# Analyzing Twitch Plays Pokémon and the Effect on Society



## Ryukouki (Mar 2, 2014)

​Wow, unbelievable. It's a special week with a second article! A social experiment that began two weeks ago has ended early today, with Pokémon Trainer Red having done what some considered to be impossible: defeating the Champion and becoming the League Champion. The journey may have ended, but a new one may be beginning anew shortly. Let's go in and talk about what made this journey so special, and how a social experiment changed the video gaming landscape to become one of the biggest gaming moments in 2014.​​[prebreak]Continue reading[/prebreak]​​

> The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.


​I quote platitudes because it really fits well into the mesh of this event. This journey is a paragon of what it means to accomplish anything with sheer determination and willpower. For those of you who may not know what this whole debacle was about, the journey began on February 12th. An Australian programmer who chose not to be named devised an experiment that was hosted on Twitch TV. This social experiment was based on crowdsourcing input commands, via a chatbox through an internet relay chat, to command the player character around in the Pokémon world. It was a test to see whether the main game could be beaten. The button commands were limited to the hardware restraints of the Game Boy: Up, down, left, right, B, A, start, select. These button inputs were relayed to the chat, and the player is controlled in an emulated game version. Players were left laughing watching Red walk like a drunken fool through the overworld. What was to be a small stream somehow exploded into a viral phenomenon, scoring millions of views (by last view count it was around 33 million views), and spawning memes, religions, intricate fan art, and cultures. At some point in the duration of the run, there were instances in which the stream had 120,000 active players. The stream put to the test the limitations that the Twitch TV servers could handle, with the administration even commenting on the viral success of the stream, having lauded the experiment. There are some who ask about why this stream may have been so special, however.​​

_We had some dedicated fan art going around here these past two weeks!_​​This stream is a special instance because of its entirely chaotic nature. As the stream gained popularity, there began a share of trolling the game to an extent, with these players inputting commands to deter the progress of Trainer Red. Some of these fine moments included forcing Red to jump down from ledges, releasing prized Pokémon from the PC, and causing Red to do silly commands like consulting the Helix Fossil or constantly saving his progress. At around day 7 of the stream, a new feature was introduced into the chat, called Anarchy/Democracy mode. Anarchy mode retained the "trueness" of the Twitch Plays Pokémon stream, with the button presses being used to control the trainer character, and "Democracy" mode being a careful and calculated voting process that some considered to be detrimental to the game's overall focus due to the slowness of pace that Democracy was bringing in. However, if it weren't for democracy, the stream would have taken far longer to complete technical puzzles. Look at the Game Corner deal, the community spent a whole day wandering around in there. Did the introduction of anarchy/democracy bring anything unique, though? Did players still have control over the decisions? What made this feature unique was that it required a massive majority to move from Anarchy to Democracy and vice-versa, thus truly giving the people the power to command Red.​​

​This stream was entirely special because there is no real source of guidance given its chaos. We knew what was going to happen storywise, but as far as predicting events that occurred from trolling, there was no way to counter that. Players and supporters of the experiment had to create mediums of communication, such as a subreddit, forums to discuss strategic elements in how to proceed, or creating simple pages to timeline the sequence of events as they happened. Some of these elements proved very useful and received hundreds of thousands of views, showing the vast support people had for the project. People wanted to see this event through. Even within the confines of my university, I could overhear conversations of people saying things like "Praise Helix" or "Hail Lord Flareon." The hype surrounding this event was absolutely phenomenal, having been covered in detail by most media outlets. We all watched and shed tears of grief when the Charmander and Rattata were released from the PC early on into the stream. We watched as Red was stuck in the Rocket Maze for about a day. We watched with triumph as the stream completed itself earlier today.​​At the end of the day, what did this do to the society of video game players? This event brought a lot of people together. It brought hope and joy, and also sadness and anger, as we watched Red travel like a poor, drunken fool through the Kanto region. The ascension to the zenith of the Pokémon League earlier today did prove one thing however, that no matter what happens, no matter how bad things can get, anything is possible with a determined mind. I feel like that is the lesson that we as people should take home from the social experiment. Anything is possible, despite major setbacks.​​In a way, I could compare the Pokémon journey to that of real life. Though there are times that obstacles are encountered, at the end of the day with a bit of help from your fellow colleagues you can pick yourself up and move forward. By looking at the many accomplishments this game has achieved, it could look like the community favors anarchy over all else. I look at Twitch Plays Pokémon! as a way to show that our spirit can manifest in the most unexpected places. It took a collective of hundreds of thousands of players to do what people thought impossible. People picked up the slack when thousands wanted to deter the progress. This stream showed that standing united for one cause would ultimately lead to success.​​So! Looking back at the viral success of the stream, what did you guys think about it? Do you guys have high hopes for the future in regards to a stream of another title? How did the stream change you as a person? Did you like the event overall? Sound off in the comments below!​


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## chavosaur (Mar 2, 2014)

I feel like it's probably gonna be a one hit wonder. I can't see myself getting anywhere near as worked up about any future projects as I did this one. 
But this stream will go down in history with gamers everywhere I'm sure. 
I will forever consult the Helix Fossil, and Maintain Anarchy!


