Livestreamer rigs up Borg-like collective of 6,000 gamers to play Pokémon

If 6,000 gamers were put in a room with an infinite amount of time, would they eventually beat Pokémon?

The heat death of the universe may come before we have the answer to that puzzling question, but that’s not stopping a bunch of fans from trying. Right now, over 6,000 gamers are collectively playing the original Pokémon on gameplay livestreaming site Twitch. How are they all playing at the same time? Well, someone set it up so that when people input a command into Twitch’s chat (like “up” or “A”) that gets relayed to the game itself.

It’s hard to explain, but just take a look and join the madness if you want to help Ash catch ’em all:

We reached out to the creator this co-op Pokémon game, and he explained that he’s been hankering to make something like this since he saw the site Salty Bet, which enables viewers to wager virtual currency on live matches.

“Automated Twitch streams with a heavy focus on user interaction has been something that has interested me ever since I saw SaltyBet,” the anonymous developer told GamesBeat. “Originally I was making my own version of SaltyBet but after interest in that type of content died down I decided to make something different.”

The creator behind Twitch Plays Pokémon says they want to remain anonymous because they don’t want to attract attention away from the stream itself.

“I want to remain anonymous, I think that attaching a personality to the stream can only detract from it,” the developer said.

As for whether or not the Twitch community can work together to beat the game, the creator isn’t sure.

“It’s possible, but I have my doubts. The Safari Zone requires fairly precise movement to complete. I’d like to not interfere at all but I might have to make an exception for the Safari Zone.”