What is the difference between ticks and ticks played in the metadata?

I think:

• ticks: the entire time past from the game's beginning.
• ticks played: total time the player who took this shot played in this save.

correct?

Oh, wrong: ticks, correct: tick.

That's the 2 tick values coming from the LuaGameScript object:

• tick: doc ; afaik, the actual value used for the game simulation. Stops increasing when game is paused.
• ticks_played: doc ; starts at zero, advances when paused - I guess the intent of this one is more to indicate how much someone played that save.