Pokémon is one of the most enduring and popular video game franchises and interest in the franchise has far from fizzled. A new Pokémon phenomenon has broken out at Twitch.tv, and estimates have put the number of viewers watching the stream at the same time at anything between 50,000 to 70,000 people.
Twitch is currently the largest e-sports live streaming platform on the Internet and a new channel was recently launched allowing players to collaborate on playing a game of Pokémon Red. The stream is known as Twitch Plays Pokémon.
So what exactly is Twitch Plays Pokémon? The answer is both simple and complicated at the same time. It is one part live stream, one part video game, one part chat room and one part social experiment.
"Twitch Plays Pokemon is a social experiment, it is a stream of the Gameboy version of Pokemon Red (151 romhack) running on an emulator," explains the stream's FAQ. "An IRC bot translates buttons said in chat into keypresses (simulated in software, no fancy typist robots)."
The stream was launched on Feb. 12 and it went viral shortly afterwards. By Feb. 14, the stream had a total viewership of approximately 175,000 people. As of Feb. 18, the total number of views has reached around 9.1 million people.
While most of the people hanging around Twitch Plays Pokémon can be classified as spectators, an estimated 10 percent or approximately 5,000 to 7,000 people are actively participating. To take part in the fun, players need to use the Twitch chat stream to input their commands.
"Say the button you want pushed in chat (a, b, start select, up, down, left, right), please be aware that there is considerable input lag (see below) and will take awhile before your inputs are registered," says the Twitch Plays Pokémon page. "Only one button per message is accepted, there's no combos or holds."
With thousands of people inputting commands at the same time, will the game's protagonist succeed in becoming "the very best like no one ever was?" Or will he fade away into online gaming obscurity as a mere footnote in the relatively long history of Pokémon? The result is a brilliant manifestation of bringing order from chaos. Despite the number of trolls and troublemakers who refuse to cooperate with other players for the common good, four of the game's gym leaders have already been beaten and 12 pokémon have already been captured.
"This is one more example of how video games have become a platform for entertainment and creativity that extends WAY beyond the original intent of the game creator," said Matthew DiPietro, the vice president of marketing of Twitch.tv. "By merging a video game, live video and a participatory experience, the broadcaster has created an entertainment hybrid custom made for the Twitch community. This is a wonderful proof on concept that we hope to see more of in the future."
Watch live video from TwitchPlaysPokemon on www.twitch.tv
