| Twitch Plays Pokemon; ALL HAIL THE HELIX FOSSIL/Eevee the False Prophet | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 17 2014, 10:31 PM (1,815 Views) | |
| DiskytheFrisbee | Feb 17 2014, 10:31 PM Post #1 |
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I AM looking rather beautiful today.
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Overview and link: http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon Twitch Plays Pokemon is an ongoing live-stream event hosted by the video-streaming platform Twitch.tv in which any member of the site can participate in a massively multiplayer online co-op version of Nintendo’s 1996 role-playing video game Pokémon Red by inputting various commands in chat. Background Powered by a combination of JavaScript, Python code and the Game Boy emulator VisualBoyAdvance, the massively multiplayer co-op version of Pokémon Red was launched by an anonymous Australian programmer via Twitch.tv on February 13th, 2014. In the game, participants can crowd-control the movement of the main character by typing a series of commands (A, B, Start and Select) in the channel’s chatroom. However, the high volume of input commands from tens of thousands of participants led to much confusion and conflict in gameplay, soon rendering the game almost unplayable. The viewer count has reached over 75,000 at its peak. Notable Developments Within three days of its release, twitch plays pokemon became a popular tag on Tumblr where various image macros were created about the events taking place in the game, and a dedicated subreddit was created for the stream. It became a controversial topic on 4chan when mods began deleting threads about the stream on every board, before eventually allowing threads on /vp/, the Pokémon board. Online news websites such as Kotaku, Polygon, CNET, and The Independent, published articles about the stream. Derivatives Inspired by the success of Twitch Plays Pokemon, many others on Twitch began creating similar streams. Many streams were made for different Pokémon games, such as Blue Version, Crystal Version, and FireRed Version. A stream was made where the actions in Twitch Plays Pokemon would control a game of Tetris. A stream known as RNG Plays Pokemon also had Red Version, but the character was controlled by an RNG randomly selecting buttons. Memes and In-Jokes Helix Fossil Due to the many commands being input at once, it was common for items to be selected accidentally during battles. The second item in the player’s bag, the Helix Fossil, was selected so often that it came to be viewed as the player looking to it for guidance, and Twitch users began referring to it as a deity. Other items treated this way were the Moon Stone, Nugget, and S.S. Ticket. ![]() The Ledge Ledges are obstacles in Pokémon games which can be passed through on one side, but not on the other. At one point in the game there is a long ledge with only one unit of space to walk past it; thus, even a single person giving a “down” command would cause the player to go through the ledge, requiring the character to backtrack and go through again. Due to the large number of trolls in the stream, it took multiple hours to get past a single ledge, causing ledges to be viewed as a large obstacle by the viewers, even though they are usually minor nuisances in normal Pokémon games. ![]() Trees Trees are another type of obstacle in Pokémon games. In the first generation of Pokémon games, trees can be removed by going to the menu, selecting a Pokémon which knows the move Cut, and using Cut while facing the tree. Due to the large number of commands needed to achieve this and the lack of coordination among the Twitch users, trees became notorious for being extremely difficult to get past. One particular tree took multiple hours to remove. ![]() Eevee Debate There was a large argument in the chat about whether or not to get the Pokémon Eevee. Doing so would have been a risky move, as it would necessitate evolving it to Vaporeon in order to have a Pokémon which would learn Surf. This would require the viewers to successfully buy and use a Water Stone without wasting all the player’s money. If this failed, something would need to be deposited in the PC in order to get Lapras, another Pokémon which could learn Surf, which would risk accidentally releasing a high-level Pokémon. Despite the obvious downsides to doing so, the majority of users chose to get Eevee. They then failed to buy a Water Stone, accidentally buying a Fire Stone and evolving Eevee into Flareon. After going to the PC to deposit it, they accidentally released “ABBBBBBK (” (a.k.a. Abby) the Charmeleon and “JLVWNNOOOO” (a.k.a. Jay Leno) the Rattata. They also put Pidgeot, the highest-level Pokémon on the team, and the Helix Fossil into the PC (although both were later retrieved). Because the source of all this was Eevee, Eevee began to be viewed as a “false prophet” and servant of the Dome Fossil, which was viewed as Satan. ![]() There's also a bunch of fanart for this thing that I'll try and find, but chances are I won't be able to find all of it. It'd be super if everyone could pitch in. That being said, discuss, this is legit really cool. And it's funny. Summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ka89uCBeLl9VV5GPlAKuW7yF8FGtnVmdbPnIwG8FnQ4/preview?sle=true New Doc: https://sites.google.com/site/twitchplayspokemonstatus/ Edited by DiskytheFrisbee, Feb 28 2014, 11:48 PM.
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| Don Jentleman | Feb 18 2014, 05:11 PM Post #2 |
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Renzo is too sexy for himself
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26240191 Looks like the BBC took notice. I have to laugh at that people asking "What's the point?", because they obviously don't get the point of video game streaming in the first place. |
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| TheGameFreak | Feb 18 2014, 05:34 PM Post #3 |
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VE's Master Swordsman
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I'm a new user on Twitch. Though, I'm mostly on there just to watch the Naka streams. Also, I'm rather surprised that a news company took notice of this. It's just a shame that it wasn't one here in America, otherwise I'd be laughing my everything off watching a clip of the stream on the 6 o' clock news.
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| Ghoul | Feb 18 2014, 06:26 PM Post #4 |
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The stream itself isn't that fun to watch unless the chat is out for blood at a PC... That said, the memes this is generating is hilarious. Start9 being my personal favorite. |
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| spiritomb108 | Feb 18 2014, 07:36 PM Post #5 |
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Bringing THIS baby back
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In other news, the Natural Order has been restored. I checked in this morning, just int time to see the Helix Fossil retrieved from the PC. No idea where it is now, but Helix is back and Flareon got released. |
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| S. E. Lehcar | Feb 18 2014, 09:52 PM Post #6 |
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Let's become someone else. Perhaps with more depth of character.
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For shenanigans taken to additional heights, I would recommend checking out the sub Reddit. |
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| Minmin-Sama | Feb 19 2014, 03:15 AM Post #7 |
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BUNNY ON DA ROOOOF
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I enjoy watching this on occasion with the callgroup.![]() tumblr's fandom is fun, too. |
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| spiritomb108 | Feb 19 2014, 07:26 AM Post #8 |
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Bringing THIS baby back
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This just in: In addition to BBC taking notice of Twitch plays Pokémon, CNN has also done an article on it. CNN's Article |
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| TheGameFreak | Feb 19 2014, 07:45 AM Post #9 |
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VE's Master Swordsman
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Oh my God. Now an American news team is starting to take notice. Welp, time to turn on my TV then. |
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| spiritomb108 | Feb 19 2014, 08:18 AM Post #10 |
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Bringing THIS baby back
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In Stream news, Digrat has just been renamed to AAJSTA(???? As in, renamed in-game; they walked into the Name Rater's house and renamed him. |
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