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## Harsky (Mar 2, 2014)

I'm waiting for Nintendo to throw a bucket of piss over the parade when they send the creator a C&D letter claiming that thousands of people are playing this "illegally". Either way, Gold/Silver is definately a bigger adventure so it'll be interesting to see if it can maintain the same amount of interest. That said, the music can drive me a little mad after having it on for an hour and realising that the character has been spinning around and around and around.


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## Qtis (Mar 2, 2014)

Oh internet, I like you so! Twitch plays Pokémon is a fantastic social test, which had abnormal success. I'd imagine we'll see actual published research papers from sociology or psychology departments in a few years.

The first gen Pokémon games are great for 1 thing and one thing alone. You can grind yourself to victory. You don't really lose anything from losing, especially in a game with Twitch mechanics (seriously, did they manage to buy a single useful item, ever?). If there was some kind of XP loss for losing, we'd still be in Pallet Town


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## Pedeadstrian (Mar 2, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> Even within the confines of my university, I could overhear conversations of people saying things like "Praise Helix" or "Hail Lord Flareon."


What kind of University do you go to...? I sure hope the people there don't become the leaders of tomorrow.

Seriously though, I had seen the acronym TPP around, and I had no idea what it was. Thanks for informing me~


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## Ryukouki (Mar 2, 2014)

Pedeadstrian said:


> What kind of University do you go to...? I sure hope the people there don't become the leaders of tomorrow
> 
> Seriously though, I had seen the acronym TPP around, and I had no idea what it was. Thanks for informing me~



I should mention that these guys are the hard-core yugioh kids who play 24/7.


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## Sicklyboy (Mar 2, 2014)

Pedeadstrian said:


> What kind of University do you go to...? I sure hope the people there don't become the leaders of tomorrow.
> [...]


 

Why not?  Is the capacity to have a bit of light-hearted fun, quoting pop-culture trends and making references to current events the makings of a bad leader?


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## Foxi4 (Mar 2, 2014)

First of all, Bird Jesus all the way.






Now, as for the effect on society, the experiment definitely showed what we already know about the human psyche - there are always going to be those who desperately cling to working as a group, those who want to sort things out their own way and rebel whenever things are not going as planned and those who will throw sticks into the spokes of your bicycle's wheel just for the sheer pleasure of watching you fall.

It was definitely an interesting experience and one that I gladly watched and participated in - _"we had joy, we had fun, Helix Fossil in the sun, but the joy didn't last because Bird Jesus kicked ass"_. I sincerely hope that the fun continues with more Pokemon games and that the mechanism of the stream will be used by others as well.


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## Flame (Mar 2, 2014)

Pedeadstrian said:


> What kind of University do you go to...? I sure hope the people there don't become the leaders of tomorrow.
> 
> Seriously though, I had seen the acronym TPP around, and I had no idea what it was. Thanks for informing me~


 
Oh yes. how can we have leaders of the tomorrow be one of us... we need leader who are not in touch with the normal person and is super rich because they have had every thing given to them.


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## anhminh (Mar 2, 2014)

Pedeadstrian said:


> What kind of University do you go to...? I sure hope the people there don't become the leaders of tomorrow.


Sadly, yes.


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## Gahars (Mar 2, 2014)

I think people are giving this a little too much credit. The appeal here was the novelty of it all; people aren't really interested because of its viability or because of any deeper underlying meaning.


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## Ryukouki (Mar 2, 2014)

Gahars said:


> I think people are giving this a little too much credit. The appeal here was the novelty of it all; people aren't really interested because of its viability or because of any deeper underlying meaning.


 

There will always be an underlying meaning to those who choose to follow the Helix Fossil. ;O;

I kid, for now. It was definitely a novel idea, and most likely going to be a one hit wonder. I'm hoping to be proven wrong. But we can argue anything given sufficient information.


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## Foxi4 (Mar 2, 2014)

Gahars said:


> I think people are giving this a little too much credit. The appeal here was the novelty of it all; people aren't really interested because of its viability or because of any deeper underlying meaning.


...most people enjoyed watching it because it was a trainwreck.  That said, it's still an interesting experiment and one you can draw conclusions from.


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## Gahars (Mar 2, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> There will always be an underlying meaning to those who choose to follow the Helix Fossil. ;O;
> 
> I kid, for now. It was definitely a novel idea, and most likely going to be a one hit wonder. I'm hoping to be proven wrong. But we can argue anything given sufficient information.


 

I think you could definitely make a case that this is another example of Internet groupthinking, where our technology allows us to pool together in a hivemind of sorts. I can't find the exact details, but I remember that there was a story a few years back where scientists called for internet users to help them with a problem. While the scientists were utterly stumped, they were able to solve in a matter of days (or hours, even). 

On its own, I don't think TPP means too much, but it's definitely a piece of a much bigger picture.


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## Celice (Mar 2, 2014)

Qtis said:


> Oh internet, I like you so! Twitch plays Pokémon is a fantastic social test, which had abnormal success. I'd imagine we'll see actual published research papers from sociology or psychology departments in a few years.


Sadly, what often happens when other disciplines attempt to analyze and integrate videogame content is that the content is wildky skewed or discussed in such a way that it serves the discipline as a tool, rather than support the discipline as evidence. Everquest and Second Life have been the most popular games to be covered in fields you mentioned where this bastardization of videogames occurs in wide swathes. A basic example is, say, in pyschology there are certain behaviours we can see in basic people of a culture; looking at Second Life, we see these same behaviours, and as such, we know pyschology can be applied to videogames! when in fact, it is more that those analyzing end up justifying rather than observing such evidence, or at times even ignore counteractive evidence.

