Witness 'The Metagame' in action, thanks to MTV

by Scott Jon Siegel { Nov 15th 2007 at 3:15PM }

It ran at GDC 2007; we reported on it, but you didn't get to see it. Now, MTV has hosted a special edition of The Metagame game show, as part of their "Gamer's Week" Coverage, and Stephen Totilo has posted the highlights for mass consumption.

The Metagame, designed and hosted by Frank Lantz of area/code and Eric Zimmerman of Gamelab, pits two teams against each other in a battle of video game smarts. Each round, teams move pieces on the game board to form comparative statements between two games (such as "Halo would make a better movie than Half-Life," or "Virtua Fighter is sexier than Super Mario 64."), and argue these statements to earn points. Vying for victory this time are MTV's Stephen Totilo and Tim Kash, versus Newsweeks' N'Gai Croal, and fellow journalist Heather Chaplin, author of Smart Bomb.

The debate is heated, hilarious, and only the slightest bit pretentious. We'd definitely enjoy watching more designers, developers, and press-members argue the semantics and specifics of the industry's most influential games. Any chance of picking up the show full-time, MTV?

Update: Due to silly legal restrictions, the video posted above is not viewable in the UK or Canada. Apologies for any confusion or irritation this might cause.

Tags: area/code, eric-zimmerman, ericzimmerman, frank-lantz, franklantz, gamelab, gdc, gdc07, heather-chaplin, heatherchaplin, metagame, mtv, ngai-croal, ngaicroal, stephen-totilo, stephentotilo, tim-kash, timkash

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

GamerCrusader @ Nov 15th 2007 3:26PM

STOP POSTING AMERICAN ONLY VIDEOS! Please! I'm canadian and I want to see the video too. I'm certain I am not alone on this.

License to ill @ Nov 15th 2007 3:35PM

Get over it....

gonk @ Nov 15th 2007 3:40PM

you're not missing anything

Corbo @ Nov 15th 2007 3:43PM

Is that what the problem is? I'm in the UK and I haven't been able to see any of the MTV movies either. Can't really blame Joystiq since it's MTV hosting the video but it still seems a little ridiculous, especially if this is internet-only content anyway.

arrrgh @ Nov 15th 2007 3:49PM

haha i wondered what the fuck was going on with the streaming errors. what teh gaie is up with american only content?

stephentotilo @ Nov 15th 2007 3:55PM

Hi all,

This is, regrettably, a continuing issue with MTV.com content. All of the world can watch our videos except residents of Canada and the U.K.

I hate it. I complain every day.

But I do hope you find a way to watch these clips. I'm really proud of what we did.

And thanks, Scott, for the write-up.

-Stephen

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 15th 2007 4:56PM

Oh crap Stephen Tortilla posts here!

maduin @ Nov 15th 2007 4:25PM

Sounds exactly like the Apples to Apples card game, but video game themed.

Brilliam @ Nov 15th 2007 4:26PM

Fellow Canadian/UK users,

I don't want to recommend that you spoof MTV by finding a free proxy that's based anywhere but the UK/Canada, because that would be bad. I definitely wouldn't recommend googling "free proxy" or something like that. I'm definitely not LITERALLY WATCHING THIS RIGHT NOW, I swear to jesus...

Hey joystiq, please remove ths comment if it will get anybody involved (yourself and myself included) in trouble. But don't ban me! I mean well!