Difference between revisions of "1333: First Date"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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The title text and the words spoken here refer to multiple aspects of [http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon Twitch Plays Pokemon] (TPP). In TPP, tens of thousands of players (at one point, more than 110,000 players) control. What's unique is that the system uses fed commands from Twitch's own IRC and makes them valid commands in the game proper (such as "A", "B", "Start", etc.). The chat commands are all given very randomly due to the system used and to a delay in the Twitch system to the game itself. Here, "anarchy", the system where the most recent and logical input to be given to Red in TPP, is assumed to be used in the comic proper.
 
  
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In order:
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'TPP,' or 'Twitch Plays Pokemon,' was the first of a creative and radical new variant of streaming gameplay videos created in early 2014.  
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* Saying "I love you!" may have been the first choice. One common error posted by many people is "A" when selecting a choice, when they meant to select a completely different one.
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* Asking to "order everything in the menu" refers to how in shops, the randomness of the inputs may lead to Red asking to buy 99 items, even though he usually doesn't that much money to buy all and only wants one or two.
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With the increasing popularity of watching video games be played (usually by 'popular' gamers known for entertaining gameplay), streaming sites dedicated to streaming gameplay were created; twitch.tv was one such site.
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* "Being stuck" refers to the multiple move commands given. For example, falling off a ledge accidentally, cutting a tree (which is done by going into the menu and selecting a Pokemon who can cut and then selecting cut, all of this in front of said tree), an underground maze, and the Pokemon shop in many hilarous cases have all been areas that Red have been stuck to progress, even though these should have been passed easily.
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* "AAAOOGAOGAG" refers to the weird and funny naming of the Pokemon. While the chat feeds commands, many of them are usually "A" and "Down", and as such pick letters from the far left of the name input.
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Whereas traditional video game streams involved the channel broadcaster or other personality playing the game, the channel "Twitch Plays Pokemon" recorded a bot playing an emulated Pokemon game. The game was given inputs by the bot based on players' messages in the video stream itself; meaning that for all intents and purposes, the watchers of the stream were playing the game, using chat "commands." The player behaved incredibly erratically, frequently gettign "stuck against simple obstacles" (as mentioned in the title-text) and moving about in a strange manner ("Why are you up there?"/"Bye...Okay, coming back now") TPP surged in popularity rapidly from its inception, reaching 80K channel viewers within a mere 5 days. Derivative channels (such as 'TwitchPlayers') soon arose, turning "Twitch Plays..." into an idea rather than a single channel - the idea of crowd-sourcing a task, such as controlling a single person (as in the pokemon games) for erratic and often hilarious results.
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* The movement in random directions and attempting to come back refer to how the move commands in TPP, and connects with the "Being stuck" situation. See that for more info.
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* "Spiral" refers to the "Helix Fossil", a memetically popular item that has no uses until much later in the game. However, the Helix Fossil is usually the first or second item to be selected, and it met with the response "Red! You shouldn't be using that right now!". It has been considered memetically as a god by players.
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In the above comic, Cueball and Megan are on a date, however, Megan is behaving very erratically. Cueball determines that Megan is being "controlled by Twutch," as her behavior matches well with that of the "TPP Protagonist" (whose name, canonically, is Red). Megan loudly declares at one point that she is "SAVING" her 'game progress.' Her fascination with the "cool spiral" is an allusion to TPP players' fascination with the "Helix Fossil," an in-game item regarded with a near-religious reverance by TPP players for its constant appearance (because user input often leads to the checking of the in-game backpack, where the Helix fossil and other items resided, the players jokingly decided that the protagonist was "looking to the Helix for guidance;" this quickly led to its regard as a "religious symbol.")
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* "Saving" refers to the multiple times Red has accessed the menu and saved the game, despite having no use for it. The number of times the game has been saved it is practically countless due the sheer number of random commands.
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The title-text, as esplained above, simply is a light-hearted joke from xkcd, empathizing with TPP as he has also "spent days stuck against simple obstacles."
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==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==

Revision as of 06:16, 21 February 2014

First Date
I sympathize with the TPP protagonist because I, too, have progressed through a surprising number of stages of life despite spending entire days stuck against simple obstacles.
Title text: I sympathize with the TPP protagonist because I, too, have progressed through a surprising number of stages of life despite spending entire days stuck against simple obstacles.

Explanation

'TPP,' or 'Twitch Plays Pokemon,' was the first of a creative and radical new variant of streaming gameplay videos created in early 2014.

