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What is Twitch Plays Pokemon?

Put simply, Twitch Plays Pokemon is thousands of people simultaneously playing the 1996 Game Boy game, Pokémon, one command at a time. If you type “up” the character will move up. If you type “down” the character will move down. Your inputs, however, do not happen immediately on the screen, but rather “eventually.” There’s anywhere from 10 to 50 commands per second (or more) depending on the number of people playing, and there’s an inherent delay between the command input and the action we see performed due to the nature of Twitch.tv (anywhere from 20-40 seconds according to the stream creator).

You can see Twitch Plays Pokemon here, or take a peek at the GIF I made below:

The main screen is the game reacting to the commands that users input. He moves right, then spins, the moves right again, and spins again. He also opens and closes the menu several times. It all looks a little chaotic, a little random — like anarchy. Well friends, welcome to Twitch Plays Pokemon.

The black of the screen with scrolling white text showcases the user-input commands. A user can type in whatever they want, but the only commands that will be recognized will be a, b, start, select, up, down, left, and right. When you see the white text, “left, left, down, right, b, a” scroll up and off the screen, the game treats those like button presses on a Game Boy and performs those commands in turn. In order to actually participate you have to be logged into a specific IRC server / channel. (For our purposes think of IRC kind of like the chat rooms of old; a meeting place online where anyone can join and chat as long as they know how to get there.) The black screen and white text isn’t what the IRC channel looks like, it is something the stream creator designed using the in-game fonts. The counter at the top (3d 19h 18m at the time of the GIF’s creation) represents how long Twitch Plays Pokemon has been streaming.

Here a screenshot of the Twitch Plays Pokemon IRC channel just so you could can see what it looks like:

Going back to the GIF, the grey screen on the right with the text and the tiny images of heads is the Twitch stream’s chat channel. Every individual Twitch stream has one. Nothing anyone inputs here will effect the gameplay in any way, it’s ideally a place for people watching this whole thing (provided they have a Twitch.tv account) to talk about what’s going on, or express themselves. Even still, a lot of people input commands (like “up” and “down”) in the stream even if it doesn’t do anything. I’m not sure why. It’s possible they are unaware

of the rules, but I like to think they are uncontrollably compelled to try and steer the character in a direction. As you can see a lot of the text is unintelligible, like:

“JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN”

and the very sad, misspelled:

“rigt”

But some comments are on topic. Like:

Pidgeot MVP!!

Why that is on topic will take some explaining. I’ll get there.

Twitch.tv is a live streaming platform people typically use to publicly play a game online. The idea is that the viewer can watch the streamer’s game screen (and frequently, the streamer themselves) and communicate with them, as well as other people watching via a chat window on the right-hand side.

You can see a regular example here:

This streamer, “Dizzy,” is playing World of Warcraft. The title of her stream is “Teatime with Dizzy! Raise your Dolphins.” In the lower left corner you can see her reactions to the game in near-real time. She looks upset. You probably can’t see, but just above her is text that says “Top Donation of the month $1000.00. Latest Donation $5.00.” Yes. People donate money to streamers. You can follow their channels like you would a YouTube channel, and get an email notification when their stream goes live.

What does “raise your dolphins” mean? I’ve only seen Dizzy stream once, but in that stream if she got a follower she would pick up a stuffed dolphin, smile wide, and take the dolphin’s tiny fins and flutter them back and forth rapidly. Then she would say, “Thank you for following, [Name of the Follower].”

Twitch.tv can be a strange place.

Twitch.tv is also frequently used for large electronic sports events. Large e-sports events may include things like video game championships, where the stream will be similar to regular sportscasting. You see the hosts, you see them talk, then you see the game, and they commentate. The only difference is, as always, there is a chat stream attached on the site so viewers can communicate with each other.

Twitch Plays Pokemon Creator

The game was created by an Austrailian programmer who wants his identity kept private. However, that has not stopped him from doing a few interviews. Here are a couple of key excerpts from some:

So, How does the stream work?

It’s essentially an IRC bot that connects to the stream’s chat and listens for buttons to be said, when it finds a match it simulates the press of a key that corresponds to the same button in the emulator. The inputs are also shown on the stream’s overlay so viewers can see everyone’s contribution.

What possessed you to think 16,000+ strangers playing a pokemon rom was a good/GREAT idea?

