Who knew that "Twitch Plays Pokemon" would last 11 days and counting?

Those who are wondering why that should be a surprising thing have to remember that "Twitch Plays Pokemon" is the new trend on Twitch wherein users can either be a spectator watching the game or a participant joining the riot.

The new online activity has thousands of people playing as one single hero of the "Pokemon Red" emulated on the PC. Participants can either enter A, B, start, left, right, up or down as a command---but it will just be one of the thousands of commands that other players are entering in the game.

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The latest update in terms of "Twitch Plays Pokemon's" progress is that a Bloody Sunday has occurred over the weekend. If the week before was highlighted with the double passing/releasing of Jay Leno, Abby, C3KO and X-Wing, the week's opening was much worse in comparison. In around 7 hours or so, 12 Pokemons in total were released.

It started with A, who was released at 10d 9h 32m, according to the official Live Updates of Twitch Plays Pokemon and ending with Big Dig's release at 10d 16h 2m. In between there are B, AIA, AAA, VENONAT, NIDORAN, Seed of Hope, Slayer of Trees, GEODUDE, H and AAEWWW, all of whom have been released within that timeframe.

Already, the Internet is abuzz with memes about this, such as one hilarious gif from Imgur. Here's another one, which is like an epitaph of sorts to Big Dig.

The current goal now for "Twitch Plays Pokemon" is to go to Cinnabar Island. So far, in the badges department, there are already six, with the latest caught at 9d 18h 26m. Hopefully, nothing like the Bloody Sunday happens for a while. But then again, for some, this may be one of the highlights that keep them coming back for more.

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A Popularity Trend---So Where is Nintendo With This?

With the popularity of "Pokemon X and Y," the sixth generation game for the Nintendo 3DS, is just starting to mellow down, the most logical way to see "Twitch Plays Pokemon" is to see it as a great publicity.

After all, not only is it providing easy advertising of Nintendo's games, it's even dug up an old game and bringing that to light. And yet Pixel Critique does well in pointing out the absence of Nintendo in the entire matter.

It would be so easy to ride the wave as a new way of getting back in the game as the "Pokemon X and Y" slowly makes its exit out of the spotlight. But even after 11 days and several coverage appearances in various outlets and publications, Nintendo has yet to breathe a word about "Twitch Plays Pokemon."

*The shutting down of Irrational Games brings in more consequences, this time for the PS Vita: Read here for more.

Whether or not Nintendo gets to ride the popularity wave is yet to be seen, but "Twitch Plays Pokemon" has opened other opportunities besides the Pokemon franchise.

GameSpot has reported that it can be seen as a new evolution of crowd-sourcing gaming. We've seen the advent of crowd-sourced funding for games as well as the rise of multiplayer gaming online via consoles.

In a way, it gives new light to the term "multiplayer" wherein it is far different from everything else related to what multiplayer gaming is in the market. But at the same time, it is pretty obvious that the basic notion of the game---see if players can finish the game with everyone working together, literally---has its own addictive quality that may just have been tapped for future gaming developers to test and take advantage of.

Check out Twitch Plays Pokemon here.

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