Very, very few fields are actively engaged with videogames as a subject in itself. Ludology seems to be the most self-interested of game studies, but this is often too attached to the ideas of rules dictating form and experience, to the point where it is argued that games are a meaningless experience.


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## Sicklyboy (Mar 2, 2014)

I think that calling it a one hit wonder might be underestimating it a bit... In the interim, they were running Keitai Denjuu Telefang the same way as Pokemon Red was being run, and that still had ~25k viewers/players.  Right now it just says "The End" with the countdown to the new game and there's still 20k people watching and voting between anarchy and democracy and sending button inputs for some reason (Btw, "TwitchPlaysPokemon playing -" updated to Gold/Silver/Crystal, gen2 confirmed)

I think we can all agree this will be a fad, but I can see this still gaining a lot of popularity in the coming weeks before dying off.


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## Snailface (Mar 2, 2014)

The brilliance of TPP was not in overcoming the challenges presented in 100,000 players chaotically acting as one and accomplishing something.

No. It was the memes. Praise Helix and the memes he generated.


Pedeadstrian said:


> *What kind of University do you go to.*..? I sure hope the people there don't become the leaders of tomorrow.
> 
> Seriously though, I had seen the acronym TPP around, and I had no idea what it was. Thanks for informing me~


The kind that have collage age semi-adults?. Some of them play video games you know.

And yes they will contribute to society someday despite playing video games, listening to rock music, not looking both ways before ... you get the idea I hope.


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## Nah3DS (Mar 2, 2014)

Twitch Plays Pokemon proves this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem

also...


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## osaka35 (Mar 2, 2014)

If this is the kind of thing that "changes the gaming landscape" then my respect for the gaming landscape just plummeted a great deal. It's a passing curiosity, absolutely, but "the biggest gaming moment in 2014"? Give me a break.


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## Pedeadstrian (Mar 2, 2014)

Snailface said:


> And yes they will contribute to society someday despite playing video games, listening to rock music, not looking both ways before ... you get the idea I hope.


Video games and rock are fine, but anyone who doesn't look both ways before crossing the street shouldn't contribute to society.


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## placebooooo (Mar 2, 2014)

Guys, I seem extremely interested in this. Could someone please elaborate on what this is? I have seen it on reddit as well but I have absolutely no idea what this is. I also read ryukouki's article and  still dont fully understand what this pokemon game is and whay everyone likes it so much.


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## Snailface (Mar 2, 2014)

placebooooo said:


> Guys, I seem extremely interested in this. Could someone please elaborate on what this is? I have seen it on reddit as well but I have absolutely no idea what this is. I also read ryukouki's article and still dont fully understand what this pokemon game is and whay everyone likes it so much.


Its a massively single player mmo. Thousands of people inputing commands in an irc chatroom to control a single game of pokemon.

Here is one that is going on right now (its not twitch though) if you want to get a first hand idea.
http://htmlplayspokemon.qoid.us/ (comex's html version of TPP)
just enter keyboard keys


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## placebooooo (Mar 2, 2014)

Snailface said:


> Its a massively single player mmo. Thousands of people inputing commands in an irc chatroom to control a single game of pokemon.
> 
> Here is one that is going on right now (its not twitch though) if you want to get a first hand idea.
> http://htmlplayspokemon.qoid.us/ (comex's html version of TPP)
> just enter keyboard keys


lol. I still dont get it. dont know what twitch is either. never heard of it.


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## Pedeadstrian (Mar 2, 2014)

placebooooo said:


> lol. I still dont get it. dont know what twitch is either. never heard of it.


Think of a regular game. You input commands via the buttons, right? Well in this case, it's potentially thousands of people all trying to push those buttons for one game. But, since they're playing online, instead of buttons, they type out the buttons, like a, b, etc.


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## calmwaters (Mar 2, 2014)

What the fuck: isn't this just about the largest, most disgusting display of Pokenerdism there is? Seriously, a Pokemon stream changed the lives of 33 million people? You have great skill as a writer, Ryukouki, but I was disgusted reading this article. Also, religions and other such shit were inspired by this stream? I think this has been the shortest rant ever written. But on a more pleasant note, I finally understand what they meant by Lord Helix. There is the Dome and the Helix Fossil in the lab in FireRed. I also recognized Flareon's and Pidgeotto's designs as being from that particular game too.


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## Ryukouki (Mar 2, 2014)

calmwaters said:


> What the fuck: isn't this just about the largest, most disgusting display of Pokenerdism there is? Seriously, a Pokemon stream changed the lives of 33 million people? You have great skill as a writer, Ryukouki, but I was disgusted reading this article. Also, religions and other such shit were inspired by this stream? I think this has been the shortest rant ever written. But on a more pleasant note, I finally understand what they meant by Lord Helix. There is the Dome and the Helix Fossil in the lab in FireRed. I also recognized Flareon's and Pidgeotto's designs as being from that particular game too.


