Twitch Plays Pokemon
A Pop Culture Case Study of Convergence Culture, Participatory Culture, and Collective Intelligence
Twitch Plays Pokemon and Participatory Culture
Perhaps one of the most amazing results of Twitch Plays Pokemon is the society of fans that has formed an entire culture surroudning it. At the completion of Pokemon Red, the stream had recieved 36 million viewers and 1,165,140 players inputting commands for the game (Ewalt). This huge base of users went above and beyond simply playing the game by engaging through social media, websites, fan art, memes, and even creating an entire fictional narrative surrounding Twitch Plays Pokemon.
Participatory culture is defined by Jenkins as a "culture in which fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content" (Jenkins 290). This is certainly the case with Twitch Plays Pokemon. The original media was created and users immediately began creating and circulating new types of media, both enhancing the experience of playing the game and fostering a sense of community among fans.
The picture above gives an overview of the cast of characters that players singled out and became major topics during the game. These are just a few of the many insiders that only people playing the game and keeping updated on it would know. When naming Pokemon in the game, it was difficult for users to name the Pokemon given that so many players would be picking different letters at once. The result was names like "aaabaajss," "AA-J" and "AAAAAAAAA" among others. These names were formed by fans into actual nicknames in combination with inside jokes for the games. For instance, the pokemon Pidgeot was dubbed "Bird Jesus" and the messiah of the game. Fan art and entire fictions surrounding the strange events in the game exploded with popularity.
A fictional deity was created by users as well, known as "Lord Helix," the Omanyte. He was named based off the fact that players kept accidentally (or intentionally) selecting the helix fossil to look at in the items bag. They claimed that Red was consulting the helix fossil for direction. Fans often said the words "All Hail Lord Helix" as an inside joke for this.
Along with an entire culture, complete with a God and a Savior, and all the fan art and fiction you could imagine, players also created a Google Document to help track progress and create goals for those playing the game who actually wanted to make progress. That document can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/twitchplayspokemonstatus/
All in all, the Twitch Plays Pokemon community is huge and thriving. It truly demonstrates participatory fan culture with fans latching on to the provided media and spreading it in new ways through multiple media platforms and taking it in a direction that no one could have predicted.