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[Tobasco Panda]

Another emergent gametype for Super Metroid (SNES) was low percentage runs, where players would try to beat the game with as few items as possible. This was made possible due to the bomb jumping allowing players to 'break' the level flow.

It was so popular that in Metroid Zero Mission (GBA) the team specifically designed the entire game level structure to allow for and encourage this. There was even a different ending if you beat the game with below 10% of the items.

[michael]

i played no town games in diablo I, sometimes zoomed in and with lowest brightness if i was feeling really hardcore.

in einhander, squares awesome horizontal shooter one of the ships had a particularly agile 'hand' that was normally used to grab dislodged weapons but could also be used to  absorb enemy bullets. my friends and i developed the monk, or ahimsa style of gameplay in where we would try and progress as far through the game as possible without killing any enemies (bosses excluded). the ahimsa style works with a lot of different games.

[PaleFox]

I used to play Gunz when I was younger, one of those MMORPGFPS things that float around. The point is that most people had evolved this style where by using a sword you could basically break the laws of physics, flying around and stuff, and since it was so popular the makers never took it out. However, I avoided doing any of that stuff to see if I could get by the "right" way and for a while I enjoyed myself, especially since it was so unusual. I don't know if that counts.

Of course, I also used to try to break any and all games I owned just to see if I could, so I guess that counts. Other people do too, just look at Ullillia's youtube videos to see examples of that. In cases where the game is terrible, it most certainly is more enjoyable than just playing it.

[DjangoDurango]

I hang out on the Hitman forums and, given the nature of the game, they have quite the selection of self-imposed rules. Everything from speed runs, silent assassinations, accidents only (as of Blood Money), stuff like that. Players will often write custom missions (in which one must complete the mission by following the directions the author wrote instead of the standard).

Once, while playing Contracts, I tried to kill everyone in the level and drag their bodies into the big pool in the thermal Bath House hotel stage. I got about thirty bodies floating in the pool, only to realize one of the bar tenders was inaccessible because there was no way behind his bar. Oh, my disappointment.

[deadeye]

I like to go Car Surfing in the GTA games.  Hop onto a car (the back of a pickup works best) and fire your gun until the driver goes into road-rage mode and see how long you can stay on.

I also like seeing how high I can get on onto buildings using the bicycle in GTA:SA just by bunny hopping.  Turns out you can get pretty damn high.

Then there's the King of the Hill challenge: do the weapons cheat to max out all your weapons then start killing everything in sight and see how long you can survive.  Once you start killing you can't re-spawn your weapons.  In GTA3 or LCS I generally do this from the steps of the stadium, in San Andreas I'll usually pick a spot on top of one of the buildings along the waterfront in San Fierro.  You can't leave the hill until all your ammo is gone, which gives you an opportunity for the next game...

Start on foot and max out your wanted level.  Once the army is after you, start running.  The goal is to collect enough bribe markers to get your wanted level back down to zero.  No vehicles allowed, you must stay on foot.  I've only been able to do this a couple of times.

[joshg]

Dang, I was reading this from the start without realizing it was an old thread!

Oh well, I'm going to mention another example anyway.  I've seen spontaneous, user-enforced melee-only happen on TF2 servers, usually when the server switches to 2fort and everyone's bored to tears of that map.  (I still kinda like it, but I can't argue with the comedy value of a random TF2 melee brawl!)

And I think you were right to avoid the term "metagaming".  I wouldn't even call this metagaming, really.  Metagaming is stuff that's outside of the game, while what you've described is players simply changing the rules of the game despite being unable to change the programmed rules.  (Like kids in a playground coming up with their own variant of a playground game, except that in this case the playground comes with built-in rules that they have to work around.)

[deadeye]

Oh, it is an old thread.

I didn't even notice 

I guess I just admitted that I didn't read the whole thread too .  Oops.

[team_q]

I think the thread resurrected its self quite nicely

[PaleFox]

I remembered that the Warning Forever developer had a word for playing with self-made rules, and as it turns out it is yarikomi, so I guess that's useful?

And yeah, I also didn't notice how old this was.

[Felan]

Dudes- seriously no worries about the new suggestions. The paper is finished and published, but more examples are always awesome to hear. I'll have to look into this concept of yarikomi.