 

If you've wandered around some of the Pokémon communities, you'd realize that there is an _insane _amount of discussion regarding this stream. I knew people that were actively invested in the stream, both in real life and on this site. There are many who followed this stuff religiously and many took the new memes and culture things in stride. You are welcome to disagree with what I have presented. I respect your opinion, but based on what I have personally observed, this stream has become a viral phenomenon that got a LOT of people talking; I merely wanted to put out some thoughts of what I felt about the whole thing. At the end of the day, it's a bigger piece to something.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/02/the-goofy-religions-of-twitch-plays-pokmon-explained/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_Fossil_(Twitch_Plays_Pokémon)
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/twitch-plays-pokemon-its-history-highlights-and-bird-jesus/

Start reading those. It's some goofy stuff, but it really happened. I wrote the piece as a way of openly exploring a topic of interest that's captured communities, that's all. It wasn't to rant, it wasn't to display Pokémon "nerd herd" behavior.


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## calmwaters (Mar 2, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> If you've wandered around some of the Pokémon communities, you'd realize that there is an _insane _amount of discussion regarding this stream. I knew people that were actively invested in the stream, both in real life and on this site. There are many who followed this stuff religiously and many took the new memes and culture things in stride. You are welcome to disagree with what I have presented. I respect your opinion, but based on what I have personally observed, this stream has become a viral phenomenon that got a LOT of people talking; I merely wanted to put out some thoughts of what I felt about the whole thing. At the end of the day, it's a bigger piece to something.
> 
> http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/02/the-goofy-religions-of-twitch-plays-pokmon-explained/
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_Fossil_(Twitch_Plays_Pokémon)
> ...


 
Nerd herd or not, it's just plain creepy (and disgusting). And I'm not really disagreeing with anything; what is there to disagree with? I'm more or less grossed out because millions of people devoted portions of their lives to this stream. I've never seen people this passionate about Pokemon. It's the equivalent of going to Tibet with the monks and finding your true purpose in life. But I can understand how people could have fun with this. I mean, Pokemon is cool. And watching 10,000 people randomly typing "a" and "l" is, um, probably funny. I wonder if people were m****rb****g during this; it did take up good portions of people's lives. I was talking about my rant, not your rant; you didn't have a rant anyway.


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## Ryukouki (Mar 2, 2014)

calmwaters said:


> Nerd herd or not, it's just plain creepy (and disgusting). And I'm not really disagreeing with anything; what is there to disagree with? I'm more or less grossed out because millions of people devoted portions of their lives to this stream. I've never seen people this passionate about Pokemon. It's the equivalent of going to Tibet with the monks and finding your true purpose in life. But I can understand how people could have fun with this. I mean, Pokemon is cool. And watching 10,000 people randomly typing "a" and "l" is, um, probably funny. I wonder if people were m****rb****g during this; it did take up good portions of people's lives. I was talking about my rant, not your rant; you didn't have a rant anyway.


 

OH. I feel silly now. I blame studying for physics too long. 

But yeah, honestly, I think its kinda funny that the stream got as hyped up as it did. ;P And it was like a hundred thousand people playing at once.  It's definitely interesting to see the responses that it has gotten from people.


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## calmwaters (Mar 2, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> OH. I feel silly now. I blame studying for physics too long.
> 
> But yeah, honestly, I think its kinda funny that the stream got as hyped up as it did. ;P And it was like a hundred thousand people playing at once.  It's definitely interesting to see the responses that it has gotten from people.


 
Oh yeah; physics combined with the art of writing English papers; that can yield enormously long yet logical articles if done right.  Hey, isn't that what people who get their PhD's in physics do? 

Actually, I think I've gotten over the shock of this whole stream thingy already.


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## Xzi (Mar 2, 2014)

To quote something somebody said on the stream's chat,

"this was Nintendo's very first successful online game."

Sad but true I feel. And definitely an accomplishment none the less. I wish I had thought of this first...the stream's creator is probably set for at least a year just based on the subscribers he netted.

I didn't spend a lot of time on it personally, although I did check in a couple times a day to catch a few battles.  And it was definitely fun in those short bursts.


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## Blindfoldedchaos (Mar 2, 2014)

I have to be the one who says i hope if it grows it dies down a bit as a ton of other streamers can't properly interact with their viewers, even when tpp got the esport chat servers it still lagged the rest of twitch, and there is already RNG plays, Twitch plays will become more and more of a thing,

With that said, i'm off to salty bets


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## Xzi (Mar 2, 2014)

Blindfoldedchaos said:


> I have to be the one who says i hope if it grows it dies down a bit as a ton of other streamers can't properly interact with their viewers, even when tpp got the esport chat servers it still lagged the rest of twitch, and there is already RNG plays, Twitch plays will become more and more of a thing,
> 
> With that said, i'm off to salty bets


IMO that would be an issue that Twitch needs to resolve, not an issue with TwitchPlaysPokemon itself.  All the popularity and word of mouth that channel generates isn't exactly bad for Twitch as a service, after all.  They simply need to adapt as they grow.


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## pyromaniac123 (Mar 2, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> In a way, I could compare the Pokémon journey to that of real life.


 


ryu, please


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## ßleck (Mar 2, 2014)

This was an amazing event that completely changed my life... For about a week. I had some real fun watching and contributing to this, but that's really all there is to it. Some people took the way society reacted to this way too seriously. Anyway, I think this stream is, like others have already stated, very underestimated. I'm pretty sure it will get the attention it deserves in the next game... Which is about to start. Praise Helix.

