METAGAMMING
Metagaming literally means that you make the game bigger as it is. It's done by bringing in things that have no place (yet) in the game.
To not metagame, is to seperate what is IC knowledge and what is OOC knowledge. So, what does your character know and what does your character not know, but is known by you, the player controlling the character.
A number of things are considered information your character does not know about if it's not roleplayed yet. Things like:
A character's name; you don't know the name of another player untill you have been introduced or if someone else has pointed them out to you. While we are wearing nametags above our characters in Second Life, that information is visible to the player, to you, but not to your character.
A character's race and class, their level; it's also shown above their character and again; not something your character knows about untill it's roleplayed.
The faction / family / etc. a character belongs to; untill your character has identified them as belonging to a certain faction or group, the tag above their head is not giving that information away in the roleplay.
These are very common examples, but they do show the point. If your character hasn't had anything happening to them (roleplay) in which they learned about information you as a player already know about, then you can not use it in your roleplays, In Character.
The above examples have ways to work with though, and some players think that is allright, while others are more strict. For instance, look at this:
Jayden Trickster looks at Lisa Winschester
Personally, I believe this is valid roleplay, even if the character Jayden hasn't met Lisa yet. It's like in a book; "Michael turned his head and looked at the smiling face of a young woman, who he soon learned to be Julia and who he would marry five years later."
Nowhere it's said that Michael already knows Julia, or that Jayden knows who Lisa is, it's just a narrative means to describe an action so all involved know what's going on.
However, some will say the above is wrong and want to see something like:
Jayden Trickster looks to her right at the woman with the stitched mouth
Well okay, if everyone knows Lisa is on Jayden's right and she had her mouth stitched, then it's clear for all what's going on. But again; I wouldn't make too big a deal out of it.
The same thing goes for races. Personally when I would walk up to a fellow lycan, I would smell the presence of another doggie, since that's what they do. You might also smell brimstone when you walk into a demon, things like that. If your character doesn't know the race from another player, it doesn't mean you can't use roleplay to get things going. Just don't overdo it.
Usage of radios, communication, etc.
At times you will see how large hurds of people come to the aid of someone who is captured. The question is often how they knew about the capture in the first place and how they found them.
These are a couple possible scenarios and not all of them are metagaming, but some are:
a friend of the captive saw it happen and informed them; this is perfectly valid roleplay and often overlooked as a possible scenario.
the captive used his radio (IM) to contact his fellow faction-members or any other group of players to come to their rescue: this is not metagaming, *IF* the usage of the radio has been properly roleplayed. What you can not do is just go to your IM and say "hey guys, this lycan captured me... so come get me please, I'm at coordinates x,y,z." What you could do, is roleplaying taking your radio and sending a message to your comrades. But... do remember that you just cannot say "Jayden takes her radio and transmits her location to her faction", because that is godmodding. If you want to do something like that, you have to attempt to reach for your radio and give the other one(s) the option to counter that action. Most likely they will prevent you from contacting your friends, but hey; thats what would happen in a RL scenario as well.
Your friends used the minimap or another device to pin-point your location. This is very questionable. Some will say "yeah, but this is like the year [insert some distant future year here] so we will all be carrying GPS implants anyway." While that might be true, that is only *your* roleplay and you cannot just impose the effects of that device, which you use in *your* roleplay onto others without leaving some way for them to consent with that or not. Doing so anyway, is considered godmodding as well, or powerplaying.
So in general, metagaming is using information that you get from your Second Life client, attachments you use or things you might have read on the forums, or heard OOC from others, in your roleplay. This is extemely aggravating for those who are trying to provide fun and possibly in-depth story lines.
DON'T DO IT!
