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Twitch Plays Pokemon: Dig, Dig for Victory!

mclem

Member
Realistically, what game could Twitch play next? Harvest Moon? Fire Emblem?

I've been pondering the key traits Pokemon has that make this such a success. I think it boils down to a few things:

Direct control of the character
The memes and storylines sprung up from the idea that Red is doing all this *himself*. Look at how often he's represented as a tortured mindless robot in fanart. That creates stories, and stories make this sort of thing thrive.

Inability to completely screw up
People are investing a lot of time in this, and game overs leading to having to navigate the front-end menus has a massive risk of losing *everything*. The fact that death in Pokemon just teleports you to a safe location is a huge boon. I'm not overjoyed about Release being possible, actually; if people weren't scared of it, we'd get more PC usage, which could easily lead to some frankly bizarre group makeups and more willingness to actually catch monsters. If I were to run it again, I'd give serious thought to making releasing impossible. We've probably stabilised now, but I suspect there was a point recently where had Pidgeot been released, that would kill the whole project as people lose morale and give up.

Small random occurrences having amusing results
While it's good that small random occurrences can't result in total failure of the run, having occasional pitfalls is fun. There is a line you have to draw here, though; I've gone on record as saying that the maze was *too much*, while the ledge and trees were just about enough.

Turn-based
...or at least slow enough that lag isn't an issue, but turn-based is probably a safer representation.

Freedom
Too much linearity means it's just a group of people trying to follow a strict path, and that will get either dull or frustrating to follow. Pokemon has a lot of freedom, particularly after the Rock Tunnel, so random events can have major consequences. Also, of course, it's worth noting that the points that have caused trouble are the points where you suddenly have to play in a linear fashion, and stringing together more than about five-ten differing moves (there's more leeway if 'spamming' fits the model) is beyond the group.

Attrition
All gameplay challenges can eventually be worn down; it never feels like we've made *no* progress, because even gaining some small amount of experience is something towards future success. When it starts feeling futile is when people will switch off.

My best guess, here - other than other Pokemon titles - is Dragon Quest. Although I'd also be interested to see how a similar model would apply to text adventures. That doesn't, of course, fit Twitch's setup, though.
 

Addi

Member
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ RIOTヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ
 

Risible

Member
I keep checking in on this thread as the whole idea is fascinating to me, but not fascinating enough to actually watch the Twitch stream for more than a minute or two. I hope at the end someone does a summary write-up that details the journey and its high and low points. That would be amazing reading :).
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ /

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ /ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ /ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ /ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ /
 
For Abby
<----Greatest thing ever period.
&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417; RIOT &#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901; /&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417; RIOT &#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901; /&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417; RIOT &#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901; /&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417; RIOT &#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901; /
Your name is perfect.
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Twitch Plays Pokemon: &#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417;RIOT&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417;
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Realistically, what game could Twitch play next? Harvest Moon? Fire Emblem?

I had the idea for a MUGEN setup, where there are two streams, one for each character. So you'd have a Salty Bet like experience with the added fun of some control. The input delay would probably take out most of the fun here and I have no idea how to set this up.
 

mattp

Member
I've been pondering the key traits Pokemon has that make this such a success. I think it boils down to a few things:

Direct control of the character
The memes and storylines sprung up from the idea that Red is doing all this *himself*. Look at how often he's represented as a tortured mindless robot in fanart. That creates stories, and stories make this sort of thing thrive.

Inability to completely screw up
People are investing a lot of time in this, and game overs leading to having to navigate the front-end menus has a massive risk of losing *everything*. The fact that death in Pokemon just teleports you to a safe location is a huge boon. I'm not overjoyed about Release being possible, actually; if people weren't scared of it, we'd get more PC usage, which could easily lead to some frankly bizarre group makeups and more willingness to actually catch monsters. If I were to run it again, I'd give serious thought to making releasing impossible. We've probably stabilised now, but I suspect there was a point recently where had Pidgeot been released, that would kill the whole project as people lose morale and give up.

Small random occurrences having amusing results
While it's good that small random occurrences can't result in total failure of the run, having occasional pitfalls is fun. There is a line you have to draw here, though; I've gone on record as saying that the maze was *too much*, while the ledge and trees were just about enough.

Turn-based
...or at least slow enough that lag isn't an issue, but turn-based is probably a safer representation.