Also,


NahuelDS said:


> Twitch Plays Pokemon proves this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem


"Man. This isn't a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters. It's twenty thousand monkeys at a single typewriter, and half of those monkeys are screaming and desperately trying to progress while the other half throw shit everywhere. It's wonderful."


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## Black-Ice (Mar 2, 2014)

Right now, i'd rather worship the Helix than any other religion.
The Helix promotes truth, progression and unity.
Other religions have only oppressed and sought to control the human race and force us into 1 way of life. They also have the benefit of causing loads of wars and division between humanity.

Helix > Religion
Come at me


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## CompassNorth (Mar 2, 2014)

Saying it "changed the video game landscape" is too much.



Snailface said:


> Its a massively single player mmo.


It's a massively single player massively multiplayer online game?



Ryukouki said:


> So! Looking back at the viral success of the stream, what did you guys think about it? Do you guys have high hopes for the future in regards to a stream of another title? How did the stream change you as a person? Did you like the event overall? Sound off in the comments below!​


I think the event was alright and pretty cool, the community was stupid and the main reason it ruined my interest with it's forced memes.
I'm not sure if I'd want another one, I really don't want this to become as cancerous as Let's Plays.


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## Arras (Mar 2, 2014)

CompassNorth said:


> It's a massively single player massively multiplayer online game?
> 
> Also saying it "changed the video game landscape" is too much.
> 
> ...


Shame because another one just started 20 minutes ago.


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## cearp (Mar 2, 2014)

effect on society, lol, i don't know anyone who has been affected.
not even me.


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## Hyro-Sama (Mar 2, 2014)

I found the whole thing to be extremely mundane and uninteresting. Glad it's finally over for the time being.


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## jonthedit (Mar 2, 2014)

So people actually consider watching some guy streaming himself while playing pokemon over the internet a historical event?
What has this world come to?
First lets plays...
Then the minecraft obsession
and now this.  ._.


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## Arras (Mar 2, 2014)

jonthedit said:


> So people actually consider watching some guy streaming himself while playing pokemon over the internet a historical event?
> What has this world come to?
> First lets plays...
> Then the minecraft obsession
> and now this. ._.


There isn't a person streaming himself, the whole chat is controlling the game at the same time.


Hyro-Sama said:


> I found the whole thing to be extremely mundane and uninteresting. Glad it's finally over for the time being.


Spoilers: it's not over.


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## Foxi4 (Mar 2, 2014)

jonthedit said:


> So people actually consider watching some guy streaming himself while playing pokemon over the internet a historical event?
> What has this world come to?
> First lets plays...
> Then the minecraft obsession
> and now this. ._.


Not _"some guy"_ - anyone who logged on could play. It was 90.000+ people playing one game on one emulator at the same time - that's what makes it _"historic"_.


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## Dartz150 (Mar 2, 2014)

jonthedit said:


> So people actually consider watching some guy streaming himself while playing pokemon over the internet a historical event?
> What has this world come to?
> First lets plays...
> Then the minecraft obsession
> and now this. ._.


It's not a single guy... well, did you read the whole thread? Because I guess not. It was a game played by thousands of people behind their PC's. You can input commands in the chat box, for example, "left", then the game will input that button. It's like streaming an emulator and thousands of people playing the same emulator online.

EDIT:


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## DeMoN (Mar 2, 2014)

Democracy mode made this kind of pointless, it felt like such a cheat. Without it they might never have finished the rock puzzle in Victory road.


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## Fishaman P (Mar 2, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> We all watched and shed tears of grief when the *Charmander* and Rattata were released


You, sir, may be under the influence of Flareon and his Dome Fossil.

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ANARCHY OR RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ


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## Creqaw (Mar 2, 2014)

jonthedit said:


> So people actually consider watching some guy streaming himself while playing pokemon over the internet a historical event?
> What has this world come to?
> First lets plays...
> Then the minecraft obsession
> and now this. ._.


So some people cannot even properly read a short article anymore?
What has this world come to?
First tl;dr everywhere...
and now this. ._.


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## jonthedit (Mar 2, 2014)

Creqaw said:


> So some people cannot even properly read a short article anymore?
> What has this world come to?
> First tl;dr everywhere...
> and now this. ._.


 

I like your style 





The article was a tl;dr in my eyes since it does not discuss what "twitch plays Pokemon" is, but rather the 'effects on society'.


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## liamash3 (Mar 3, 2014)

First I've heard about this, and it's quite...surprising. The internet is sorta known for being odd so the various memes and cults springing up over this aren't a bother to me (but they are funny!).


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## tatripp (Mar 3, 2014)

osaka35 said:


> If this is the kind of thing that "changes the gaming landscape" then my respect for the gaming landscape just plummeted a great deal. It's a passing curiosity, absolutely, but "the biggest gaming moment in 2014"? Give me a break.


 
That sounds like something a member of the Church of the Dome Fossil would say.


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## Sterling (Mar 3, 2014)

It's the most pivotal moment in gaming that will happen this year. Those of you who say otherwise should go take a look at all the games out there with the tried and true formulas and say that again. TPP is truly something different, not just a passing curiosity.

I'll agree it was fairly boring to participate, but when I did, I felt like I was making a difference each time. I can tell others agree with me. The stream has kept a lot of watcher (67k as of now). It isn't going anywhere.

