Twitch Plays Pokemon (or, in case you were wondering, the origin of Bird Jesus and All Praise the Helix Fossil)
My, that was definitely the longest title I’ve ever had. Joystiq has the best summary of what all this involves, but I am so damn proud that I couldn’t help but write my own post on this. A few weeks back, a single live edition of Pokemon Red hit the net. It is part of Twitch Channel (which I have no idea what is) but the idea is that it’s whoever is on giving commands to Red and driving him through the game. Imagine, 70,000-120,000 players all trying to play a game at once. Yep. But what has developed is one of the most surreal, and frankly, awe-inspiring moments in internet, gaming, and Pokemon. What is so fascinating is the forces at play here. Bird Jesus and Omanyte vs Flareon, Anarchy vs Democracy, the “death” (really the release, but pretty much the same thing) of cherished Pokemon such as Charmander….