Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
Twitch allows people to watch each other play video games via livestream. It is quickly becoming a juggernaut, ranking fourth in U.S. Internet traffic, behind only Netflix, Google, and Apple.
To play TwitchPlaysPokemon, users input commands - up, down, left, right, a, b, and start - into the chatbox. At its peak, more than 100,000 users were inputting commands at the same time. The ensuing chaos resulted in a cult following and has spawned an entire culture of memes, language, literature, and even a religion.
And the game lives on. Twitch has officially moved on to Pokemon Crystal, the sequel to Red. You can join in on the action here.
Advertisement
We sifted through the aftermath to find the weirdest things that have happened so far:
1. In the beginning, the game was run by a system called Anarchy that processed every single command from the group in order. It resulted in tons of duplicate moves and allowed trolls to input commands that could derail entire battles. It was a mess.Youtube
2. Users made thousands of GIFS to show the ridiculousness of what was happening.
3. Early on, they picked up the Helix Fossil, an item used towards the end of the game to revive an "extinct" Pokemon. Despite being useless early in the game, the item was clicked on constantly.Youtube
4. Because of the persistence of the item, users adopted it as a religion to get things done. Tons of memes were spawned and users routinely invoked the "Helix Fossil" as the reason to band together. Reddit
5. The team's best Pokemon was a Pidgeot, which they dubbed Bird Jesus. Bird Jesus and the Helix Fossil formed the basis for the increasingly elaborate religious dogma.Youtube Screenshot
6. Players went nuts when the Helix Fossil was finally revived into the extinct Pokemon Omanyte.
Youtube Screenshot
Reddit
7. The Anarchy system finally failed when the team got stuck for hours in "The Safari Zone," a confusing part of the game map that limits the number of "steps" a character can take. Youtube
8. To solve the issue, the developer introduced a new system called Democracy. Users vote for the next move and, after 10 seconds, the move with the greatest number of votes wins. The Internet immediately revolted. Users spammed the Start9 command, which repeatedly sends the character to the Start menu, preventing any movement and crashing the system.
