Twitch plays Pokemon; the story of Lord Helix and Bird Jesus
Religion and video games aren’t often talked about in the same sentence. A lot of Twitch streamers tend to avoid the religion conversation because it holds very little relevance during their broadcast. But in 2014, Twitch attempted an experimental stream where the audience could control the movements of the character in the game just by typing in chat. The title of this experiment was Twitch Plays Pokemon. There were two input modes during Twitch Plays Pokemon, democracy and anarchy. During democracy, each command was up for voting and the command with the highest vote would be input. This way the community could gain progress in the game by working together. In anarchy mode, every command typed into chat would be executed in the order that it was typed. During anarchy, very little progress would be made and the character would sometimes spin in circles or release Pokemon in their party back into the wild.
Enter the helix fossil. The helix fossil was an item that the character obtained after reaching a certain point in the game. Throughout the playthrough, viewers/players would question why the character would often open up the game menu. After obtaining the helix fossil, it became the first item in the characters bag and was often selected by Twitch chat which produced an error code stating, “You can’t use this item now”. Players then created a theory that the character in the game was consulting the helix fossil as a deity or item related to some sort of god. Finally, Twitch chat was able to turn the helix fossil into an actual Pokemon and that Pokemon is now commonly referred to as Lord Helix. But Twitch chat didn’t stop there, the strongest Pokemon in the party at the time was named the protector of Lord Helix and later named Bird Jesus.
Since then, many have created complex stories, timelines, and events that contain Lord Helix and Bird Jesus. Although most acknowledge that these characters are just made up, these two characters have expanded the discussion of religion and video games. Much like the Apostolic Christians Matthew Engelke studied in his book A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church, the creation of Lord Helix was similar to the creation of the “live and direct” connection that the Friday Apostolics believe in. Both communities created a style of faith and belief that was relevant only to them. Although they differ in various ways as Twitch chat took a material like the helix fossil and gave religious meaning while the Friday Apostolics do not believe in the bible because of its materiality.
The creation of Lord Helix was indeed a conversation starter for religion in video games. But I have to question if religion in video games is only okay when the community is aware about the ridiculousness of the deity? Is Lord Helix and Bird Jesus more acceptable to the gaming community because they were characters where no one could really take offense if the religious figures were insulted or not? Could a streamer gain a large following with a primarily Christian based stream or would that discourage more viewers?
