Overview

Twitch Plays Pokémon^[1] is a live-stream hosted by the video-streaming platform Twitch in which any member of the site can participate in a massively multiplayer online co-op version of Nintendo's series of Pokémon games, starting with Pokémon Red, by inputting various commands in chat.

Background

Powered by a combination of JavaScript, Python code and the Game Boy emulator VisualBoyAdvance, the massively multiplayer co-op version of Pokémon Red was launched by an anonymous Australian programmer via Twitch on February 12th, 2014.^[4] In the game, participants can crowd-control the movement of the main character by typing one of a series of commands (A, B, Left, Right, Up, Down, and Start; Select was disabled in the first run) in the channel's chatroom. However, the high volume of input commands from tens of thousands of participants led to much confusion and conflict in gameplay, soon rendering the game almost unplayable. At its peak, the viewer count has reached over 100,000. A publicly accessible Google document has been created to coordinate goals and keep track of progress.^[20] There is also a page for it on TVTropes.^[21]

Notable Developments

Within 72 hours of its launch, "Twitch Plays Pokemon" became a popular tag on Tumblr^[2] where various image macros were created about the events taking place in the game, and a dedicated subreddit^[6] and a Twitter^[15] feed were created for the stream. Meanwhile on 4chan, the channel became a controversial topic when mods began deleting threads about the stream on every board, before eventually allowing threads originally only on /vp/, and then on all boards. On Reddit, a page has been compiled listing every notable event over the course of the game.^[22]

News Media Coverage

The stream has been covered by several video game blogs and news sites, such as Kotaku,^[3][17] Cheezburger,^[16] Polygon,^[4] CNET,^[5] The Independent,^[7] The Financial Post,^[18] and Ars Technica.^[19]

Spin-Off Channels

Inspired by the success of Twitch Plays Pokemon, many others on Twitch began creating similar streams. Many streams were made for different Pokémon games, such as Blue Version,^[9] Crystal Version,^[10] and FireRed Version.^[11] A stream was made where the actions in Twitch Plays Pokemon would simultaneously control a game of Tetris.^[12] A stream known as RNG Plays Pokemon also had Red Version, but the character was controlled by an RNG randomly selecting buttons.^[13]

Note: Some of these channels may be temporarily offline.

Related Memes and In-Jokes

Helix Fossil

Due to the large volume of chat commands being input at once, random selection of items quickly became a common occurrence during battles, especially the second item in the player's bag, the Helix Fossil. This item appeared on screen so frequently that it came to be viewed as an object of worship and guidance by TwitchTV users. Other items treated this way were the Moon Stone, Nugget, and S.S. Ticket.

The players eventually managed to revive the Helix Fossil into an Omanyte, which was subsuquentally dubbed "Lord Helix."

The Ledge

Ledges are common obstacles in Pokémon games which can be passed through on one side, but not on the other. At one point in the game there is a long ledge with only one unit of space to walk past it; thus, even a single person giving a "down" command would cause the player to go through the ledge, requiring the character to backtrack and try again. Due to the large number of trolls in the stream, it took multiple hours to get past a single ledge, causing ledges to be viewed as large obstacles by the viewers, even though they are usually minor nuisances in normal Pokémon games.

Trees

Trees are another common type of obstacle in Pokémon games. In the first generation of Pokémon games, trees can be removed by going to the menu and selecting a Pokémon that can use the move Cut while facing the tree. Due to the large number of commands needed to achieve this and the lack of coordination among the Twitch users, trees became notorious for being extremely difficult to get past. One particular tree took multiple hours to remove.

Eevee Debate

There was a large argument in the chat about whether or not to get the Pokémon Eevee (shown below, left). Doing so would have been a risky move, as it would necessitate evolving it to Vaporeon (below, center) in order to have a Pokémon that could learn Surf. This would require the viewers to successfully buy and use a Water Stone without wasting all the player's money. If this failed, something would need to be deposited in the PC in order to get Lapras (below, right), another Pokémon that could learn Surf, which would risk accidentally releasing a high-level Pokémon.

