COMMUNICATIONS BLOG: Game Design Blog #9

There are fans of the Pokemon franchise who have stuck with the franchise since they were children. There are fans of the Pokemon franchise who strayed away from the series after the first generation or the third generation. There are some things in the franchise that still bring these two groups of people in harmony though.

On February 12 2014 a random twitch user going by the name Twitchplayspokemon developed a program that would work with the video streaming website twitch. This program streamed Pokemon Red and allowed twitch users to put in a command in the twitch chat that would control the actions of the player in the game. This phenomenon became known as Twitch plays Pokemon. Whenever a twitch user typed in the commands left, right down, up, a, b, start, or select the protagonist on the screen would act according to those commands. Over 1 million people participated in this experience and Twitch plays Pokemon became its own subculture and fans became creative with this phenomenon.

There was a lore that was developed with the quest and twitch users had many reasons for why certain events transpired. A good example would be the protagonist’s Pokemon Pidgeot. The Pidgeot in the game was referred to by the fandom as “The Messiah” or “Bird Jesus” for its incredible battle strength and basically commanding dominance in the whole run of the game. The fact that the fandom could create a compelling lore for the game despite having little control of the player’s actions is astounding. The creator of the game has said he has “interest in continuing the event through each generation of Pokemon.” Other live streamers have implemented the program he made into other games such as Minecraft or the Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound. Twitch Plays Pokemon is an inspiring event that many fans of the series and even individuals who use the internet will view as a historic event in the Pokemon franchise. Currently the website is streaming Pokemon Stadium 2 implimenting the same formula as the original Twitch Plays Pokemon.