I'm extremely happy to say that I participated in that final run. When ATV took down that dragonite I cheered, despite the fact that it was due to gen wun programming.


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## Costello (Mar 3, 2014)

DeMoN said:


> Democracy mode made this kind of pointless, it felt like such a cheat. Without it they might never have finished the rock puzzle in Victory road.


 
I agree with you and I think it would have been a lot more interesting to see where this led.
Sure some parts would have lasted ages.
But then: some people would have lost interest => the number of active players would have decreased => the number of people going against actual progress would have decreased => without these people, progress would have been made. 

So eventually, we would have gotten there. And that's what I was most looking forward.
Now with democracy mode the game was beaten within days.   Too short.


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## Ryukouki (Mar 3, 2014)

Costello said:


> I agree with you and I think it would have been a lot more interesting to see where this led.
> Sure some parts would have lasted ages.
> But then: some people would have lost interest => the number of active players would have decreased => the number of people going against actual progress would have decreased => without these people, progress would have been made.
> 
> ...


 

There's a whole new stream for Pokemon Crystal at the same page.


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## Sterling (Mar 3, 2014)

Costello said:


> I agree with you and I think it would have been a lot more interesting to see where this led.
> Sure some parts would have lasted ages.
> But then: some people would have lost interest => the number of active players would have decreased => the number of people going against actual progress would have decreased => without these people, progress would have been made.
> 
> ...


 
True, but democracy mode was a really great idea. I think the way they have it now is actually the better implementation. The flipping modes every hour now puts the sole interest on playing the game rather than keeping a status quo.


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## FAST6191 (Mar 3, 2014)

Pedeadstrian said:


> Video games and rock are fine,* but anyone who doesn't look both ways before crossing the street shouldn't contribute to society.*



I don't know. If psychopaths can continue to exist/contribute to society then I would hold people untroubled by mundane risk assessment could probably be of great use where other people that can not suppress the "there might be a lion behind that bush" part of their brain frequently send us down the wrong path.

As for the subject of the article... I ignored it like I try to do all for all passing fads (mobile phones, myspace, twitter, facebook, personal hygiene, human contact.....). There might be something to be drawn from it, I am not sure it does for the infinite monkey thing though -- sure we are all monkeys apes but the idea was surely to have those monkeys have no idea of higher level concepts like writing, if even the internet can play pokemon.... most of the rest I will dismiss as in jokes (hrth) as I usually find given a long enough length of time things will tend towards that anyway (see also the development of language).


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## Ryukouki (Mar 3, 2014)

FAST6191 said:


> I don't know. If psychopaths can continue to exist/contribute to society then I would hold people untroubled by mundane risk assessment could probably be of great use where other people that can not suppress the "there might be a lion behind that bush" part of their brain frequently send us down the wrong path.
> 
> As for the subject of the article... I ignored it like I try to do all for all passing fads (mobile phones, myspace, twitter, facebook, personal hygiene, human contact.....). There might be something to be drawn from it, I am not sure it does for the infinite monkey thing though -- sure we are all monkeys apes but the idea was surely to have those monkeys have no idea of higher level concepts like writing, if even the internet can play pokemon.... most of the rest I will dismiss as in jokes (hrth) as I usually find given a long enough length of time things will tend towards that anyway (see also the development of language).


 

You aren't supposed to ignore my articles!


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## Nah3DS (Mar 3, 2014)

I'm kinda addicted to this shit... I leave the stream running on my second monitor while I'm studying


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## Pedeadstrian (Mar 3, 2014)

FAST6191 said:


> I don't know. If psychopaths can continue to exist/contribute to society then I would hold people untroubled by mundane risk assessment could probably be of great use where other people that can not suppress the "there might be a lion behind that bush" part of their brain frequently send us down the wrong path.


Of course they _can_, but I said they _shouldn't_. Logic dictates that if you're crossing a two way street, then there are two ways of being hit by vehicles. Now, maybe if it were in a place where it's only one way, I can see how that'd be okay, but two way streets? Come on.


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## duffmmann (Mar 3, 2014)

I just wanna say... this was amazing. Seriously, not only did this come out and amaze me, but it changed my life and the way I think about things.  This was actually really special for me.  Not only was it amazing to see what we could accomplish as a community but also it was amazing to see the lore and artwork it inspired.  I loved everything about this.  So happy that it was here and influenced my life


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## Taleweaver (Mar 3, 2014)

Perhaps I shouldn't be commenting here as I never played pokémon, nor heard of this twitch thing till now. But on the other hand, the view of an outsider may be convenient (in other words: take the following as you want)...


This article is assuming the reader already knows what this is about, which makes it at least subjective (honestly: snailface and paedeadstrian do a much better job at explaining what it actually is than the OP...sorry, Ryu  ). And as much to my own shock, I find myself agreeing with Calmwaters on this one: why the hell is everyone going ape over pokémon right now? I get it's a hype-thing, but the idea that one event changes the gaming landscape is flat out laughable. It's not even anything new: google foldit for a prime example on how the force of the masses is used to accomplish something through gaming. And I've heard of chess masters playing chess online against a crowd that determine a move by voting in a similar way, so that idea isn't new either.

