Twitch Plays made a genre of its own

Twitch Plays Dark Souls Asylum Demon

Well I suppose Twitch had to step in to stop the escalation before someone got hurt. What started with TwitchPlaysPokemon and progressed through the democratic insanity of Twitch Plays Dark Souls has now been ratified as an official Twitch directory.

Category favourites include Twitch Plays Robot—with actual robots—Demon's Souls, a, erm, claw machine and Punch Club. TwitchPlaysPokemon will make a resurgence on February 14 with a modified version of Pokemon Crystal. Here's a philosophical question for you: does it count as PC gaming if you're controlling an emulated Gameboy Color by way of an AI routine via stream chat?

"The cascading creation of ideas inspired by TwitchPlaysPokemon has been the most rewarding part of having created the experience," its anonymous founder says. "Since the addition of a 'Twitch Plays' category will greatly improve their discoverability, I hope this further encourages people to make their own streams inspired by my channel."

So, if you ever want to watch a game you love slowly destroyed by committee, there's a direct link.