So you guys thought VGCW and Salty Bet were crazy/insane? Well here comes a new challenger!

Twitch Plays Pokemon

By typing into the Twitch chat on the page, you control the game. The catch? About 3k people are doing it at the same time.

As of this post, everyone is trying to help get the 2nd badge.

GET TYPING PEOPLE!

http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon

Oh god.

Great idea, but kinda hard to execute with Twitch's moronic delay now.

I'm loving watching this. Seeing a chatroom of people collectively try to control a pokemon game is hilarious.

"GUYS, OMG, BE SERIOUS, WE STILL NEED TO TRAIN!!" "NO, GO RIGHT, YOU IDIOTS!!!!"

I tuned in just as they successfully caught a pokemon. Chat seemed psyched.

Poor Red has problems.

I contributed to at least 1 victory.

This is pretty entertaining, but I just saw someone bring up the Lt. Surge switches and realized there's NO WAY this is gonna get past that.

Democracy inaction!

Seriously though, this is a kind of gold mine for sociology or political science students. Especially with the nature of people joining and leaving the chat affecting the direction (mimicking people joining and leaving populations), whether good or knowledgeable advice is taken or thrown away, the role of public speaking and activism on the part of 'community leaders' (or influential chat voices), the social trend view of history. If there's no one recording this, someone ought to.

Yeah, this is pretty good.

This is awesome. I'm gonna keep this open all day!

How the hell did they beat Brock?

I wake up and they are still trying for the 2nd badge.

Misty is finally defeated!

The Misty win was a nail-biter.

This is a fantastic social experiment that I imagine is super frustrating to watch.

Oh man this is so good...whoever came up with this is a genius.

This is most infuriating work of art ever created.

I like how the pokemon in their party have nicknames like ABBBBBK

I'm loving watching this. I'm surprised they got anywhere, but I suppose eventually with enough inputs you'll make it to where you need to go.

It's the infinite monkey theorem come to life.

This is pretty amazing thanks for posting this.

I will be watching this tonight, I went to it earlier from a tweet and didn't understand what is going on, now that I know the chat is actually controlling the game…this should at least be entertaining for an hour.

This is fascinating

This has been fantastic, highlight so far was chucking away the moon stone.

haha okay right now they had Red wandering in circles and then the game or stream crashed

Wow this is bananas. The trainer runs into so many walls.

I wonder how long it will take them to finish the game?

This whole thing is a beautiful mess. I imagine interest will taper off over time, and it will be easier for those who stick around to make progress.

I just want to see Red catch another pokemon.

@defe said:

In the middle of the night or so they only had about 3000ish people, which was, compared to 13000 people, at least playable and they were able to move in a direction once most people had more or less decided on it. At the moment I'm skeptical of the chat ever making it to Vermillion for the next six hours.

Edit: Oh god, they just captured another Rattata.

Just captured another pokemon, I find myself laughing a lot, more out of the reactions in the chat and the frantic frustration that is building, I don't know how this will be sustain-ably entertaining, but glad I stumbled on it today.

Just why another Rattata?

@immortalsaiyan said:

I'm more shocked they successfully taught Bubblebeam to their original Rattata.

we stuck in someones house now, keep getting in conversation loops, honestly if this ever resulted in clearing the game I would want to be there to see what chat looks like and how many people were participating at the time.

I just want to see Red reach a new town. This is too much.

I think when a lot of people get bored of the novelty and its about 4am one morning they'll be some organisation form in the chat and coordination.

My God, they actually made it back on track to Vermillion City.

twitch plays pokemon plays tetris

Reminds me of how good that original games music was.

Hearing the chat called "JLVWNNOOOO" Jay Leno makes me laugh every time.

My heart skipped a beat when Pigetto was put in the PC. Thankfully we got them back.

Just made it to the Anne.

I've decided: Games are art.

What was that about having enough monkeys in a room with typewriters....

I guess we're about to find out. :D

http://www.twitch.tv/piapwns

Were keepin it on the DL

@golguin said:

They made it to it earlier, actually, but it took them forever to get into a battle and they died after one trainer. After that, they completely went bonkers and couldn't decide on any direction, which is when they ended up with a Drowzee and a Spearow. After that they ended up back at the SS for the second time..

..but have now died again. I sort of zoned out after they got stuck in the dining room for 20 minutes.

How did they possibly beat LT Sarge?

Oh god why are they in Cerulean again?

I guess they need to do this. But two Pokemon have cut and they beat Sarge. So I guess they can do it at some point, anything is possible

this could take a long time though

I am frankly amazed they beat surge, as I went to sleep when they were trying to learn cut