Despite the obvious downsides to doing so, the majority of users chose to get Eevee. They then failed to buy a Water Stone, accidentally buying a Fire Stone and evolving Eevee into Flareon. After going to the PC to deposit it, they accidentally released "ABBBBBBK(" (a.k.a. Abby) the Charmeleon and "JLVWNNOOOO" (a.k.a. Jay Leno) the Rattata. They also put Pidgeot, the highest-level Pokémon on the team, and the Helix Fossil into the PC, although both were later retrieved. Because the source of all this was Eevee, it soon became known as a "false prophet" and servant of the Dome Fossil, an item that was viewed as Satan. A day later, Flareon was released as well. Four days later, the stream acquired a Lapras nicknamed AIIIIIIRRR, thus having a Pokémon that could learn Surf, and ending the debate.

Team Rocket Hideout Maze

One of the areas the player must get through in the game is the Team Rocket Hideout, a four-floor underground complex used by the villains. Inside the compound is a maze floored with tiles that propel the player in a certain direction, which can be cleared only by advancing from one tile to the next in a very specific route, otherwise the player would end up where it started. Once again, due to the heavy volume of requests, worsened by lags lasting up to 20 seconds, any coordination became nearly impossible and the maze has proven to be even more difficult than the ledge. Twitch users spent a full 24 hours attempting to clear the maze the first time before the streamer implemented a voting system to schedule actions in an order, which finally allowed them to get through the maze. In randomized Firered. TwitchPlaysPokemon was stuck in the maze for 2+ Days. Somewhere in the run, The Game Crashed.

Anarchy vs. Democracy / Start9

After failing to clear the Team Rocket Hideout puzzle after 24 hours, the streamer implemented a voting system where it would count up all the commands entered, and after 30 seconds take the action which was entered most often. It also included a slider for "anarchy" or "democracy" which could be influenced by entering one of the words into the chat. Anarchy was the mode it was in previously (all inputs registered by the game) and democracy was the new mode (most commonly-input action in 30 seconds is carried out).

The democracy mode was widely viewed as slowing down progress, taking away the excitement, and generally ruining the fun of the game. Because democracy mode allowed users to input several actions at once, supporters of anarchy mode began saying "start9", which would open and close the menu 9 times. This was meant as a form of protest against democracy mode. Democracy mode was even opposed by the Twitch staff: Twitch moderators began saying "start9" as well, and the official Twitch Twitter^[14] account tweeted a message in support of anarchy mode with an emoticon reference to Raise Your Dongers. The Twitch staff even later adjusted the voting system so that anarchy could be obtained easier.

In the run of Pokémon Crystal, democracy mode is automatically implemented every hour, and in order to switch back, a majority of the votes in a voting period needs to be for anarchy.

Bloody Sunday

After successfully capturing Zapdos from the Power Plant, the community went to the PC to retrieve the newly captured Pokémon. This however required them to first deposit a different Pokémon into the PC before they could retrieve Zapdos. During the process, the chaos caused by anarchy mode resulted in the deposit of important party Pokémon into the PC, including Pidgeot, and the release of 12 Pokémon. This event which would later be known as "Bloody Sunday".

Despite the high amount of released Pokémon, the community did eventually manage to retrieve Zapdos and Pidgeot from the PC and avoided releasing other important Pokémon such as Lapras.

"Guys, we need to beat Misty"

Most major media outlets did not begin reporting on Twitch Plays Pokemon until after the second gym leader, Misty, had already been beaten. Therefore, a majority of people joined after Misty was beaten as well. Due to not having seen the battle, the newcomers believed she had not been defeated yet, and would often tell the chat to go beat her. This was said so frequently, that many began saying "Guys, we need to beat Misty" sarcastically to make fun of the people who joined late.

