[b]Jadzia wrote:[/b]
[quote]The best would be if we didn't need websites outside of the game, but we would be able to manage everything about tribes ingame. Its much more immersive and fun...and I think the totems are planned to make this possible.[/quote]

If there are LESS mechanics that help people out, then the game is more realistic. This is relevant to the fun factor but it's not that easy, it goes both ways: it may contribute to the fun or be counter-productive. An example are player vendors instead of an auction house.

If there are MORE mechanics then the game may be over-empowering the player and become a kind of fantasy/sci-fi theme. This would be less realistic. Again, it's relevant to fun and it goes both ways. An example are teleporters to avoid players to run long distances.

Now, this MORE or LESS empowering mechanics are all in-game. Sadly, with our technology at hand (Internet), it is impossible to fully exclude out-of-game mechanics that can complement missing in-game mechanics. This is one of many ways do meta-gaming. I said "sadly" because it complicates things very much. The LESS route becomes an utopy because players will try (and achieve) to use out-of-game aids that break in-game mechanics. An example is MO (Mortal Online) where only local chat is provided but people use VOIP (TS or Ventrilo) to stay in contact far beyond the "perceptive horizon" envisioned by the game designers.

The only way to remove meta-gaming is by OVER-empowering mechanics and make players not want to rely on out-of-game mechanics out of pure laziness. When they find everything in-game why take the hassle to obtain the same benefits out-of-game?

Currently, this OVER-empowering would mean VOIP, WIKI, search databases, ebay-like AH, multi booting (playing with more than one account simultaneously) and so on. A game designer would actually be very much restrained by these mechanics and the fun factor is difficult to guarantee.

AND... this is no guarantee to impede meta-gaming, because by its own definition it is nearly to impossible to block it. Hell, it is even impossible to block in real life war! The second world war was won by the allies also because they had a very good take on meta-gaming!

Said that, I think that it is up to the player to decide what level of immersion vs meta-gaming he wants to experience. To be more immersed avoid meta-gaming, even if the game only has UNDER-empowering mechanics. The fun factor is much increased by this choice!

BUT... other player may choose to meta-game all the way and this will detract from fair play.

Maybe it should be a question of choice? Like RP (role playing)? Maybe MMOs should also offer a meta-gaming-free server where any breach* of the in-game policies leads to instadeath?

*breach: the whole problem about meta-gaming is how to detect these.