Twitch Plays Pokemon: Suck it, anarchists

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Twitch Plays Pokemon: Suck it, anarchists

«‹›1005 »

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

Ha, he instituted a "start sometimes doesn't work" policy, good on him. That was getting old.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:30

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 12:16

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

Holy poo poo the RNG bot made it to Viridian Forest and managed to heal its Charmander with a potion. What the gently caress.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:32

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Quest For Glory II posted:

Holy poo poo the RNG bot made it to Viridian Forest and managed to heal its Charmander with a potion. What the gently caress.

Monkeys and typewriters, man.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:33

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

scary ghost dog posted:

At some point in Pi is this exact phrase I'm typing right now if it were encoded into a numerical cipher

Pi contains the meaning of life written in every language, and an infinite number of "the meaning of life is" following by terrible advice.

Morroque posted:

Yeah, I'm aware of that one. Perhaps there is some Golden Ratio of input commands that would eventually beat multiple games at once. What I was thinking of is more along the lines of how pi eventually becomes a repeating decimal over a very long sequence, and if there is not a similar sequence that can be expressed in a single block of commands -- the very base pattern of the game.

Eh, I guess there's always that.

I'm fairly sure there is a sequence that repeats twice, kind of like how Dark Side of the Moon synchronizes with Wizard of Oz on the first two loops but not the third. There's a run of Super Mario Bros. 2 (Lost Levels) that lasts an infinite amount of time, since it's a 20-second sequence that reaches the warp pipe to 1-1 from world 3 and just repeats forever. Were you thinking of something like that, except with actually beating the game?

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:33

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

Oh, I'm stupid; if you click on Videos above the chat, it has the pivotal moments of the stream, such as the battle with Surge which is hilarious.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:33

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

Quest For Glory II posted:

Holy poo poo the RNG bot made it to Viridian Forest and managed to heal its Charmander with a potion. What the gently caress.

He's back home now; did he get knocked out?

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:34

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

AATREK CURES KIDS posted:

He's back home now; did he get knocked out?

Got in a trainer battle in Viridian Forest with just a Lvl 8 Charmander, managed to kill one Lv7 Caterpie but couldn't kill the second.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:41

nerdbot: Mar 16, 2012

horriblePencilist posted:

You can leave Cerulean, but Cerulean never leaves you.

Actually, Pidgeot isn't that great. Good, but nothing amazing. Unfeazant has potential, but practically no useful moves. The only really good early birds are Starly and Fletchling.

Hey, Swellow was Overused in Generation 3. It hasn't really had any new tricks added to its arsenal but there was a time when he was fearsome. :goonsay:

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:42

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

Even if this did go into sub only mode you can guarantee at least one person would sub and exclusively spam down.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:43

CJ: Jul 3, 2007; Asbungold

Does it only take 1 down command to push him off the ledge as opposed to the two it would take on flat ground?

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:44

Vermain: Sep 5, 2006

CJ posted:

Does it only take 1 down command to push him off the ledge as opposed to the two it would take on flat ground?

Yep. It's why this section is so brutal. A single down command sends them all the way back, essentially.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:45

sockpuppetclock: Sep 12, 2010

I don't like the idea of any sub-only thing cause it'd ruin the idea of these 20k crazy people going against all odds to actually accomplish something.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:47

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

RNG Bot got back to Viridian Forest and beat a trainer :monocle:

e: then it died in the next encounter because it has just the one pokemon wah wah

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:49

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

sockpuppetclock posted:

I don't like the idea of any sub-only thing cause it'd ruin the idea of these 20k crazy people going against all odds to actually accomplish something.

It seems the streamer is pretty savvy about the social aspect of it all and how going sub-only might cause the whole thing to collapse, they mention that they probably won't do it in the FAQ.

I feel like someone's graduate thesis is going to come out of this whole thing.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:49

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

Quest For Glory II posted:

Got in a trainer battle in Viridian Forest with just a Lvl 8 Charmander, managed to kill one Lv7 Caterpie but couldn't kill the second.

Wait, who is this? I think King Tom is stuck in Pallet with like a level 17 Charmeleon.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:51

Spaced God: Feb 8, 2014; All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

Quest For Glory II posted:

RNG Bot got back to Viridian Forest and beat a trainer

e: then it died in the next encounter because it has just the one pokemon wah wah

Can you upload a copy of this bot? I'm not the best programmer and would like a little pet bot to play with.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:51

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

AATREK CURES KIDS posted:

Wait, who is this? I think King Tom is stuck in Pallet with like a level 17 Charmeleon.

I've been watching RNG Plays Pokemon: http://www.twitch.tv/rngplayspokemon

It's gotten to Viridian Forest twice and even used a Potion, but it keeps getting booted back to Pallet after losing to trainers. It did beat one trainer with a couple of Embers. But since it's too stupid to get pokeballs it's really brute force.

e: And now it's run into ledge problems just like the humans!

The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Feb 16, 2014

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:52

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

Quest For Glory II posted:

I've been watching RNG Plays Pokemon: http://www.twitch.tv/rngplayspokemon

It's gotten to Viridian Forest twice and even used a Potion, but it keeps getting booted back to Pallet after losing to trainers.

