Well hello there culture-lovers. Today, I am writing to you on perhaps one of the most nerdy topics I have surmounted yet: Twitch Plays Pokemon.
I can't tell you how many have asked me over the last month or so, "What the heck are you watching? Thousands of people attempting to play one video game at the same time? Why on earth do you like that? What makes it entertaining?" And for the longest time, I'll admit that I had trouble answering that question. (For those of you who don't know what Pokemon is, but are interested, check this out.)
At first, my standard response to the incredulous looks was merely, "Nostalgia. We all played as kids, and this is helping relieve some of the mid-term stress we're under." But by the time Twitch got the attention of some magazines, school newspapers, etc., and was up to 52.7 million views, I began to wonder if the attraction was something bigger.
As you can imagine with several hundred thousand people telling one server what to do all at the same time, the Pokemon characters are (and I say "are" because Twitch is actually still going right now...) erratic, to say the least. A better word is absolute anarchy, to use one of the popular phrases of Twitch. Every command was inputted at the exact same time, but the game was eventually beaten (with a little help from Democracy mode, in which the most popular command in a 20 second time period was implemented instead). The lore that has grown from the struggle against Fate in the Twitch world has been extremely entertaining to keep up with.
"Lore?" You ask? Why yes indeed. And this is where Twitch begins to Dig(TM28) a little deeper.
In Pokemon Red, certain Pokemon were looked upon as gods due to the miraculous ways they survived battles, training, and were randomly referred to. It was the classic story:
Good VS. Evil
Pokemon Red saw the rise of Lord Helix, a fossil that was constantly being referred to as the Savior (due mainly to the fact that it was merely a rock that, due to the thousands of commands being inputted at once, was looked at uselessly more times than any of us care to mention). It gave rise to memes such as the one on the right, and websites like this. Obviously, if there is an all-powerful Poke-god in the lore, there must be a "son." Enter Bird-Jesus, seen in the meme upper left. And of course, if there are two such good beings, there must be an evil, seen in the Pokemon upper right (the Helix's opposite character in the grand scheme of things). With the Helix's guidance, the thousands of voices finally overcame the Elite Four and became the greatest Pokemon trainers in all the land, and went on to rule the land, overshadowed by the Helix.
Believe it or not, thousands of people overcame insurmountable odds, and beat a video-game together. But the social experiment was far from over. Shortly after Pokemon Red was defeated, Pokemon Crystal was undertaken, and the popularity of Twitch was at an all time high (with about 121,000 players at one time). But everything was happy-go-lucky no more. Horrid things happened to AJ, the avatar of Crystal; Pokemon were forever released, and true anarchy and chaos prevailed. People began to doubt whether or not Crystal could actually be beaten, and it seemed as if the goodness wrought by the Helix was just a fairy tale; the only true power in the world was found to be a human construct. And so began the outcry: no gods, no kings, only 'Mon.
Backed by Brian the Bird and Eevee, LazrGator joined AJ's side and set out to take down the Pokemon killer god and his puppet Red. And, after much pain and doubt, LazrGator did indeed overtake the previous generation to prove once and for all the only true power in the world of Pokemon was not a god, but Pokemon themselves.
Have you had enough? See where I'm going? Well hang on just a second. After the 16 day battle of Crystal, the stream was delayed for 2 weeks to make way for Pokemon Emerald. After some technical difficulties starting, Emerald is now underway, as you've probably seen, lead by May (the "M" is silent...yeah, it's just "A"). But now, having momentarily celebrated the end-all reign of Pokemon, the voices begin to ask: what is the point? If there is no god to govern the Pokemon...is there a reason to play by the rules? Is the game just pointless chaos? (After having played 94 hours up to now, and having made *no* progress, I tend to ask the same question.) The following of Twitch has rapidly declined (although about 4 of my friends and I still religiously...hahah...follow it), and we are no closer to progressing than we were two days ago.
Now. *Heaves a huge preparatory breath* Let me just give you some things to think about.
During the Middle Ages (let's say about 12-13 century AD), people were completely dependent on the Church. Everyday life hinged on it, and any progress that was made was generally tinted by the Church in some way, for better or worse.
When the Renaissance hit around the 15th-ish century AD, there was a radical shift away from the Church in favor of human intuition and capability. No longer was the Church needed as a societal prop - Man was seen as supreme.
Now here we are in Modern/Post-modern era. After years of humans celebrating our humanity and our dominance and independence, we search in vain for a purpose in ourselves. People pursue possessions, a better job, a better car...for what? We're not sure.
...Interesting, isn't it?
P.S. If you're interested in following the Lore, this is the best way right here.
*slow clap* your ability to pull something of meaning out of the chaos of TPP is astounding. Bravo.
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