Although I claim it is a social experiment I think that gives the false impression that it was planned or for a particular purpose, it’s just a fancy way of saying “I want to see what happens.”

You can read the full interview at BADatVIDEOGAMES.net. I think it’s the best one I’ve found.

Then in an interview with Polygon, he stated:

“I’m going to let it continue to run 24/7, I’d like to see the Elite Four [trainers] beaten but I have my doubts about it being possible without much better coordination.”

If you read the full interview you can see that he was inspired by a few similar concepts and wanted to try his own idea out. He’s very modest about the work he’s done. He says his code is “ugly,” but if you take a look around Twitch these days at all the various clones inspired by his stream’s popularity (Twitch Plays Zelda, or Twitch Plays Pokemon Yellow) none of them have the same responsiveness. Certainly it will be some time before any other stream gains the kind of popularity of Twitch Plays Pokemon.

Pokémon

For those who don’t know, Pokémon is a Role Playing Game (RPG) originally designed for the Game Boy. The initial games have spawned a TV show, movies, multiple game sequels, a plethora of merchandise, and things like this:

Since Twitch Plays Pokemon focuses on the game Pokémon Red, I will focus on that too. The first two games released in the Pokémon series were Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. The theme of Pokémon has always been “gotta catch ’em all,” which means catching all 150 Pokémon that exist in both games combined. I say combined because Pokémon Red has some Pokémon that Pokémon Blue does not have, and vice versa. This promotes a community around the game (essentially, advertising) because the only way to get every Pokémon is by trading with a friend that has the opposite game. By using a link cable two Game Boys can be joined and Pokémon can be traded.

Like most RPGs, the basic game mechanic is having a “party” of characters (in this case Pokémon) who gain experience points, level up, and get stronger so that they can surpass the games obstacles. The ultimate goal of Pokémon Red/Blue is to beat all eight gym trainers, get their badges, beat the elite four, and become the ultimate Pokémon master.

To do so you must catch Pokémon and train them. You play as a young boy (whose default name is the English version of Pokémon Red is RED) who leaves his home to go on a quest to become the best Pokémon trainer in the world. As RED, you do not fight any Pokémon with your own hands, you get your Pokémon to battle other Pokémon for you. The relationship is akin to slave and master, but more affectionate.

With each wild Pokémon you encounter, you have a chance to catch them and keep them as part of your team. In order to do so, you must first weaken the wild Pokémon by attacking it with Pokémon you already own, then throwing a “Poké ball” at them. Like so:

If successful, you will be that Pokémon’s master and you can keep it.

In Pokémon Red there are a few basic button commands.

A: This is your “action” command. You can use it to:

Pick up items.

Talk to non-playable characters in the game.

Access in-game devices, like the PC.

From within a menu, select an option in that menu.

From within a menu, proceed to the next menu if there is additional text.

From within a menu, select an item in that menu and “use” it, if it can be used at that time.

While in battle, select an attack.

B: This is your cancel command. Your can is it to:

Close an open menu, and/or go back to a previous menu.

Cancel the evolution of a Pokémon.

Up: This allows you to move RED up, or move the cursor on a menu up.

Right: This allows you to move RED right, or move the cursor on a menu right

Down: This allows you to move RED down, or move the cursor on a menu down

Left: This allows you to move RED left, or move the cursor on a menu left



Start: Opens the main menu

Select: Pretty sure this does nothing.

Understanding what the buttons do is important to Twitch Plays Pokemon because any of these actions could happen at any time. And probably in an order you would not expect. Twitch Plays Pokemon is a very poor tool to teach game mechanics to someone who has never played before. “Oh he’s jumping off a ledge again. I wonder what button does that.” The answer is the down button: twice (if you’re not already facing the ledge). The first “down” to face the ledge, and a second “down” to jump off it. Or say you saw, “a menu appeared then disappeared immediately, I wonder what button that was?” Well, that’s two buttons: Start, then B.

The other thing that might be helpful is understanding some of the menus you see. There are two common menus that will keep appearing again and again.

The Main Menu

The main menu is what appears when a user inputs “start.” On this menu there

are a series of options that provide information on your current status.

Pokédex: The Pokédex is an item that you carry around to document Pokémon. If you see one in the wild, or encounter one in a fight with another trainer, data is stored in the Pokédex on that Pokémon. There will be a little summary about the Pokémon and information on where you can find them, as well as an audio of their “cry” (what sound they make. Each Pokémon makes a unique sound). You will frequently see Twitch Plays Pokemon open up the menu and listen to the Pokémon Bulbasaur’s cry, simply because Bulbasaur is the first entry on the list and, therefore, the most likely to be selected.

