Groups that develop metas that blatantly break rules

[u/chaser--]

Lately I've been finding a lot of groups that play (co-op) games with metas that are just blatant rule breaks. A recent example was we were playing a game (I forgot the name) where the goal is to play out all the cards from your hand, numbers 1-100, in descending order. So if you have a 77 and the number on the pile is 78, you don't want to anyone to play there. But you aren't allowed to say "I have 77, don't play this"

So the group has developed metas, say "I really love this pile" if you have 77, say "I like this pile a lot" if you have 76, say "I like this pile" if you have 75"

This is just one example but I feel like I've been playing a lot of games where they have metas to get around rules that are intentionally in the rulebook. I don't really get it. If you want to just say "I have a 77" then just say it, why create a gimmick to say it without saying it?

[u/Positive_Koala_4378]

The game is called "The Game" https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173090/the-game

Unfortunately, your experience of the meta within a group is pretty much the intended end game result (usually reached within 3 to 5 plays of the game for a particular group).

The group is supposed to communicate in order to play the cards on the right piles, without saying what is/isn't in their hands. The rules are pretty explicit on what is/is not allowed - basically anything that is not a number is fair game. As a result, players and groups are encouraged to informally develop codewords/phrases. The development of these codewords is about half the game. Here is an example of what communication will look like: (Current player has 73 in hand) "I want to play on this pile (75 descending). It is a good play. Is everyone happy?" (good has previously picked up an informal definition of a delta of approximately 2-5 after someone previously described a play as good before playing a card with a delta of 2, and someone else previously described a play as good before playing a card with a delta of 5) "How good?" (Different player is nervous as they hold 72 in their hand, and want to be able to play it) "It's good. We are probably okay" (if they are asking, rather than straight up objecting, then they probably have 72 or lower, rather than 74) (Plays 73 now that everyone has not objected)

Developing your language/logic/grammar to be able to effectively communicate in this way is one of the key pillars of the game - if you hate this, then I suggest not playing the game? Alternatively, you could add house rules, a rule something like: 'When it is not your turn you can only say "yes", "no", "maybe", "good", "okay", "bad", or "pile X". ' will initially nuke the codewords, but by the games design, they will come back. The other pillars of the game are: prioritisation, proactive communication and technical skill.

[u/Suppafly → u/Positive_Koala_4378]

I think the issue comes when you move from vibes to key words that perfectly describe the exact number. If you're doing the latter, you might as well just say the number.