Economics & Markets
Section 1
Core Idea
A metagame is a game about which game to play — or how to change the rules, the players, or the payoffs. Instead of taking the game as given and choosing a strategy, you ask: can we alter the structure so the equilibrium favours us? Examples: changing the rules (regulation, standards), adding or removing players (alliances, M&A), or changing information (commitment, signalling). Metagame thinking is second-order: "given they best-respond to this game, what game would we want to be in?" For founders, it's the difference between playing the hand you're dealt and changing the table — platform rules, partnership structure, or narrative that shifts how others play.
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Section 2
How to See It
Strategy
You're seeing Metagames when someone asks "how do we change the game?" rather than "how do we win this game?" — e.g. redefining the category, setting a standard, or changing who's at the table.
Platforms
You're seeing it when platform design (rules, fees, features) defines the game that participants play. The platform owner is playing a metagame: choosing the game that yields the best outcome for the platform.
Negotiation
You're seeing it when one party tries to set the agenda, the format, or the BATNA. That's metagame: shaping the game before playing it.
Section 3
How to Use It
Before optimising within a game, ask whether you can change the game. Can you add or drop players? Change the rules or the information structure? Commit to a strategy that forces a favourable response? The highest-leverage moves are often metagame: choose the game, then play it well.
Decision filter
"Are we optimising inside a fixed game, or can we change the game — rules, players, information — so that the new equilibrium favours us?"
As a founder
In competitive and partnership strategy, separate "playing the game" from "choosing the game." Invest in metagame moves: category creation, standard-setting, platform rules, or structural deals that put you in a game you can win. Then execute in that game.
Section 5
Founders & Leaders
Diane HendricksChairman, ABC Supply; building materials distribution
Hendricks built scale and supplier relationships that changed the game for contractors — effectively choosing a game (national scale, supply-chain advantage) that local players couldn't replicate. Founders can adopt the lens: before competing harder in the current game, ask whether you can change the game (structure, rules, players) to your advantage.
Section 7
Connected Models
Reinforces
Game Theory
Metagames sit on top of ordinary games: the "move" in the metagame is to select or alter the underlying game. Same players and rationality; the object of choice is the game form.
Reinforces
Mechanism Design
Mechanism design is metagame from the designer's perspective: choose rules (mechanism) so that equilibrium behaviour yields desired outcomes. You're designing the game so that best responses implement your goal.
Leads-to
Second-Order Thinking
Metagame thinking is second-order: "they will best-respond to this; what do I want this to be?" Second-order thinking in strategy often means asking how to change the game, not just how to play it.
Section 8
One Key Quote
— Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict"The power to constrain an adversary may rest on the power to bind oneself. Choosing the right commitment is choosing the right game."
Section 11
Summary & Further Reading
Metagames: games about which game to play. Change rules, players, or payoffs so the equilibrium favours you. Use when the highest-leverage move is to redefine the game — platform design, category creation, structural deals — then play the new game well.
01
Book
Commitment, credibility, and changing the game.
02
Book
Creating new games (markets, categories) rather than winning existing ones.
03
Article
Designing games (mechanisms) to achieve desired equilibria.