Pokémon: The Pokémon menu is a listing of all the current Pokémon you have in your party. You are allowed to carry six at a time. This menu allows you to re-arrange their order (in battle, the one at the top is released first) and select some specific moves in order to solve obstacles or puzzles in the game.

Item: This is a list of all available items you are carrying around with you. You’ll often see the Twitch Plays Pokemon selecting an item that can only be used in a very specific place (like the Helix Fossil or the SS Ticket) and you will receive a message that says, “This isn’t the time to use that!”

Red: This shows a basic game status. How many gym badges you’ve collected so far, and time played, I think.

Save: Allows you to save your progress. Don’t worry, Twitch Plays Pokemon has saved many, MANY times.

Option: This allows you to change things like in-game text speed.

Exit: Exits menu.

The Battle Menu

During a battle with a wild Pokémon, or another trainer you will see the battle menu.

There are four items on the top menu:

Fight: These are your Pokémon’s attack moves. Each Pokémon gets four attacks. Select a specific attack, and your Pokémon uses that move.

Item: This allows you to use certain items on your Pokémon during battle

Run: This allows you to run away from encounters with wild Pokémon. You cannot run from a battle with another trainer.

P K M N : This allows you to switch your Pokémon during battle

Think of Pokémon battling like complicated a game of Paper, Rock, Scissor. Each Pokémon has a different type: Rock, Water, Fire, Psychic, Flying, etc. Pokemon has its own rules about what type of Pokémon (and what type of attacks) are strong / weak against other types.

Water type attacks are strong against fire-type and rock-type Pokémon, for example, but weak against other water-type Pokémon. This is why you would likely switch your Pokémon while battling; you definitely wouldn’t want to risk your rock-type Pokémon in a fight against a water-type Pokémon.

At least, in theory. Are the players of Twitch Plays Pokemon considering type? Absolutely not. In the battle menu image above, they are using a flying-type against a rock-type. Very bad! But you can that the PIDGEOT has a level of 45, while the RHYHORN has a level of 24. Level makes all the difference. If you have a strong enough Pokémon, type doesn’t matter as much.

In fact, exceptions like this are what makes Twitch Plays Pokemon work, in part. Pokemon is a very forgiving game. If all your Pokémon lose all their health, or all your Pokémon no longer have any attack they can use (each attack’s use is limited) you simply blackout and return to the nearest PokeCenter where you will be automatically restored to full health. This makes thousands of people progressing in the game much easier.

As you progress through the game and travel towards a gym leader, you encounter random Pokémon on the road. Each Pokémon you defeat offers experience points. As you gain a certain amount of experience points, you level up and your Attack / Defense / Special Attack / Special Defense statistics go up, and your Pokémon becomes stronger.

The reason you want to level your Pokémon is because each successive gym leader has higher level (stronger) Pokémon. The first gym leader has Pokémon around level 12 and the second gym leader has Pokémon around level 18, etc. There are eight gym leaders in total, each in their own respective cities.

After defeating each trainer you receive a badge. Once you get all eight badges you get the chance to defeat the final bosses in the game, the Elite Four.

The Elite Four are all gathered in a single place and if you can beat all four of them in succession (as well as the final match against your rival) you win the game. Theoretically, this is where Twitch Plays Pokemon is headed.

Anarchy and Democracy

Twitch Plays Pokemon has two modes of gameplay: Anarchy and Democracy. At some point during the stream players were stuck in maze for at least a day, so the game creator implemented a system where the commands the game performed would be based on a majority vote. If the majority of people input “up” the character would move up. However, this creates a 20 second delay on every single movement, which is much slower than the “classic” system where the every input is used.

There’s also a “Wait” command, which essentially does nothing. It merely allows the streamers to plan their moves with precision, since each command they input will be completed 10-20 seconds in the future.

The new mode also allows people to chain commands together. For example:

An input of “downa” is a vote for a single press of the DOWN button, followed by a single press of the A button.

An input of “down3a” is a vote for a three presses of the DOWN button, followed by a single press of the A button.

