Twitch Harnessing User Comments to Play Dark Souls

“Twitch Plays” is excruciating to watch but a surprisingly captivating formula which allows user comments to act as control commands. The channel was created by an anonymous Twitch user and integrates a Python script; the script features a graphical interface to clearly display the keys for each action.

Miraculously, the Twitch community managed to work in harmony to complete Metal Gear Ghost Babel earlier this year. Not content with this achievement, Twitch Plays has set its sights on Dark Souls, one of the most punishing games in recent memory. As you might expect, it will be a miracle if the game is completed and the pace of progress is extremely slow.

Despite this, it is an interesting social experiment to gauge how online users can communicate and work as a team. Any form of online interaction is often plagued by trolling, vile comments and rude behavior. While, there are a lot of people intentionally inserting the wrong command, it’s pleasant to see people having fun towards a difficult end goal. I noticed the playtime counter includes a yearly unit which suggests the channel owner isn’t very optimistic of the game being finished anytime soon.

Do you think this is a pointless exercise or something which might pique your interest?

Thank You Ars Technica  for providing us with this information.