With the increasing popularity of watching video games be played (usually by 'popular' gamers known for entertaining gameplay), streaming sites dedicated to streaming gameplay were created; twitch.tv was one such site.

Whereas traditional video game streams involved the channel broadcaster or other personality playing the game, the channel "Twitch Plays Pokemon" recorded a bot playing an emulated Pokemon game. The game was given inputs by the bot based on players' messages in the video stream itself; meaning that for all intents and purposes, the watchers of the stream were playing the game, using chat "commands." The player behaved incredibly erratically, frequently gettign "stuck against simple obstacles" (as mentioned in the title-text) and moving about in a strange manner ("Why are you up there?"/"Bye...Okay, coming back now") TPP surged in popularity rapidly from its inception, reaching 80K channel viewers within a mere 5 days. Derivative channels (such as 'TwitchPlayers') soon arose, turning "Twitch Plays..." into an idea rather than a single channel - the idea of crowd-sourcing a task, such as controlling a single person (as in the pokemon games) for erratic and often hilarious results.

In the above comic, Cueball and Megan are on a date, however, Megan is behaving very erratically. Cueball determines that Megan is being "controlled by Twutch," as her behavior matches well with that of the "TPP Protagonist" (whose name, canonically, is Red). Megan loudly declares at one point that she is "SAVING" her 'game progress.' Her fascination with the "cool spiral" is an allusion to TPP players' fascination with the "Helix Fossil," an in-game item regarded with a near-religious reverance by TPP players for its constant appearance (because user input often leads to the checking of the in-game backpack, where the Helix fossil and other items resided, the players jokingly decided that the protagonist was "looking to the Helix for guidance;" this quickly led to its regard as a "religious symbol.")


The title-text, as esplained above, simply is a light-hearted joke from xkcd, empathizing with TPP as he has also "spent days stuck against simple obstacles."


Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.


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Discussion

PRAISE THE HELIX, ahh TPP is just so fun to watch 141.101.99.20 21:02, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

HAIL HELIX ‎173.245.54.74 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Should this be put into the Pokémon category? The comic has nothing to do with Pokémon itself, but the subject matter does. Blitzer (talk) 07:37, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Kill me for being a stupid nerd, but when I first read the title "First Date" I thought it was going to be a strip about the Unix Epoch. 173.245.53.201 10:30, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

I think that was a very cool deducton, Monica. 173.245.53.138 15:47, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Thats nothing. Ive actually nerd sniped myself with an xkcd comic before. thinking that the one about DNE referred to the concept of an undefined value (ie 1/0) BruceJohnJennerLawso (talk) 19:00, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

This is the first strip for a while that I had no idea what was going on. Thanks, explainxkcd! BTW I do think the Pokémon category is probably relevant enough. Mark Hurd (talk) 11:02, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Ah, ditto. Cheers for the explanation (not sure whether I'm happy or not that I'm so disassociated from apparently popular culture though). I actually thought "Twitch" was some sort of "random Twitter feed" thing, though, so (to some degree) I suppose I was also almost on the right track. 141.101.99.145 17:31, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Hah, ditto. 108.162.215.7 05:44, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

Anyone else notice that between panels 2 and 3, Cueball drinks most of his wine? 141.101.99.145 17:51, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I was intrigued by that! At least, his glass gets emptier — it seems plausible that Megan might have drunk or spilled it too. 108.162.218.23 18:48, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Seems like the amount of wine in his glass is constantly decreasing from panel 1-4. Also, the helix will guide us! 173.245.53.185 12:48, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
Praise the Helix! 108.162.254.106 16:21, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

I took my 4-year-old out to lunch at a restaurant last week. Randall, was that you, sitting at the next booth, taking notes? 173.245.55.62 18:42, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

This guy says: It's been 1.5 and now this is an old dead meme. 162.158.2.158 09:36, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Should we add a table explaining each of the phrases that Megan speaks? 625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8 (talk) 01:24, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

SHAMELESS ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOWS [1] is a place where the dev hooked up a switch to a PC and now you can play using your keyboard or USB controller, and we have a TON of games. (Take this down if it breaks any rules please) SilverMagpie (talk) 01:33, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Why is the character being named "Red" ironic? Because he's in a game also called "Red"? That is not irony. Nitpicking (talk) 03:54, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

The link to the page about the Helix Spiral needs to be updated. 23:35, 17 April 2024 172.69.71.159 (talk) 03:35, 18 April 2024 (UTC!) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

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