Warning: may contain pixel penises and NSFW language

Over April Fool’s weekend, Reddit launched a short social experiment called Place. Think of it like a massive, collaborative MS Paint.

It consisted of a large, shared canvas where users could place one tile (pixel) at a time every 5–20 minutes. This meant that to build anything substantial or to hold a piece of territory, users had to work together.

And unlike a traditional painting, the true scope and beauty of the Place canvas could only be captured with time.

Establishing Boundaries

In the beginning, factions divided into colors: Blue Corner, Green Lattice, Red Corner, Green Corner, Purple Corner. Blue rose quickly and dominated a large corner of the board before being overrun by a Twitch streamer.

Battling the Void

Then came the Void, which consisted of griefers destroying art by blacking out the screen. But there was beauty even in this destruction, which, like a forest fire, helped clear space for new art to blossom. Some users went firmly on the defensive, like Innovation from Formula1, who had already been destroyed by the Void and set about filling their own “F” with grey in order to make it harder for the Void’s tendrils to destroy it.

Belgium’s Beer & Bratwurst Border! Nuff said.

Osu! Takes the Field

The drama was kicked into high gear when Osu! took over a large swath of territory. The Void tried its best to take down Osu! But they fought hard and stood their ground. Over and over again.

Capture the Flag

America also went to war with the Void, and emerged (mostly) victorious.

Sweden launched a hostile takeover of Denmark.

And Germany went after France.

This Memes War

Mega Man proved legends never die, but memes do. So long, dat boi.

Bender Makeover

Bender changed suits, but stayed on message.

Follow the Rainbow Road

Rainbow Road zipped across the board creating incredibly cool artwork by collaborating with other groups and integrating with their art.

Masters at Work

Creation of the Mona Lisa!

The Starry Night shines through the Void’s blackout attempts

Skeletor Burns One Down

Because that’s just funny.

This amazing time-lapse “heat map” breaks down the action into pure pixel activity.

Overall the r/Place experiment was an impressive display of the crowdsourcing power of Reddit, and a humbling exercise in futility for the users whose creations were swallowed by the Void despite their best efforts. So basically the internet in a nutshell.