On the plus side: the magnitude is (probably) unparrallelled. And with clones already being launched, it could very well be that this sort of thing may be picked up by game developers and used in future turn-based games. Like a new sort of co-op where you and your buddies (either offline or online) determine the best move, or where everyone's invited to (attempt to) steer whatever or whomever needs to be steered. _Then_ we'll have innovation in the gaming industry. For now...it's hard to predict whether this will take off or fall flat due to "not being new anymore".


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## osaka35 (Mar 3, 2014)

Taleweaver said:


> ...It's not even anything new: google foldit for a prime example on how the force of the masses is used to accomplish something through gaming. And I've heard of chess masters playing chess online against a crowd that determine a move by voting in a similar way, so that idea isn't new either...


 
It's new to them, and I guess they like thinking they were part of something new. Band wagon thinking I guess. If they push the hype enough and force it for long enough, something will come of it. Something fun though? who knows.


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## ProtoKun7 (Mar 3, 2014)

See, I read references to this over several days but I didn't have a clue what was going on.


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## Ryukouki (Mar 3, 2014)

Taleweaver said:


> Perhaps I shouldn't be commenting here as I never played pokémon, nor heard of this twitch thing till now. But on the other hand, the view of an outsider may be convenient (in other words: take the following as you want)...
> 
> 
> This article is assuming the reader already knows what this is about, which makes it at least subjective (honestly: snailface and paedeadstrian do a much better job at explaining what it actually is than the OP...sorry, Ryu  ). And as much to my own shock, I find myself agreeing with Calmwaters on this one: why the hell is everyone going ape over pokémon right now? I get it's a hype-thing, but the idea that one event changes the gaming landscape is flat out laughable. It's not even anything new: google foldit for a prime example on how the force of the masses is used to accomplish something through gaming. And I've heard of chess masters playing chess online against a crowd that determine a move by voting in a similar way, so that idea isn't new either.
> ...


 

I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS! 



But yeah, this thing went and blew itself up in huge proportions, and definitely with the whole meme thing going on. Personally I'm shocked it got covered as much as it did by all the other news outlets in depth. Considering that the adventure has already continued onto the next games, and with similar active player count, it's definitely more of a bandwagon thing. 



osaka35 said:


> It's new to them, and I guess they like thinking they were part of something new. Band wagon thinking I guess. If they push the hype enough and force it for long enough, something will come of it. Something fun though? who knows.


 

Yep, its definitely a bandwagoning kind of thing.  Fair point!


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## CompassNorth (Mar 4, 2014)

Arras said:


> Shame because another one just started 20 minutes ago.


Within the first week there were already around 5 clones.

The only one that I thought was cool was the Street Fighter 2 Versus one where one chat controlled Ryu and the other chat controlled Ken in a match but no one payed attention to that one since everyone was losing their dicks to forced memes.


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## Dartz150 (Mar 4, 2014)

CompassNorth said:


> Within the first week there were already around 5 clones.
> 
> The only one that I thought was cool was the Street Fighter 2 Versus one where one chat controlled Ryu and the other chat controlled Ken in a match but no one payed attention to that one since everyone was losing their dicks to forced memes.


 
The one Arras said is not a clone, is the direct sequel, the original channel, so expect it to be a hacked rom were Red will have the same team in TwitchPlaysPokémonRed wen battling him on Mt. Silver


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## Nah3DS (Mar 4, 2014)

Dartz150 said:


> The one Arras ... so expect it to be a hacked rom were Red will have the same team in TwitchPlaysPokémonRed wen battling him on Mt. Silver


that would be pure awesome


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## ForteGospel (Mar 4, 2014)

calmwaters said:


> What the fuck: isn't this just about the largest, most disgusting display of Pokenerdism there is? Seriously, a Pokemon stream changed the lives of 33 million people? You have great skill as a writer, Ryukouki, but I was disgusted reading this article. Also, religions and other such shit were inspired by this stream? I think this has been the shortest rant ever written. But on a more pleasant note, I finally understand what they meant by Lord Helix. There is the Dome and the Helix Fossil in the lab in FireRed. I also recognized Flareon's and Pidgeotto's designs as being from that particular game too.


calm your waters calmwaters... this stream did changed the life of people, it inspired them to create some really nice fanart, some of them with deeper meanings to the pictures themselves, this created "theorists" about the _events_ that happened on those whole 2 weeks.

there were trolls that tried to fail the adventure of red, to the point  where at the beginning people where inputting the down command in pallet town (when you need to go up to even get your first pokemon)

even botnets and zombies were involved and thus twicht.tv improved their security.

it put twicht to stress testing!

many of those players may not have known twicht.tv to begin with, and now they might try new games like league of legends or dota 2 or starcraft just because this was hosted in twich.tv.

this created many communities where they tried to strategize a way to win together in a complete chaos, hell for all we know there might be new couples that got together in those communities and in some years they would be like: "remember when we played TTP? what a chaotic way to get to know each other"

this is way better than what the media tries to sell us, big brother and the rest of the bullshit "reality" shows.

call it "disgusting display of pokenerdgasm" all you want, but i still prefer watching this than "the beauty and the geek" crap


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## Pedeadstrian (Mar 4, 2014)

ForteGospel said:


> this created many communities where they tried to strategize a way to win together in a complete chaos, hell for all we know there might be new couples that got together in those communities and in some years they would be like: "remember when we played TTP? what a chaotic way to get to know each other"
> 
> this is way better than what the media tries to sell us, big brother and the rest of the bullshit "reality" shows.
> 
> call it "disgusting display of pokenerdgasm" all you want, but i still prefer watching this than "the beauty and the geek" crap


"Hey honey, remember when everyone kept typing A but we were the only ones who were typing B? From that moment on, I knew we were perfect for each other."

