The Religion of Twitch Plays Pokemon

While the Twitch Plays Pokémon phenomenon was occurring, an ideology formed around a certain item. Now for the setup: in the early days of Twitch Plays Pokémon, the world was utter chaos. There was no order, no power structure, no social hierarchy, just our hero Red mindlessly wandering around the world. Well, very early on Red received the Helix Fossil from one of the individuals you encounter. This Helix Fossil was an item, and thus was stored in the item slot of Red’s backpack. Whenever Red would go into battle, chaos would always follow, as the “Fight” function of the menu would be clicked on only about 25% of the time. The “Item” icon would also be clicked on about 25% of the time. While many items were discarded or improperly used as the players (and the trolls) would try to exit the item’s menu, one that could not be discarded was Helix Fossil. As Red constantly clicked on the Helix Fossil and Professor Oak constantly said that it wasn’t time to use that item, an ideology formed.

Over time, people created the ideology that Red was consulting the Helix Fossil for guidance. A superordinate was formed around this fossil to explain the anomaly of Red constantly clicking on it. This idea was created, and Twitch ran with it. The Helix Fossil was named the lord and savior of our hero Red and really of the entire world of Twitch Plays Pokémon. Many memes were created (such as the one pictured above) as many were quick to adopt this ideology. The ideology was created due to a need-based intervention, as the players were trying to find a way to explain anomaly that was constantly clicking on the Helix Fossil. Many events and characters were named and placed into different categories to fit this ideology. For example, an Pokémon called an Eevee was acquired at one point accidentally and it led to many negative events within the game, and thus this Eevee was labeled as evil and a heretic trying to break Red from his loyalty to the Helix Fossil. Additionally, when the Helix Fossil was finally used late in the game (it existed for one purpose and one purpose only) the creature that was created was referred to as a god. The ideology of the Helix Fossil was associated with many things including anarchy, the most powerful Pokémon in Red’s arsenal, referred to as Bird Jesus, and of course the god himself, the Pokémon Omanyte which was eventually evolved into his most advanced form, Omastar. The opposing ideology, which was created simply to oppose the Helix Fossil, was the Dome Fossil ideology. When Red acquired the Helix Fossil, he was given a choice between it and the Dome Fossil. The Dome Fossil represents things like the Democracy system put in place discussed earlier, as well as Eevee. Additionally, an extremely powerful Pokémon was caught in the later stages of the game which led to many Pokémon accidentally being released from the PC as Red tried to get this Pokémon out of the PC. This Pokémon was also labeled as a heretic and named Anti-Jesus.

While Twitch has beaten Pokémon, the ideology of this original play through has not made it into the later play throughs. This is because the only people who now play Twitch Plays Pokémon are the people who want to actually beat Pokémon. As quickly as this became an Internet phenomenon, it became a shadow of it’s former self just as fast. As of late March, the stream was averaging less than 10,000 viewers at any one time, compared to 100,000+ viewers at any one time at the end of February of the same year. It’s amazing how quickly things rise and fall on the Internet. However this is another discussion for another time.

Update on my paper: I am still acquiring research and also using the book to try to figure out how to write the paper. I have not chosen an easy subject, however I am confident that I will be able to pull this one off. Next step is to begin writing the paper!