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Today we see the word meta in Planetside 2, DotA 2 and many more games, but I really see the word meta used, abused, and smacked around all over the place in MWO forums and fan-sites.
Before we look at the word meta, lets take a look at words and start with Romans.
-Immune
A roman soldier would have many tasks to do, such as cook, clean and fetch water. If you had certain skills, such as smithing or hunting, amongst others, you were known as an immune. You didn't have to do those basic tasks.
-Decimate
Decimate can be seen as decimal as in the number ten and execute.
If a roman legion ran from battle, but the Romans were victorious, then the soldiers would draw lots, and every tenth man was put to death as both punishment and to set an example to the rest of the army.
Switching now to latin and we get:
-Nihilsm
Nihilsm translates as nothing.
Progressing to middle english and we find nihilism in the word:
- Annihilate
To annihilate is to reduce something to nothing, to destroy it.
So we can see that to decimate something is to reduce something by ten percent, but to annihilate something is to destroy it.
Something you fellow mech-warriors experience a lot.
Now lets look at meta:
To do so we will look at three other words first
-Physics
Physics comes from ancient greece originally as phusis (nature), then phusika (natural things),
-Morph
This one is very difficult to trace, but is along the lines of change
-Tarsal
Orignally greek, the word tarsus mean flat of the foot.
Now we come to meta:
Meta was another greek word, translating as beyond, post (as in after) or even as higher, beyond.
Now lets put meta in front of the 3 words directly above and we get:
-Metaphsyics
After nature, the physical world. What we get after that is logic, ideas and maths. (Maths does not actually exist in the physical world, but is an artifical tool that humans invented - the apple doesn't do a quick mathematical equation to see if it should fall from the tree.
-Metamorphosis
This translates as after the change, such as when caterpillars metamorphosise into butterflies.
-Metatarsal
Literally after the tarsal (flat of the foot), and its a muscle in, obviously, the foot.
Modern usage of Meta
The U.S.A.A. first started using the term meta-game concerning what the political fallout from an operation could be.
This breaks down as the game and the meta-game.
The game would be an operation, such as a hostage extraction. In doing so there could be casualties.
The meta-game was post/after the military operaion.
The meta-game was the potential scenarios for the political repercussions of the military operation
Now we come to the gaming world.
Take a fantasy game.
You have played a character that has fought a troll and you have learnt to use fire to kill it.
You are playing the game again, as a different character. Your character has never met a troll before, but you the player know that to kill it you have to use fire.
Here you are using meta-knowlege.
Now comes the tricky bit.
Meta has become a fashionable word these past few years and is stuck in front of things by people who just want to sound intelligent.
Meta-data, meta-programming, yadda, yadda, yadda
That poor word has been picked up and shunted in front of words just for the sake of someones ego!
Anyway...I hope that explains the word a bit better, and if you got this far, well done.
Here are some easy rules to use meta
1) Using meta near someone who knows what the word means when you don't can make you look like an ass
2) When in comes to the meta-game in computer game terms then all remember this, the meta-game can translate as after-the-game...at which point I'm off down the pub!
3) To some people, when you use the word meta near them, all they will hear after that is this
Edited by Azmaril, 04 August 2015 - 04:25 PM.