This led to a revolt of sorts in the stream, where a number of people input “start9,” which is nine commands to open the main menu, essentially halting the progress of the game. The creator then created a choice between the two gameplay styles: anarchy and democracy. In anarchy the gameplay mode is traditional, every user input counts. In democracy the gameplay is as described above, where the majority of votes for an input is passed and chain commands can be performed. “Democracy” and “anarchy” are also now game input commands. The system tallies the number of instances users type one or the other to determine which mode to be in, like a tug of war.

See the tiny > arrow in the white bar in the upper right hand corner? That indicates the direction the vote is moving. Once that tiny line after the arrow is crossed, the system will be using Democracy. According to the game creater’s FAQ:

To get from anarchy mode to democracy mode 80% of the votes must be for democracy mode.

To get from democracy mode to anarchy mode 50% of the votes must be for anarchy mode.

There’s a faction of people playing Twitch Plays Pokemon that feel anarchy is the only pure form of the game. One of the arguments is the old, “Focus on the journey not the destination” idea. The things that go wrong from thousands of game inputs are more entertaining and valued than having things go exactly right — this is a fair point. Purists think anarchy is the only way to play, and the majority of the game is played this way.

Personally I feel you need both. I can’t think of any “unintended” commands that would completely break progress in the game (and I feel that marginal, painstaking progress is something most people want), but at the same time I feel like there’s a baseline value all gamers share. For example, while at the PC in any Pokécenter (if you press the right buttons) you can release your Pokémon forever. I’m fairly certain you can’t release every single Pokémon, and that you’d always be able to keep at least one (and I happen to know you can beat the game with only a single Pokémon), but there are certain Pokémon in the stream’s party we have all grown emotionally attached to and releasing them is something we definitely do not want to do.

… this requires some explanation.

Community

Have you ever taken a vacation with a group of people and over the course of those several days you formed your own rhythm, your own tiny community, your own way of interacting? And those experiences you had, while you could describe them to other people, they wouldn’t fully understand those stories because they weren’t there. They weren’t part of your microcosm you made with your friends on that trip. I feel that’s kind of what Twitch Plays Pokemon is. It’s been streaming now (mostly) non-stop for 15 days (at the time of writing this article), and it has become a shared experience that is difficult to describe to others outside of it.

Even for those participating, or following the stream, it is difficult to keep appraised of progress because we sleep at night. And while we sleep, Australia and the UK are playing. When we wake up we have to ask, “What happened? Where are we now guys?” It bolsters a sense of community.

There are places you can get updates:

A live updates: Twitch Plays Pokemon Reddit stream run by several volunteers, posting event updates every few minutes.

A YouTube channel, TwitchPlaysPokemon Timelapses, that quickly plays through an entire days events at 3500% speed

A YouTube channel user, Level Limit, who is doing a more vlog-style recap of the important days events in about five minutes

Each day I find myself checking the reddit live stream to see where they are, and what they are getting up to. Admittedly, I find it hard to watch the stream for more than a few minutes if they aren’t actually progressing. It’s too chaotic.

The other thing the community is doing is making hilarious fan art that captures moments from the stream, or makes beautiful inside jokes.

From imgur: “Something I’m expecting to happen eventually”

Humour and Highlights

I first started really getting into Twitch Plays Pokemon when I started seeing all the imgur posts.

They really captured the manic behaviour RED is known for. This particular image showcases RED inside Giovanni’s office. Giovanni is the head of an evil organization in the Pokémon world. In the game you first meet him at the top of Team Rocket’s tower. It took the collective stream 26 hours,and forced the creator of the stream to implement the democracy mode in order to finally reach Giovanni.

And when, at last, we finally got into the elevator to go and face Giovanni. What happened?

The most common meme you’ll run into, however, is the one about “Lord Helix.”

Early on in the game the stream picked up a “Helix Fossil” in bottom floor of Mount Moon. In the game you have to choose between two fossils, the Helix Fossil, or the Dome Fossil. You can only pick one. Regardless of which fossil you choose you carry that fossil for the majority of the game until you reach Cinnabar Island, where you exchange it for a Pokémon. In this case, the Helix Fossil is exchanged for the Pokémon “Omanyte.” But until you get to Cinnabar Island you are carrying around a Helix Fossil in your inventory. Since you can’t discard it, and because the chaotic commands cause the menu to open so frequently, the Helix Fossil was frequently selected even though it could not be used.