The phrase gained major popularity in the chat when an image started circulating claiming that the ROM which the streamer was using was a hack which would allow the player to fight Misty again, and once defeated she would give the player a Togepi egg. Thus, "Guys, we need to beat Misty" was spammed in the chat very often, both sarcastically and seriously.

Fan Given Roles

Those who input in the stream sometimes refer to themselves as "The Voices" or "The Mob", as fanmade lore has influenced viewers to think that whenever they speak, their "host" (player character) can hear them.

With each new major addition to the player's party comes a role created by fans. Many of these roles center around the religion-like following certain objects and Pokémon in the game have gotten, most commonly the Helix Fossil. Bird Jesus is the most widely known nickname and belongs to the party's Pidgeot "aaabaaajss." Its role of being the powerhouse of the team has made it an object of praise and worship. Other well known nicknames are "The False Prophet" being given to Flareon, and "Lord Helix," the later revived Helix Fossil which was already dubbed as a deity. In TPP's 6th run, an Omanyte was captured that fans decided to call "Lard Helix", due to its Thick Fat Ability being given to it by the Randomizer.

In the second game, the starter, Totodile, became known for its move leer, which in generation 2 looked as if the user was using laser beams. It ended up with the fan name of Lasorgator.

Bill, the creator of the PC system, was given the role of the antagonist by many fans of TPP. Since Bill made the PC, users blamed him when Pokémon were released.

Victory!

After 16 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes, and 30 seconds of continuous play, and on their 17th attempt, the Twitch users finally defeated the Elite Four and Blue, finishing the game. The successful attempt was recorded and can be viewed in the video below:

Popular Users

During the stream, various users had gained popularity either due to taking charge and commanding chat or simply being notable. These users include:
-Z33k33, widely regarded as a "chat leader"
-Jorsun, who constantly cancelled evolutions
-TerrierC, a user who was banned but made a numerous amount of alternate accounts in an attempt to come back to the stream
And various other users who are easily recognizable by the community.

Keep Shinx Cute

In TPP's Pokémon Platinum run, the group had caught a Shinx. Due to the 4th gen's very slow evolutions, it was very easy to cancel them, and Shinx ended up having its evolution denied many times. Eventually, the continuous cancellation of Shinx's evolution became a meme, with people chanting "Keep Shinx Cute!" in an attempt to deny its evolution. They had succeeded, as at the end of the run they've managed to beat Cynthia while having Shinx unevolved at level 64.

Michael Catson

Michael Catson was the name of the stream's pet cat in the game Catz GBA. His name came from Michael Jackson, due to the stream saying ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ HE'S NOT DEAD HE'S DANCING ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ. Catson's "dancing" was caused by a glitch in the programming of the game. Catson had jumped off a nearby table and landed next to the litterbox, which cause him to walk in an infinite cycle, due to the game trying to remove him from the glitched spot, which caused the game to freeze up at 10:00 PM in game, and forever played the second house theme until the streamer awoke and changed the game.

The Curse of Fire

During the mass releases, there was a noticeable pattern where none of the chosen water types were released, and most of the mob's fire types were released, including Zexy, LazerApe, Abby, and Flareon(Red).This lead to people speculating that there was a curse to fire, as no fire types that managed to be safe in the PC or with them to the end. This caused commotion in Twitch Plays Pokemon for the eevee they get from Bebe to have a fire stone and turn into Flareon. However, the mob managed to fight against the B Trolls and evolve Eevee to Flareon. During the TPP Platinum run, The Team Managed to beat the game with Flareon in the inventory, ending the Curse. The curse was brought up from Black from releasing the fire starter but was broken again in black2 having forced Evolutions an choosing the fire starter, tepig, again.

DS

During The Completion of Twitch Plays FireRed, there was a switch from the GBA to the DS, as there were no more core Pokemon games to play on that system. The rest were mostly just spinoffs, most of which were played during the transition from GBC to GBA.

