I didn't own a console growing up, so my experience with videogames was always a little annoying: I got to play Mario until I died once, and then I watched the friend who owned the console play the rest of the game. Or if I did get to actually hold the console, I spent the duration of the game being micromanaged by everyone in the room.

Well now, finally, that experience has been translated to the internet. Sort of.

Through the use of emulators and scripts, a few amazing nerds have made a system where a chatroom full of people (over 120,000 at some counts) can control a single character. After starting with Pokemon: Red, the concept has now been expanded to Legend of Zelda. Each person "votes" on the character's next move by typing into the chat, and then sometimes it actually goes somewhere.

It's anarchy and it's fun to watch: the original Pokemon stream has garnered over 20 million views, people watching a chatroom of people futility disagree about which decoration to move. It's a beautiful combination: you can be really frustrated that people aren't playing the game right, AND you can do something about it... AND it won't help! I just watched the Pokemon stream, which meant I watched a character stand outside a door for three solid minutes before moving.

Thank you, internet.