Allow me to begin by saying that I am not a follower of these sorts of things - as someone who started playing games before the internet started eating the gaming community, the 'Let's Play!' and game-streaming phenomenon has been one that has mostly passed me by. Personally, I just never saw the allure of this sort of thing; if you are going to watch someone play a video game, why not just play it yourself? That's what makes a video game different after all from other media. I just didn't see the enjoyment in seeing other people doing things that I could do myself.
There's news articles from the start of the week stating boldly there were 30,000 players at once. Try 100,000 or more now.Why?
After last night however, I might now be questioning this mentality.
I'm sure that by now, if you are a gamer that checks any sort of gaming website at all, you've heard about the insanity that is Twitch Plays Pokémon. Kotaku has had about two articles about it a day it feels like since it picked up steam. Its crashed the servers as more people than are in a minor city attempt to play at the same time. Suddenly, people on my Facebook feed are chanting "All praise the helix fossil", and talking about how they were happy they helped get the trainer through a door...
I just...what? What is this?
I ignored it. I was in the middle of waging a galactic war on my own free time, after all, and also learning a new card game so I could review it, sorting my collections. Why would I want to watch something that seems specifically designed to cause an obscene amount of frustration and chaos?
At some point, probably after this insanity is over, after they somehow complete the game, I will find myself writing a 'review' of this... experience. Trying to cover how this play through is attracting more attention than anyone thought possible - major news organizations following with updates, trying to keep up and understand why something like this exist. Sociologists, psychologists and even theologians scrambling to try and make sense of this event, to discover some cohesive point to the cult mentality forming around this game.
For now though, my personal experiences are limited to two. One of them is now, as I write this. 60,000 viewers at the same time, with now 65,000 as they attempt, somehow, to make it through the Saffron gym, with its maze of psychic gym trainers, and teleportation tiles. Watching as the poor, poor trainer is trapped in a maze, and keeps ending up randomly going spinning across the facility. My brain feels as if its going to contract a form of deep, Elder-God infused dementia if I continue watching.
Using moves that don't work on purpose? Shouting to changePokémon instead of using a super effective move? Whatis this madness?!
The other experience makes me laugh. Grin. Want to ramble to everyone I know about how ridiculous and amazing the gaming community is.
Thursday night, I walk into the gaming club that takes place on the college campus nearby, SUNY New Paltz. I was going to meet up with Zoë to talk about the website, and to play some of my new fancy Netrunner. The people in charge of the club were setting up projectors and tables for games, and people file in for the usual - Magic: The Gathering, lists of fighting games and various editions of Smash Brothers. Then, one more projector winks on, and soon, the tinny .midi sounds of Pokémon: Red fill my ears.
It didn't take long. First, the one member was taking part, inputting commands occasionally, as him and two friends laughed and recalled the trials and travails of the poor trainer a day before. Then, several people that had 3DS systems stepped over. They had been playing Pokémon battles, so it made sense, almost, to naturally gravitate over.
Then, suddenly, there was fifteen people. Then twenty.
One of the few shots I could grab that came out - at one point,you couldn't see the screen from this viewpoint.
People sat with late night dinners and ate, eyes never leaving the projector. As the trainer made it through a door, a cry of triumph resounded through the nearby rooms. One of the Pokémon evolved on its way to Fuchsia City, and as people shouted that it was happening, people rushed over to watch this momentous event. Cries for the Helix fossil to be revealed turned into verbal disputes as to how time could be better spent.
Suddenly, I got it. I understood the appeal. All in one place, the excitement built and resonated like it would in a sports bar during a play off game. But this.... this was for a different set of people. Something new. Something different. Something that mixed nostalgia with the reason why millions of people watch sports or go to the theater together.
I can't wait to see where this ends up.
-Wyatt
