Defying all odds, the famous live stream, Twitch Plays Pokémon, has actually been making significant progress. With tens of thousands of players inputting singular recognizable commands into a Pokémon Red emulator, chaos has been occurring for the last 11 days:
For those that may be unfamiliar with what is happening, Twitch’s website has coded a live stream of a Pokémon Red emulator, where anybody who logs in can input a basic command (such as UP, A, START, etc.) in order for the group to collectively play the game. Since so many players are inputting commands simultaneously, the massive lags make the gameplay erratic and unpredictable. And, like anything with the internet, countless trolls have also joined the ranks, adding even more obstacles to the mix.
What originally appeared to be a hopeless cause at first is now showing signs of promise as players have made significant progress. Since its launch, an Anarchy/Democracy mode has also been created, which allows for two different modes of play. Anarchy mode is the traditional ‘free for all’ of singular moves, but Democracy mode adds a more systematic method of picking moves. However, like everything else, game mode is also selected by the masses.
A Google Doc has been created that monitors the most recent progress, which includes the winning of 6 badges, releasing Charmeleon and all Pokémon able to learn HM01 Cut, capturing the legendary Zapdos, and examining the Helix Fossil countless times. A live stream emulator of this magnitude involving so many collective players has never really occurred before, so now is your chance to be a part of it! Hopefully we will see Red defeating the Elite Four in the coming days
Gamenomics & Comicology 