franklantz
Latest
Witness 'The Metagame' in action, thanks to MTV
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.
"Big Games" guru melds games, real world
Over at Gamasutra, Bonnie Ruberg has an interview with Frank Lantz about "Big Games," his term for games that break the bounds of a board or a computer and use the real world as the play space. The most well-known example of the form is probably Pac-Manhattan -- which uses the streets of New York in place of the classic maze grid -- but Lantz's company Area/Code has put together games ranging from a phonecam treasure hunt (ConQwest) to a massive, massively-multiplayer board game (Big Urban Game), and more.Traipsing around the streets of New York in a pink ghost costume may seem a little silly, but there's a somewhat philosophical bent to Lantz's work. In the interview, Lantz says he wants to use make games that use technology to emphasize the idea of "living with one foot in the real world and one foot in Wonderland at all times." It's a beautiful idea, and one that has the potential to change the way we look at the world. How many video games can say that?
