarding is something down to the individual player — and for most of us, you’ll have a much more engaging, rich experience if you stop trying to let other people define the “best” way to play and instead explore things for yourself.
By all means consider teamwork and cooperation when playing with others as appropriate. But when playing solo? You’re the one in charge. You enjoy your games however you damn well please — even if that means playing as the “worst” character and using the “worst” weapons to do the “worst” activities. And balls to the “current meta”.
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