TPP

So, there's a stream that's been going for the past week that allows an IRC channel (Twitch chat rooms use IRC) to play Pokemon Red. While it seems like a simple concept, this once simple experiment has absolutely blossomed as 60,000+ users SLOWLY progress through the game.

When I first saw the stream on day 2, I admittedly shrugged it odd. Then you notice that progress is actually possible, and that it takes so long that an actual micro-community full of religions, terrorism, etc has formed up. I never thought I'd say that a game of Pokemon is a very insightful reflection of ourselves, but there you go.

For those interested in learning a bit more, this guy made a decent recap of the first 7 days or so...

YT link

...and here's a link to the stream

Twitch link

...and a link to a dedicated subreddit chock full of info

Reddit link

reply to post by finitedualities


I hope he has modded the game so that it doesn't end as it usually does.

If it ends as usual, you will not be able to find any deep meaning in it.

reply to post by Bleeeeep


Oh, it should end. I mean, at this rate, the hive mind will likely take at least 60 days or so to do it, but it's inevitable. The elite 4 by themselves will likely take a week, though the gameplay seems to become more cohesive as time has gone on, so it may be too early to tell. Tons of roadblocks like the current one (not allowing the player to tank encounters) are still ahead as well. Closing in on only 8 days in and the amount of "data" is already astounding.

It may just be me, but I get the feeling this is the kind of thing that won't have much appeal once it's done. Just enjoy it while it lasts.

I've never had such a hard time watching these people trying to control the game. so many button inputs.

reply to post by GiulXainx


It's certainly not a smooth process, and the amazing thing to me is that anything gets done...2 days stuck in the Pokemon Tower...25 hours to get past a ledge...it still gets completed somehow. I'm just glad the ghosts are done with until Agatha.

Figured I'd post a couple more resources for those that have become as fascinated as I have.

Google Doc with current status/major event list

Live updates to keep up with the stream

The current meta battle seems to be the democracy system. When it was introduced (meant to limit the time to complete tasks that require dexterity by performing one action at a time through a voting system), democracy was in action at least a third of the time. Now, there's a great enough resistance to the system that even when the mode is activated (by entering "democracy" in the chat/countered by typing "anarchy"), the game comes to a standstill due to a filibuster. The "purists" enter start9 as their command, which wins quite a few votes as the people entering specific commands simply aren't coordinated enough to work together.

reply to post by finitedualities

OMG the madness...This just may be the most important experiment of this age.

Does remind me however of the old adage about there being to many cooks in the kitchen. It also reminds me of that one episode in futurama were bender gets thrown into space and as he floats on endlessly, he develops different civilizations from the microbes on his metal body which eventually blow each other up.

reply to post by galadofwarthethird


To go with the ATS mojo, I'd claim that a sort of collective conscious has been gained...the game is progressing much faster than I originally thought, and on top of that, the religious connotations are very revealing as well. At the same time, if one isn't following this, they are entirely out of the loop at this point, lol.

reply to post by finitedualities

Oh yes progress, I suppose.

I went on there for about 15 minutes, couldn't even complete a simple task like going down one bar on the three bar choice attack meeter, something that would take a second to do in real life, for all I know that probably lasted hours and hours with everybody spouting random things. It all reminds me of the ATS chat room only much more organized with less people imputing random things down, at least they got key words for over all branching scenarios to help it run more smoothly, I heard more democracies and anarchy in there then anything else. If I would have stayed any longer I would be spamming "end game" over and over again. But you know as interesting as it is, I got better ways to waste my time.

But I dont know, even if it succeeds, what would be the point? I mean you could just skip all that and do it the old fashion way and save yourself a few years. The only thing one can learn from certain things, is that some certain things just do not work. But hey! That there little experiment in Pokemon functionality is likely still much more efficient then most forms of governments out there.

As the great Homer Simpson once said.

reply to post by galadofwarthethird


I don't know what your pessimism is about? They beat the game in 16 days (MUCH faster than expected during the first 2 or 3 days), with over 90,000 people their inputting commands at the end (the even caught a Zapdos with the master ball in anarchy, lol). You wonder why it takes so long to input simple things? Look past that and look at the fact that things were getting done without the snail pace of democracy. Democracy had its downsides, as it was slow, and some considered it cheating (it was for people that wanted to finish fast, and quite frankly, were missing the point). It's surprise that you can't appreciate that a ridiculous amount of people were able to coordinate themselves enough to beat something like an RPG. You didn't have to stare at the stream 24/7 to love it either, as the massive amount of original content produced from this (on multiple sites) has put almost any meme in history to shame. There's a new game (Gen 2) starting up today for anyone still interested.

ETA: Da gang

reply to post by finitedualities


Me? Not complaining, just saying if we had to do everything like that then its kind of pointless. While this may have been fun for many people imagine having to do everything like that, you would literally just take a whole lot of time to do simple things which could be done in literal seconds. While the luster wears off, you do get to a point of just going..."Oh man this game takes forever to beat, the control scheme is totally sucky" Imagine having to play every pokemon game like that, the fun would soon disappear like mist after the first experience.

And also original content is nothing new, you could lock 5 guys into a room with some pens and paper and they will think up all kinds of things. What I am saying is, it sort of takes the fun out of things after the initial coolness of all the zaniness wears off. I would not say taking hours to chose one option out of 3 would be considered improvement by any stretch of the imagination. It was a cool little thing while it lasted, but other then that...????