Funny, it got further than KingTom404 but its starter is a much lower level.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 04:53

Zo: Feb 22, 2005; LIKE A FOX

Quest For Glory II posted:

I've been watching RNG Plays Pokemon: http://www.twitch.tv/rngplayspokemon

It's gotten to Viridian Forest twice and even used a Potion, but it keeps getting booted back to Pallet after losing to trainers. It did beat one trainer with a couple of Embers. But since it's too stupid to get pokeballs it's really brute force.

e: And now it's run into ledge problems just like the humans!

The FAQ for that channel says its RNG is biased towards up and right, which explains why it can get to viridian forest consistently.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:02

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

Zo posted:

The FAQ for that channel says its RNG is biased towards up and right, which explains why it can get to viridian forest consistently.

Makes sense considering the human chat can't seem to chain together a long enough string of ups and rights currently.

e: Managed to get to Viridian Forest a third time, but keeps running into trainers with no hope of victory.

e: e: And of course it actually beats the trainer.

The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Feb 16, 2014

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:04

Shimrra Jamaane: Aug 10, 2007; Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.

THe admin needs to disable start.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:13

Random Stranger: Nov 27, 2009

Well, it's been a few hours. How are things going now?

Oh hey, it's a rerun!

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:14

Kuai: May 25, 2004

If he ever completes the game he should stream a run where the bot inputs the commands for 2 games of red/blue and see which one would finish first.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:15

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

Kuai posted:

If he ever completes the game he should stream a run where the bot inputs the commands for 2 games of red/blue and see which one would finish first.

I don't know if the coordination would get worse, or if that's even possible.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:17

corn on the cop: Oct 12, 2012; Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself.

â Corey Dostoyevsky

I started watching this 12 hours ago and nothing has changed in that time span.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:18

Stairmaster: Jun 8, 2012

Poonerman posted:

I started watching this 12 hours ago and nothing has changed in that time span.

we defeated two trainers.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:19

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Quite a bit changed... and then it changed back :v:

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:20

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

Holy poo poo the RNG bot nearly made it all the way through Viridian Forest but blacked out right at the last trainer. Maybe it can catch up to the humans after all.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:22

a cock shaped fruit: Aug 23, 2010; The true enemy of humanity is disorder.

For those that care, I managed to contact the person who made TwitchPlaysPokemon, and asked them some questions.

The link is here: http://badatvideogames.net/2014/02/16/an-interview-with-the-creator-of-twitchplayspokemon/

And for those not wanting to leave the forum:

http://badatvideogames.net/2014/02/16/an-interview-with-the-creator-of-twitchplayspokemon/ posted:

So, who are you?
I want to keep my identity private, I�m not the kind of person who enjoys a lot of attention. Although I will say I live in Australia.

What�s your background (programming wise)?
I�m a self-taught professional computer programmer. I like working at my own pace and working on things that interest me personally.

So, How does the stream work?
It�s essentially an IRC bot that connects to the stream�s chat and listens for buttons to be said, when it finds a match it simulates the press of a key that corresponds to the same button in the emulator.

The inputs are also shown on the stream�s overlay so viewers can see everyone�s contribution.

What possessed you to think 16,000+ strangers playing a pokemon rom was a good/GREAT idea?
Although I claim it is a social experiment I think that gives the false impression that it was planned or for a particular purpose, it�s just a fancy way of saying �I want to see what happens�.

Why Pokemon Red?
It�s actually a romhack of Pokemon Red that allows all original 151 Pokemon to be caught legitimately (or at least as legit as a romhack can be). I wanted completing the Pokedex to be a possible goal but with so many people I doubt this will be possible. Still, it results in more varied random encounters so it at least improves the entertainment value a little.

I chose the first generation of Pokemon because I thought it would be more appealing since it isn�t played as often, it also has a lot of nostalgia associated with it for a lot of people seeing as it was the most popular Pokemon generation and even had an anime based on it, I also have a fondness for the grayscale visuals of the original Game Boy. It�s interesting to see how the designs of Pokemon have changed over the years, some of these early designs look surprisingly different.

As for why it is Pokemon as opposed to any other game I thought Pokemon was the best choice because the game is highly turn-based and very forgiving. For many other games a more sophisticated method of determining input would be needed.

Favourite moment from the stream so far?
Probably the capture and naming of JLVWNNOOOO the Rattata, the trainer somehow managed to buy two Pokeballs and captured a Rattata without weakening it by throwing both Pokeballs at it, the second one somehow managed to capture it. Watching nicknames being assigned is entertaining too, especially knowing that it will likely remain with the rest of the playthrough.

Did you think it would be THIS popular? It�s only been two days, and so far you are approaching 18k people!
I didn�t think it would be this popular, I thought it would get a small but dedicated following with many other people showing a short passing interest.

I�m expecting the number of viewers to drop down after the novelty wears off.

