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Twitch Plays Pokemon made headlines three years ago when the popular streaming site’s community played Pokemon Red. Today, an anonymous developer has continued the project by proposing a new game: the game of life. Starting on January 1st, Twitch chat will be able to control the actions of a single person and attempt to navigate him or her through the perils of everyday life.
“I was always fascinated with how players were able to overcome the challenges present within the game even with thousands of people trying to do things at the same time. I want to be able to do the same but within the realm of three dimensions. While Pokemon was a success, I think this can top that easily,” said the developer, who wishes to remain anonymous so that people will not doxx him.
“The stream will be a first person perspective with a GoPro attached to the subject. There is no real end-goal, but instead there will be tasks that need to be done on different intervals. Things like eating, showering, going to the bathroom and brushing teeth are all small goals at the beginning but soon the goals will get more complex like reading a book, driving and thinking about the vast unknowns of the universe.”
To prevent trolls from doing lasting damage to the player character and others, the developer has made actions like breathing already encoded while also disabling several actions from the start. This includes shouting racial slurs at minorities, yelling Nazi propaganda at children and attempting suicide by auto-erotic asphyxiation. Although the ban list is already extensive, the developer has promised to quickly disable other harmful actions as the stream progresses.
“While I would have loved to give the chat absolute freedom, I already know some people would use this to try and push their agenda, specifically that of the alt-right. This is a social experiment and has to follow the ethical guidelines of the Institutional Review Board. I’m very excited to see the results of this stream and what it means for the future of live-streaming,” said the developer.
Taco News pitched the idea of using our field intern as the subject but neither Twitch nor the developer has responded. Keep an eye out for a possible naked man taking one step at a time through the streets. Screaming.
