Twitch Plays Pokémon beats Pokémon
by Ian Cutress on March 1, 2014 4:27 AM EST
A departure from the normal tech news, but for those not keeping tabs on the phenomenon Twitch Plays Pokemon, it is an interesting social experiment via the Twitch platform. Users are encouraged to help enter commands into the chat box to control around Red from the first generation of the Pokémon games. At the peak, an army of 100,000 users were issuing commands to the in-game character where to go. A multitude of hilariousness has come forth due to this method, as well as frustration as users with the intent of causing havoc also enter the mix (the use of the start button was adjusted, for example).
Aside from issues such as taking six hours to navigate a ledge and accidentally releasing 12 Pokémon in a single day, the extraordinary happened: millions of users at millions of keyboards managed to beat the final sequence. After 22 attempts at the Elite Four, that combination of users powered though. Not only this, but the fear of accidentally starting a new game after the end sequence came to naught.
The final moment was captured in all its glory:
Many thanks to James Croft for the image
The task took 16 days 7 hours 45 minutes, or 391 hours in total. This is compared to my individual personal best of 13 hours, to put it into perspective. The final team of Pokémon were as follows:
Omastar, Level 51
Pidgeot, Level 69
Venomoth, Level 39
Zapdos, Level 81
Lapras, Level 30
Nidoking, Level 53
For a brief update of the adventure, this Google document was maintained throughout the journey.
No news as to the next quest in the ‘Twitch Plays’ series, however the channel states that the next journey should start around midday Sunday GMT.
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flyingpants1 - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
A departure from the normal tech news, indeed.xaml - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
One that wasn't worth it. What would have been worth it, for example, would have been an article about a travel to a fabrication plant or conditions in the manufacturing industry.RagnarKon - Sunday, March 2, 2014 - link
Was completely worth it. An interesting social experiment that combines technology, video games, and people in an almost completely uncontrolled way.If someone asked me at the start of all of this, I would have thought it wasn't even possible to beat the game until public interest was lost. Just too many people out there with a desire to cause havoc. But beating it in 16 days? I'm surprised.
aegisofrime - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Praise Helix!ydeer - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Next up, twitch reviews the 2013 Haswell rMBP.Let’s make it happen.
bj_murphy - Sunday, March 2, 2014 - link
Haha, that made me chuckle sir/madam. I'm sure twitch would do a "fine job" reviewing the Haswell rMBP ;)HyperText - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Anarchy!willis936 - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Interestingly the most destruction took place during democracy mode.I still would have liked to see missingno captured.
tipoo - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
This really proves that so many people working together can do anything.Many times slower than one person would have been at it, but lets not ruin the moment.
I loved the "red hearing voices/insanity" plot line some of them wrote up for it. This final comic hit me in the feels surprisingly hard.
http://i.imgur.com/Tnlj9hf.png
tipoo - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Meanwhile, in another region, another boy starts to hear a voice...http://i.imgur.com/V8ZSlkO.png?1