Freedom
Too much linearity means it's just a group of people trying to follow a strict path, and that will get either dull or frustrating to follow. Pokemon has a lot of freedom, particularly after the Rock Tunnel, so random events can have major consequences. Also, of course, it's worth noting that the points that have caused trouble are the points where you suddenly have to play in a linear fashion, and stringing together more than about five-ten differing moves (there's more leeway if 'spamming' fits the model) is beyond the group.

Attrition
All gameplay challenges can eventually be worn down; it never feels like we've made *no* progress, because even gaining some small amount of experience is something towards future success. When it starts feeling futile is when people will switch off.

My best guess, here - other than other Pokemon titles - is Dragon Quest. Although I'd also be interested to see how a similar model would apply to text adventures. That doesn't, of course, fit Twitch's setup, though.

2 streams, each running street fighter 2. fighting against each other in multiplayer fights

edit: what he said ^ haha
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Twitch plays zelda.. I wonder how long it would take to get the sword

Is there a specific reason as to why the stream went down? Did it crash?

It hasn't been down before yet has it?

&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417;RIOT&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417;
 

KeRaSh

Member
I keep checking in on this thread as the whole idea is fascinating to me, but not fascinating enough to actually watch the Twitch stream for more than a minute or two. I hope at the end someone does a summary write-up that details the journey and its high and low points. That would be amazing reading :).

Same here. It's mindblowing that people actually invest so much time in something so chaotic but I'm thankful for it.
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Same here. It's mindblowing that people actually invest so much time in something so chaotic but I'm thankful for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmn9asN-8AE

-------------

GAF, How long do you think it would take to get the sword?
Dur268N.png
 

Addi

Member
Is there a specific reason as to why the stream went down? Did it crash?

It hasn't been down before yet has it?

It happens when the creator is changing things, rumor is that he is making Democracy/Anarchy invisible on the command list so we only can see the button being pressed.

EDIT: Rumor was wrong&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417;RIOT&#12541;&#3900;&#3720;&#1604;&#860;&#3720;&#3901;&#65417;
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
That could probably only work with democracy mode. It would be pretty hilarious, though.

Oh yeah definitely Democracy. Really long times for voting windows. There neeeeeds to be drama about which girl to go after or what items to give her.
 
Realistically, what game could Twitch play next? Harvest Moon? Fire Emblem?

Fire Emblem can get unbeatable if you play it slightly wrong(I know my first time ever got unwinnable because I kept using Marcus over and over), and it's a hard game, so Twitch would get forever stuck at the first few levels.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Honestly the more I think about it the more I realize pokemon red is probably the only thing twitch can actually play. I was thinking maybe they could move to pokemon silver next but that game has some really awkward areas to navigate and a lot more precision (the water area in the south west of the map mainly), as well as with the internal real time clock / calendar it could get tricky very fast so gen 2 is kinda out of the question. Any gen above that adds a bit more layers of complexity that would limit the amount of progress that can be made and people would get bored and give up.

Also since pokemon is a big thing almost everything remembers it fondly and feels some sense of attachment. Also a lot of people already know how to play pokemon so there isn't anything to learn really. The game is also really easy on its own, very difficult to truly get stuck.

Basically the more I think about this, it's probably best to just let pokemon red run its course and enjoy it while we can rather than try to find something else later, because I doubt it will be as good as this.

I am honestly more worried that the game will crash and we will lose all progress before we can finish it lmao
 

Red

Member
There is a twitch plays Mario Bros. going on but it's impossible. I think I saw a twitch plays Pokemon Yellow as well.

Mario is impossible, it won't be beaten. There are certain obstacles that require multiple button presses at once and can't be done with the twitch method. You're looking at something like an RPG or (maybe for button mashing shits) a fighting game. RPGs slowly become easier to progress because characters will grow over time whether or not players cooperate. And they don't require multiple button presses at once to complete any event.

I think a twitch plays Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter II could be fun, but not in the same way. It would be a slapstick compliment to Pokemon's bugged-out robot narrative.
 

ampere

Member
A Dating Sim.

Think about it.

That would actually work

And it'd be really weird. Someone do it.

Mario is impossible, it won't be beaten. There are certain obstacles that require multiple button presses at once and can't be done with the twitch method. You're looking at something like an RPG or (maybe for button mashing shits) a fighting game. RPGs slowly become easier to progress because characters will grow over time whether or not players cooperate. And they don't require multiple button presses at once to complete any event.

Mario would require insane skill to beat as a single person with 40 seconds of lag. I agree it's completely impossible for an anarchic mob to beat it.
 
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