NEW YORK, April 14 — The Old Spice Nature Adventure will let internet users control a man who is lost in the woods for three days. Here's how it evolved from a Pokémon hack.
Before the captivating "Twitch Plays Pokémon" was even a thing, two other phenomena showed the potential of atypical interactive game experiences — first "Video Game Championship Wrestling," and then "SaltyBet."
The VGCW stream, set up in 2012, took advantage of character creation suites available inside 2K Sports' "WWE" games and led to a series of AI-controlled wresting tournaments.
Seasonal story arcs bent to unpredictable outcomes that occurred when WWE rosters were repopulated with custom-made versions of video game characters.
Midway through 2013, SaltyBet provided its own take on the format, based on an independent fighting game engine, "M.U.G.E.N." Retaining the outlandish character match-ups, it allowed spectators to bet virtual SaltyBucks on the outcome of each AI-controlled brawl.
But "Twitch Plays Pokémon" upped the anté. It took viewers' live text chat that accompanies each Twich broadcast, hooking it up to an instance of 1996 franchise debutant "Pokémon Red."
Spectators became participants by flooding the chat box with basic commands, attempting to steer the game's main character to success or ruin and, after more than two long weeks of syncopated continuous play, the 30-hour game was beaten.
That inspired attempts to complete the rest of the core Pokémon series, a "SaltyBet"-style side attraction leveraging "Pokémon Stadium 2," and a number of imitators including "Fish Plays Pokémon" — product of a joint New York University and Columbia University educational project — and ambitious action game endeavor "Twitch Plays Halo."
By contrast, a promotional stunt from male grooming brand Old Spice keeps the crowdsourced commands of "Twitch Plays...," exchanging digital protagonists for "an actual human man" for three days of hijinks running April 16-18 at twitch.tv/oldspice.
Twitch viewers, who can connect using a site account or Facebook login, are being invited to "send whatever commands you want the man to perform."
"For example: give that antelope a massage, build a sundial out of those snack cakes or eat those strange berries."
"Do not let the boundless natural treasures seen in this experience distract you from the fact that this is a professional advertising stunt introducing the new Old Spice Fresher Collection, no matter how glorious the scenery is," the Twitch channel's holding page remarks. — AFP-Relaxnews
