I'm making this thread to address something I see quite often in relation to gaming. The term "meta". For those who don't know, the term meta is used when talking about what's hot in a game right now, it refers to what everyone is using currently, what's popular. In discussions about the PvP side of Destiny the last few months, I've come across numerous threads on these forums where players will be voicing their opinions on what they think should be changed or giving advice to those aiming to become better, and they repeatedly speak of "the current meta" and "the way this current meta works", and [b]more often than not they're met with people asking what they're talking about, what that means, or asking if they could explain better. [/b] From a neutral perspective, it appears the main reason people use the term "meta" is to sound more intelligent when discussing the game, but being that there are far more casual players and even hardcore players out there in the community who aren't "in the know" when it comes to the most current terminology, using that term is often met with more confusion and questions than it is with understanding. That said, there is a simple solution to this that can bring about more smooth discussion that everyone from all sides can understand, and that solution is dropping the term "meta" entirely. [b]For the overall benefit of the community and contributing to the conversation, I'm proposing we should drop "meta", and just say "trend" or "phase", because it still means the same thing, but It's far easier to understand, and you still get your point across. [/b] I've expressed what I had to say, now what do YOU think? I'm interested in hearing feedback from the community and getting your opinions =============================== EDIT1: Look at all those replies, glad to see there was a nice turn out for this topic here, trolls included! Edit2: The obligatory "TheGreatNike appeared!" mention [b]Edit3: I've seen so many posts in this thread about what meta does or doesn't mean that it kind of blows my mind. Here's a few![/b] [b]FelicityHeaton:[/b] "To me meta is just a piece of code in the header of a web page that I've coded or am coding..." [b]AMPEDtoKILL:[/b] "Meta is a term used for many RPG's. Its meaning, in a broad sense, is that players will adjust their characters in a way that they wouldn't normally do because of outside influences." [b]Normal: [/b]"Meta by itself these days refers to something being self referential. E.g. A movie about making a movie is "meta." Meta in my head has always meant a higher order. Such as meta-data, being a catalog of headers, that in turn carry their own data. [b]MaraSov:[/b] Meta doesn't even mean what these people use it for. It's stupid.