The streamer was about to just redo red, but this was canceled due to a livestreamer making a 3DS recorder. As a result, Pokémon X was able to be streamed and completed.

Pokémon Stadium II and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

While TPP played the DS series of games, the streamer mentioned he wanted to add N64 Support, which would lead to Pokemon Stadium II. This game on the left allowed players to bet (Starting with 1000) with pokedollars on a team. The moves were picked at random, and so were the Pokemon teams, which were made up of 3 pokemon each.
Users would be able to bet by typing a command in chat: !Bet (Amount of cash to bet) (Team Red Or Blue)
When Pokemon X ended, The streamer changed the main channel to feature Pokemon Stadium 2 until Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out.

Later, the streamer implemented the fourth Super Smash Bros. game to replace Pokémon Stadium 2. Much like before, stages and characters were chosen at random. Betting on one character would yield a 3x payout, leading to various users getting massive amounts of money in a very short time.

Pokémon Battle Revolution

The most recent instance of TPP using a betting system is Pokémon Battle Revolution. It uses the same betting system as Pokémon Stadium 2, but numerous additions allow for more stream interactivity, such as being able to bid on songs and matches to be played. This, combined with a lower viewer count, led to the creation of numerous memes, such as sing-alongs to certain songs and the usage of the twitch emote "PRChase" as the PBR announcer's face.

Pinball, Sidegame, Badges, and Tokens

Eventually, the stream supported donations, which gave users a new type of in-stream currency called a Token for each dollar they donated. These tokens could be used to bid on custom matchups and to make various songs play. The usage of a sidegame was introduced with Vietnamese Crystal, where users would vote on an input to progress through the game in between matches. Any user who inputted would have a chance to win a token for free, and other users would be able to add their own tokens for the users to obtain, creating what they called a "token storm".

These tokens could also be used to obtain more tokens on Pokémon Pinball, which is controlled by a bot. Pinball is located on the lower-left side of the stream, and with it came a new system where any Pokémon caught (either during it or during a main run) would be given to a random user as a badge. These badges are displayed next to users' names in the stream, and can be sold for tokens.

Moderator Memes

As TPP continued, numerous moderators began to be accepted into the stream. Soon enough, the chat had begun to associate them with various memes, with dekuNukem and ProjectRevoTPP being the most popular targets. During the stream, dekuNukem had posted a link in the chat, which led to an NSFW picture of Blaziken. This ended up causing viewers of the stream to post "Wow Deku" (followed by the emote "OneHand") whenever Blaziken ended up mentioned or seen on stream. ProjectRevoTPP ended up in a similar situation after constantly spamming the phrase "Like Chatot? I LOVE Chatot!" in chat. Despite now despising Chatot, the chat's constant referral to his "love" had grown so much that it became the basis for TPP's third anniversary run.

The Runs

TPP has had numerous runs of many different Pokémon games. Each year, TPP begins a new "season", which is marked with a special romhack that fans play through. Their most recent (and current) run is of Pokémon Chatty Yellow, a romhack of Pokémon Yellow that pulls phrases from the chat and uses them in the game itself.

The main runs are listed here:

Season One

-Pokémon Red
-Pokémon Crystal
-Pokémon Emerald
-Pokémon Firered (Randomized)
-Pokémon Platinum
-Pokémon Heartgold (Randomized)
-Pokémon Black
-Pokémon Blaze Black 2
-Pokémon X
-Pokémon Omega Ruby (Randomized)

Season Two

-Pokémon Red (TPP Anniversary Edition)
-Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (Randomized)
-Touhoumon/Moemon (Both played at once)
-Pokémon Colosseum
-Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Season Three

-Pokémon Crystal (TPP Anniversary Edition)
-Pokémon Brown
-Pokémon Platinum (Randomized)
-Pokémon Prism
-Pokémon Sun
-Pokémon Waning Moon

Search Interest

Twitter News Feed

External References