Thousands are slowly trying to catch 'em all in a single game of online Pokémon

Over at Twitch Plays Pokémon, 45,000 people are collectively watching and controlling a single game of the original Pokémon for the Game Boy by individually typing commands into the stream’s chatroom. Through some ephemeral computer magic those chat commands are transformed into button presses, leading to a very confused Pokémon trainer bumping into trees and tossing out valuables for no particular reason. Progress so far is not as slow as one might imagine; the stream has so far managed to defeat three of the game’s eight gym leaders in about 30 hours. It’s not all Roselias and Solrocks, however, as progress seems to get halted for hours by tasks as simple as cutting down bushes or not jumping off ledges.

And if the thrill of watching a Pokémon trainer ambling around for hours wears off (it takes an oddly long time), Twitch Plays Pokémon Plays Tetris will be there, ready and willing to give actual feelings of progression.