😶 The Coming of MetaGame

Out of nowhere?

Well, not really. I have been waiting for someone to do it, ever since my brain was first occupied by this “Ethereum world computer” meme;

“Holy shit! This is the software infrastructure layer we need for a fair socioeconomic system of the future!”

It is only now that I said: I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try.

Why now?

Back in May, Peter published a call-to-action article titled “Rising threats to Ethereum’s first-mover advantage” which introduced me to the colorful bunch you might know as the MetaCartel.

He receives my message, and a week later, he’s onboarding me to the MetaCartel — over a burrito and some ale, after the “Year of The DAO” meetup in Ljubljana, where I set out to meet him.

Coming into MetaCartel looking for problems — I noted a few things missing that would be useful for a rapidly expanding network:

• Some sort of a guide — introducing people to what we’re about, and how to find your place among us,
• Repositories of ideas, solutions, members — and their needs and offers,
• A map of the whole thing.

MetaCartel Blackpaper v0.1

You may, if so curious, go and scroll through this original paper including the illustration above — but it has been long abandoned.

I must have been writing it for no longer than 3 days, when Peter contacted me again, saying:

“Hey, I like what you’re doing, here’s 1k DAI of the funds Binance gave me!”

It’s not a lot of money, but it’s a lot of affirmation — getting money without asking for it? Usually not even in crypto.

Onwards

As my work on the paper progressed, more crucial elements were added:

• Titles — knowing who’s accountable for what keeps things moving and makes it easier to navigate the cartel.
• Achievements — knowing who did what, also pretty useful.

And with the idea growing from a simple way of making the MetaCartel easier to understand and oversee, into… this; I needed to go out and meet more fellow carteleans, get some feedback and some apostles.

So I got my ticket, helped put together the “MetaCartel Mansion” and boarded the plane to Berlin.

Besides the MetaCartel Demo Day, my pilgrimage went around DappCon, Token Engineering, Governance Games, ETHBerlin, and whatever smaller event wasn’t too far off the trail — the folk seemed receptive to my meme, to say the least...

Not having known I needed to register, devious tactics had to be deployed.

• My debt towards the folk of ETHBerlin was wiped by my helping the Odyssy (DAOHaus) team, not just shillin’ muh own shie’.

During the final hours of the hackathon, while waiting for the team presenting to the judges — my hand started sketching up the UX flowchart... This is what came out:

The left represents some of the components, the middle 1/3 represents the player journey, and the right side is the value proposition.

Thinking through this complex system where not just people, but an institution, may join — it became obvious there was a problem…

• If the Moloch DAO, Ethereum Foundation, or ConsenSys wanted to join, they would probably not want to be under the MetaCartel.
• Let alone some people from outside crypto…

It became apparent that The Game has to be a layer above. The Game, was no longer to be called MetaCartel;

• The game is to be called MetaGame.
• The concept behind it coined; “A Massive Online Coordination Game”

Genesis

The first MetaGame presentation was held by a lake with a wooden stick pointing at the paper laying on the ground — and that’s about all you need to know about that faithful day…

I traveled back home, almost missing my flight;

• The following day, awakening from my 16-hour slumber, MetaGame was ON

And that’s how MetaGame was born;