MTV Multiplayer › Metagame

Not sure what to do at lunch time today? We've got something good for you to watch, though a bit unusual and not without controversy. And of all the things I've worked on for Gamer's Week, it's my favorite. Here's the tease...

What if you could win points for it in a game about arguing about video games?That's what 'The Metagame' is about.I saw one performed at GDC earlier this year and have been wanting to show a session to MTV viewers ever since. I participated in a running of the game hosted by its creators Eric Zimmerman and Frank Lantz two weeks ago and had a great time.So did Tim Kash and I pull out a win?

Scroll on down for the rest of the segments, including everyone's favorite -- the third round arguments about which games are sexier than the others. Do you agree that "Virtua Fighter" is sexier than "Super Mario 64."

(For extra reading and debating, a full list of the gaming opinions that we debated can be found here).

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On Friday, November 2, I joined MTV News' Tim Kash in a face-off of video arguments against Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and author Heather Chaplin.

We played "The Metagame," a game show created by game designers Eric Zimmerman, co-founder of Gamelab, and Frank Lantz, co-founder of Area/Code.

The game lasted 70 minutes and was among the most fun things I've done on the beat all year. We've presented 20 minutes of highlights on video here.

This post lists every argument we had to make in the game. Any time an opinion was challenged, the audience had to decide the winner.

Here are three samples. Read on for the rest... and you decide where justice was served and where my team (Team MTV) or Chaplin/Croal (Team Brooklyn) were robbed.

Opinion: "Tetris" has more randomness than "Resident Evil"

Argument: Team MTV said it does. Team Brooklyn challenged.
Verdict: Overruled -- The audience agreed with Team Brooklyn.

Opinion: "Virtua Fighter" is sexier than "Super Mario 64"

Argument: Team Brooklyn said it was. Team MTV said it wasn’t.
Verdict: Upheld -- The audience sided with Team Brooklyn.

Opinion: "Adventure" for the Atari 2600 makes better use of writing than "Street Fighter II"

Argument: Team MTV said it did.
Verdict: Uncontested -- Team Brooklyn sided with team MTV.

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