A false meta is when players engage in a game where the “winning strategy” is based on short-term one-upping at long-term detriment. You can optimize to win the game, but “winning” has questionable rewards.
This is the feeling of “playing games” people talk about within relationships. Little tricks of deception to win something, like proving a point, or self-protection and driving away. So many of these games are self-fulfilling prophesies of distrust.
Whereas the true game of a relationship is to keep playing, the false meta is adapted by those who do not wish to play infinitely, they are breaking the rule of the infinite game by keeping score.
I wrote about this more in my essay here: Keep image of a cog snowglobe moving everything down.
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Moi