There are several distinct types of multiplayer modes in Video Games. This trope is a Sister Trope of Competitive Multiplayer, Co-Op Multiplayer, and Massively Multiplayer. With meta multiplayer, only one player is present playing in their own game at a time, but there are other players doing this as well.
Types of meta multiplayer with their own pages:
- Racing Ghost: AKA Recorded/Ghost Matches. One player's game is recorded from start to finish, and another player competes directly against the recorded game.
- Succession Game (aka "Hotseat"): Players take a turn in a single-player game, then relinquish control to another at a certain point in the game's progress. Almost any game can be played this way, even if it isn't part of the game design.
Leaderboards
Players compete with other single players for performance in the game.Examples:
- Astebreed: Online leaderboards, just like the updated re-release of its spiritual predecessor.
- Blood & Truth: Online leaderboards for each level were added in a post-release update.
- Bullet Witch: The Xbox 360 and Steam version of the game features online leaderboards where players can compete against others with high-scores on each mission. The DRM-free version on Humble Bundle, however, lacks access to the leaderboards despite having it leftover in the Options menu and isn't tied to a client.
- Chippy: Players can compete for top times on the leaderboards, and watch replays of others' runs.
- cloudphobia: The Steam re-release of the game features online leaderboards.
- Cröixleur: The Steam version of the Deluxe Edition features online leaderboards.
- Devil Daggers: The game features leaderboards for players to compete with others on who can survive the onslaught of eldritch horrors.
- Ether Vapor: Remaster adds online leaderboards to the game.
- Ex Zeus: Ex Zeus 2 and the mobile versions of its predecessor feature online leaderboards that tracks the best high scores in the real-time.
- Figure Of Eight: The current ranking is tracked as you play.
- IS Defense: There's a leaderboard in the top-right corner, which lists your current score and position for that level, and that of the players immediately above and below you
- LittleBigPlanet: There's no actual multiplayer, but there is a scoreboard that lets you compare your score with your friends.
- Metal Wolf Chaos: Online leaderboards were added for the XD remaster, which allows players to compete on who can rack up the highest points in a stage.
- Mighty No. 9: The game features online leaderboards for some of the Solo Challenges, Co-Op Challenges, Battle Race, and Boss Rush modes.
- Muelsfell: Rise of the Golems: There's rankings and leaderboards based on score in addition to more traditional Player Versus Player.
- Senko no Ronde: Leaderboards in the Xbox 360 port of the first and second games, and would also be featured in 2's Score Attack mode.
- Shadow Complex: The game features online leaderboards for the main story and Proving Grounds challenges.
- Sin and Punishment: Star Successor: This game featured online leaderboards. Unfortunately, due to the server shutdown in June 2013, this feature of the game was axed.
- Super Rad Raygun: There are online leaderboards ranking all the players on how they go through the levels.
- Symphony: In the form of leaderboards. Notably, your leaderboard score (calculated separately from your real score) actually increases if you play with a weaker ship, and vice versa, as a way to make sure that the people on the leaderboards are players who are genuinely skilled at the game and not just people who've played long enough to unlock all the rare, powerful weapons.
- The Idolmaster: Leaderboards are maintained for the highest scores on each song.
- They Bleed Pixels: The game features online leaderboards for high scores and fastest runs of each level, as well as watch replays from other players.
- Wenija: There's a online leaderboard that grades players on how quickly they can complete individual levels and/or the entire game.
- Yars' Revenge: The 2011 re-imagining features online leaderboards for the game's campaign stages and Challenge Modes.
Non-Preemptive Multiplayer
Two individual games that take turns. The two game sessions are kept entirely separate. Both scores may be tracked and directly compared for competition.Examples:
- Bloons: The Party Crashers game mode works like Contested Territory in 'BTD 6' and 'Bloons Monkey City': your party can play levels to claim territory, and other parties can try to steal it.
- Bloons Tower Defense: The Contested Territory game mode is a team game mode where teams are put in a grid map consisting of various maps and compete to see who can control the most grids. Players can take another team's territory by beating their high score of different tasks like least amount of upgrades or fastest boss kills.
- DJMAX: Crew Race is Meta Multiplayer, where players challenge various courses set up by other players. Crews are formed with up to 10 members each, and they all race to top the leaderboards of the best crews by earning Crew Points, which are earned for simply playing or beating a crew's course (which is created by a crew member's best Pop Mixing set and score).
- Sideswiped: Single-console multiplayer consists of taking turns playing the Trampoline or Bowling minigames. When one player completes a single round in either game, control goes to the other player. The winner is decided by whoever got the highest overall score.