It was consulted so frequently the stream started to worship it as though it seemed to responsible for their success or failure. Hence the nickname, “Lord Helix.”

Then of course when they finally reached Cinnabar Island and exchanged the Helix Fossil for Omanyte, we got:

Naturally, everything people dislike or consider evil they attribute to the Dome Fossil. Things like the democracy mode, and the Flareon incident. In order to progress through the game you need to teach at least one Pokémon the “Surf” ability, which allows you to ride your Pokémon across water. Early on there was a plan to take the Evee Pokémon and evolve it with a Water Stone, so it could be taught Surf. It was evolved with a Fire Stone, creating the Pokémon, Flareon, who has gained the nickname “The False Prophet” and is the scapegoat for all things the stream deems bad.

And of course, there’s fan art scripture to help document their new religion.

The other popular Pokémon is affectionately nicknamed “Bird Jesus” partly because through the chaotic behaviour of the streams he was renamed “aaabaaajss” (where “jss” sorta looks like “jesus”). But also because he was the highest level Pokémon for awhile and, therefore, the Pokémon that won the majority of battles. A saviour, if you will.

A lot of Pokémon have been given nicknames by stream, mostly related to the odd, chaotic names the Pokémon themselves were given.

There’s The Fonz (because he’s been renamed AAAAAAA!), Air Jordan, (because he’s been renamed AIIIIR), and All Terrain Venemoth / ATV (because he’s been renamed AATTVVV).

There’s Jay Leno (Pokémon renamed JLVWNNOOOO), DigRat (because he used the very irritating Dig move all the time), beloved Abby, the first Pokémon we had (Pokémon renamed ABBBBBBK — yea I don’t get it either), and The Keeper (because as legend has it, he was the reason we were able to deposit Flareon, The False Prophet in the PC.

Beyond silly names, there are many frustrating, endearing moments during the stream due to the chaotic input. For example, there are a number of tree obstacles that have to be cut down by a Pokémon in order to pass. To do this you have to both teach a Pokémon the move CUT, as well as get them to use it in the correct spot. Back in those days democracy mode did not exist. So you got a lot of RED walking up to the tree, opening his menu, checking the Helix Fossil, closing the menu, opening the menu, checking his SS Ticket, closing the menu, opening the menu again, checking his Helix Fossil, closing the menu … over and over. This says it all:

Another memorable moment was when they got stuck behind a trainer for almost two hours. I wasn’t watching when it happened, but my guess that unusual, specific events occurred. Rival trainers don’t actually move until you get near them, they simply stand in one spot and rotate until they see you. Once you are spotted you are stuck in place until they walk up to you. So what probably happened was, RED walked behind that table while the trainer’s back was turned, then as RED tried to leave from behind the table, the trainer spotted him, walked forward, and trapped them there. The only way they were able to escape was to continue doing random battles until their Pokémon ran out of moves to use, blacked out, and automatically returned to the nearest Pokécenter. Every time they would take to the beaten trainer he would repeat, “I wonder where my partner is. I wonder where my partner is. I wonder where my parnter is.” Very upsetting ordeal.

And of course there was the intense battle with gym trainer Giovanni. Chaotically controlled battles on the brink of defeat certainly do have an excitement to them. Just take a look at the excerpts at the end of the stream below (after the battle is over. Remember, there’s a 20 second delay between chat inputs and actions on screen):

Comments like:

BIRD JESUS TAKE THAT WHEEL! HELIX GIVE US YOUR BLESSINGS MY BUTT IS SO CLENCHED RIGHT NOW

There are even more unusual moments, memes, and images, but even the ones I explained are a bit too weird. I’m worried if I show you too much, you’ll look away. Don’t worry, we’re almost done.

Where the Stream is at Currently

At the time of writing this Twitch Plays Pokemon is currently engaged with the Elite Four. They are fighting the third master, Agatha. I am seeing on my reddit update they are wiping out. It won’t be long now before they beat the game. I thought for sure the final puzzle-laden path, Victory Road, would be too complex, but they spent over an hour at a time in democracy mode and worked through it together. Pretty astonishing. I thought for sure they would be struggling for days.

If you want to watch the final chapters of Twitch Plays Pokemon you can watch it here. If you want to actually participate that’s a bit trickier. There are several methods. One is detailed here. If you actually want to participate I can make a more detailed, beginner level guide here, if you request it in the comments.

— Lord Helix be praised.