Um... no, that didn't happen. I have no problem with this TPP thing, but some of the fan reactions of it _are_ disgusting.


> Seriously, not only did this come out and amaze me, but it changed my life and the way I think about things.


It changed your life? Are you a better person now as opposed to two weeks ago? That's just silly. There are wars out there, where people put their lives on the line every day to make the world a better place, yet people get inspired by typing letters with other people.


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## Black-Ice (Mar 4, 2014)

Pedeadstrian said:


> It changed your life? Are you a better person now as opposed to two weeks ago? That's just silly. There are wars out there, where people put their lives on the line every day to make the world a better place, yet people get inspired by typing letters with other people.


 
May I just add that while Twitch Plays Pokemon isnt a life changing event.
It can still change peoples lives, as can anything.

People fighting wars isnt very inspiring for me personally, all wars are an accumulation of a few people's greed and desire to control. They divide people. In fact are any wars being fought right now to make the world a better place? Its mostly just oil control and money. 
TPP however was an event that brought the world together for an innocent and simple cause. 
To see the world band together and complete pokemon red, as well as the community fun it generated is inspiring for me. The more events like TPP we have the better. Its the kind of event that can only affect you positively.


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## Pedeadstrian (Mar 4, 2014)

Black-Ice said:


> May I just add that while Twitch Plays Pokemon isnt a life changing event.
> It can still change peoples lives, as can anything.
> 
> People fighting wars isnt very inspiring for me personally, all wars are an accumulation of a few people's greed and desire to control. They divide people. In fact are any wars being fought right now to make the world a better place? Its mostly just oil control and money.
> ...


Well, I wasn't saying how wars are good, but (some) of the people fighting are. I won't go further, though, since that's just a can of worms right there.

You're right, any event can inspire people. I guess I'm just one of those people who looks at people crying when watching the Olympics and thinks "...dafuq?"


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## calmwaters (Mar 5, 2014)

ForteGospel said:


> call it "disgusting display of pokenerdgasm" all you want, but i still prefer watching this than "the beauty and the geek" crap


 
You're right; I don't like any show that was created past 2011. But I can certainly find something better to like than Pokemon fanart with deeply religious, almost fanatical, themes. I'm sorry: I draw the line at Pikachu, the original cartoon show (with Misty and Brock), and the Water and Psychic type Pokemon from FireRed and LeafGreen. Live streams that change the lives of 33 million people is... out.





Pedeadstrian said:


> *snip*
> It changed your life? Are you a better person now as opposed to two weeks ago? That's just silly. There are wars out there, where people put their lives on the line every day to make the world a better place, yet people get inspired by typing letters with other people.


I think I mentioned how someone could've gone to the mountains of Tibet and had a life changing experience there instead of participating in this live stream.


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## ForteGospel (Mar 5, 2014)

calmwaters said:


> You're right; I don't like any show that was created past 2011. But I can certainly find something better to like than Pokemon fanart with deeply religious, almost fanatical, themes. I'm sorry: I draw the line at Pikachu, the original cartoon show (with Misty and Brock), and the Water and Psychic type Pokemon from FireRed and LeafGreen. Live streams that change the lives of 33 million people is... out.
> I think I mentioned how someone could've gone to the mountains of Tibet and had a life changing experience there instead of participating in this live stream.


many reality shows are way before 2011, and those are still crap.

its funny that you choose firered and leafgreen as those are _gen III_ and not as "old school" as you are trying to portrait yourself.

also: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd....31/1800098_10151970204408008_1144387038_o.jpg

is this "almost fanatical"? nope
is this deeply religious? fuck nope

does it has a deeper meaning? yeah, for him and many others that followed the stream this might be the way they were feeling after they beat the game. just like people feel after the end of a series they watched, or finishing reading a book.

did the stream inspired people? yeah~, maybe not you but it certainly did
was this the first time something like this happened? yeah, this was game changing
will something new be based on this experiment on the future? who knows?

think for example the first streamed game ever produced:
did it inspired people? fuck yeah, now days even the new consoles let you stream your game
did it change peoples life? there are streamers that get a living from streaming

also life changing experiences dont need to be extreme situations, i could be sitting on the toilet taking a dump while thinking to pass time and then suddenly understanding something that could change my whole life.

i dont need to travel half of the world to experience a life change event, thinking that way is childish...


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## hhs (Mar 5, 2014)

Related:


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## CompassNorth (Mar 6, 2014)

Dartz150 said:


> The one Arras said is not a clone, is the direct sequel


I never said it wasn't a clone.


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## osaka35 (Mar 6, 2014)

hhs said:


> Related:


 

Oh jeez, not that guy. He's nothing but a click-bait guy who somehow manages to speak for long periods of time without saying anything. Huh. I guess he's a good match for this topic though.


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## Nah3DS (Mar 6, 2014)

just listen to this...
http://churchofthehelixchoir.bandcamp.com/track/praise-the-helix


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