I’m a 50-something white male investor from New England.
Do I, or do I not, know how to tell mountain lion tracks from wolf tracks?
Should be easy to determine, right?
There's a lot more information you didn't supply. What is your WIS score and do you have proficiency in Survival? Are you saying Investor is your background or your class? These are things as DM I would know, and much more.
And FYI, you are HUMAN in race, not "white male". The color of your skin and gender identity are not important to me.
Also, as I said upthread, if the player can supply a reasonable argument why they
would have such knowledge (which generally becomes part of their backstory...) then I recant my objections.
However, since your tone is snarky, I don't expect you to actually take any of this seriously, so please don't feel obligated to respond.
So you, as DM, are keeping track of backstory, background, race, class, in world experiences, etc for each PC in your game to make sure the players are playing their characters correctly plus describing the environment, creating coherent story hooks, running monsters and NPCs, adjudicating actions, etc. That’s… a lot to put on one’s DM plate.
This isn't about "playing their character correctly", it is about using player knowledge vs. PC knowledge. If a player overhears something at the table that their PC is not privy to and has their PC act on that knowledge, that is what I challenge and stop.
Now I’m imagining this:
“Cut! Cut! Mark, WTF, there’s no way you could hit that shaft with a photon torpedo without using your targeting computer!”
“But…but… I heard Alec talking to me…”
“His character is dead! Got that? Dead! You are totally spoiling verisimilitude here!”
“He told me to trust the Force…”
“Oh, lord, not this again. No, you trust me! ME! I am the director, not Alec, and not some voice in your head!”
And more snark...
D&D is not a play, and the absolute last thing I want in a D&D game it is for the DM to behave like the players are actors in a play they’re directing.
Fine, more of an improv then? Either way, you are using off stage information for on stage behaviors, which is a no-no at my table.
And human brains are incapable of ignoring information when making decisions. If you know something relevant to the decision, it will affect your decision-making.
When I play as a player instead of the DM, I know TONS of information my PC would not (about monsters, magic items, how spells work, and so much more), but I NEVER use that knowledge to represent what my PC does in another DM's game!
I have to ask myself if given my backstory, background, etc. would my PC likely know X or Y or not? I will consult with the DM on their view about it if my own is in question and act accordingly.
I'll be dead honest: even years ago, and certainly these days, my response would be "Says you."
(And this is from someone who used to do the same thing but has long concluded doing that sort of thing is not my business to do).
Fair enough, that is your prerogative of course. My response would be "There's the door."
If you, as a player, can't separate your own knowledge about what is happening in the story and things you know about the DM game from what your PC would know (or at least be reasonably likely to know), then I will do it for you until you learn how.
The distinction between telling somehow to play their character and how not to play their character may be important to you, but if you think it is to everyone, let me disabuse you.
No, I understand how others might have a problem with it (look at the responses in this thread!) but if the player can't handle it and stop metagaming themselves, either suck it up, learn to do it yourself, or head for the door. I don't LIKE having to do this, but it isn't fair to myself or the other players when someone metagames IMO.
So how do you decide that a PC never had any opportunity to learn about something in question?
I challenge them about it. If they have a reason which makes sense, I let them continue on. If they don't, I won't. But that is more about cases of "in world knowledge" dealing with past experiences of the PC... not about other metagaming issues.