Have you seen some of the other Twitch streams people have set up in response, such as Twitch Plays Pokemon Plays Tetris and Twitch Plays FF6?
I�m glad I�ve inspired other people to think about automated Twitch streams with a heavy focus on viewer interaction, this is something that interests me a lot and I�m excited to see others coming up with their own streams.

Learned anything interesting from the last couple days the stream has been running?
When being talked at by so many people it is difficult to perceive what the prevailing sentiment is.

Any disasters you had to address and fix?
Earlier on the IRC bot died while I was sleeping, so the game was accepting input for a number of hours, the stream wasn�t very popular at this point, I made changes so that it wouldn�t happen again and that seems to have worked.

Other than that the only thing I would consider a disaster was when the soft reset button combination was entered and a new game was started, I considered letting it continue but since I knew I had to disable soft reset (I assumed I had already done so) to prevent it from happening again I concluded that it would be better to apply that change retroactively by reloading an earlier game state.

I suppose the lack of archive footage for early in the playthrough can be considered a disaster, too.

Got any ideas for what you might do next, if anything?
I�m thinking of doing something similar with other games but I don�t want to spin up a new server with the same code but a different game, it seems other streamers are willing to do that themselves anyway.

I would like to make something with much less random and chaotic inputs, while that sort of thing is very entertaining I�m concerned about it becoming stale over time. I�m considering different ways of determining group consensus and how well that would work with various types of games.

Did you ever hear about the Loren Carpenter experiment? He got an auditorium full of people to play Pong without explaining it to them - they figured it out together. Reasonably similar to what we are seeing on your twitch stream!
I�ve never heard of the Loren Carpenter experiment but it seems remarkably similar to my stream.

I was primarily inspired by SaltyBet and a gamejam game that I can�t remember the name of where random people in the audience controlled individual tentacles of a squid/octopus-like creature.

Most frustrating moment working on the stream?
I haven�t been frustrated but the frustrations of others have stressed me out seeing as it would be easy for me to interfere to overcome potentially impossible obstacles but I think most viewers appreciate the grueling difficulty.

I haven�t interfered yet (with the possible exception of loading a save state in response to the soft reset) and I�d prefer to keep it that way as much as possible.

Are you worried about Safari Zone?
I�m concerned about the Safari Zone, if it does prove impossible I will consider modifying the game to make it easier but I still want to see the stream give it their best try without any compromises.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:35

Tae: Oct 24, 2010; Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!

"Inspired by Saltybet" this is the year 2014, we have arrived at the future.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:40

Kritzkrieg Kop: Nov 4, 2009

a cock shaped fruit posted:

I suppose the lack of archive footage for early in the playthrough can be considered a disaster, too.

What the hell the whole thing didn't get saved???

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:40

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

Holy poo poo the RNG bot got to Pewter City what the gently caress :aaa:

E: IT GOT INTO THE POKEMON CENTER BUT KEPT CANCELLING THE HEAL

E: IT SAVED AT THE POKEMON CENTER WHAT THE gently caress. I mean after about 500 times of not doing it and cancelling and talking to everyone else in the building but still holy poo poo.

But now it's stuck in the corner of a Poke Mart and can't escape.

The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Feb 16, 2014

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:43

Rinkles: Oct 24, 2010; What I'm getting at is...
Do you feel the same way?

a cock shaped fruit posted:

For those that care, I managed to contact the person who made TwitchPlaysPokemon, and asked them some questions.

The link is here: http://badatvideogames.net/2014/02/16/an-interview-with-the-creator-of-twitchplayspokemon/

And for those not wanting to leave the forum:

Small typo in one of the responses, unless I'm misunderstanding.

"Earlier on the IRC bot died while I was sleeping, so the game was accepting input for a number of hours, the stream wasn�t very popular at this point, I made changes so that it wouldn�t happen again and that seems to have worked."

Good interview for the length.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:45

Beartaco: Apr 10, 2007; by sebmojo

Glad to see I didn't miss a thing while I was sleeping!

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:53

Rubellavator: Aug 16, 2007

Law posted:

Glad to see I didn't miss a thing while I was sleeping!

You probably missed Pidgeotto's Last Stand and that is truly a misfortune.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:56

CoolCab: Apr 17, 2005; glem

Law posted:

Glad to see I didn't miss a thing while I was sleeping!

the good news is that we managed to get past the ledge. the bad news is we can't get past the ledge.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 05:56

Beartaco: Apr 10, 2007; by sebmojo

argondamn posted:

You probably missed Pidgeotto's Last Stand and that is truly a misfortune.

Alright you're gonna have to explain. Preferably in gif form.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 06:00

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

The tragic part is when we do eventually claw our way past the first ledge and defeat the hiker, we're probably just gonna leap over the last ledge and be back to trying to climb the first one again.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 06:01

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

The RNG bot has made it to Brock twice now and lost. Skynet is real.

The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Feb 16, 2014

# ? Feb 16, 2014 06:01

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 12:16

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Law posted:

Alright you're gonna have to explain. Preferably in gif form.

It's around 16:01:34 in this video: http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon/b/503507303

# ? Feb 16, 2014 06:06

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