The creator of one of the weirdest things to happen on the Internet this year, who has managed to remain anonymous to every single reporter and media outlet that has come calling for a story, tells Mashable the live-gaming experiment may be a game changer.

According to the creator of Twitch Plays Pokémon, an insightful and endlessly frustrating crowd-sourced romp through Nintendo's 1996 role-playing video game Pokémon Red, it all began as a social experiment.

“I think the internet is capable of handling things of this nature,” the anonymous programmer said. “But if they were being produced and released rapidly it would be hard for an audience to get invested in one particular production.”

Major news outlets have covered this phenomenon since it began, including Mashable, CNN, CNET and others.

The growing popularity of such a game may lead to whole new population of gamers. “Twitch Plays Pokémon has been a very popular topic," said the creator. "I think that popularity has helped draw the attention of an audience that isn’t typically interested in games.”

But he—or she—doesn't think its the crowd-sourced stream that may bring non-gamers into the mix of Twitch Plays Pokémon. It's the game play itself. "I think there's a popular perception among non-gamers that all games are hard to play and violent, [but] Pokémon is an easy-going game and the violence is very mild (there's no killing)," said the creator.

Plus, a first-generation game like Pokémon has certain appealing features. "Pokémon designs have changed a little over the years and grayscale artwork isn't something you see much anymore," they said. "I figured if it was going to be watched for hours it shouldn't be boring to look at.

Twitch Plays Pokémon just marked a playtime of more than 15 days. As of this writing, over 40,000 people are still trying to get the lead character of Pokémon Red/Blue, Red, to the end. They are almost there.

Twitch, the website, was launched in June 2011 when Justin.tv co-founder and Twitch CEO Emmett Shear saw just how much video game content was streaming on Justin.tv. It was created out of a necessity to cater a live streaming platform specifically made for gamers with unique tools and features.

Twitch has grown from its humble beginnings, from 3.2 million unique visitors to 45 million unique visitors a month. The company has also surpassed 1 million unique broadcasters a month, meaning people are truly into watching and commenting along games.

However, while Twitch has grown from being strictly for celebrity gamers to anyone can join, Twitch Plays Pokémon has taken the website's nascent personality an extra step.

While Twitch is considered a standard social based tool for today’s gamers, Twitch Plays Pokémon has now surpassed that and reached people who aren't into everyday gaming. At one point, the live stream peaked at 120,000 viewers, which is the size of a regular e-sport tournament. In five days, it reached more than 3 million unique visitors, out sizing some mid-size cable networks viewership.

While the game is being hosted on Twitch.tv, the company had nothing to do with the organic idea -– which they believe is the best part of this experiment.

Matthew DiPietro, Vice President of Marketing at Twitch believes this live stream has taken Twitch and gaming to the next level. “This is a next generation Twitch experience and has new potential for developers and revenue,” he told Mashable. “It's proof of a concept that can work.”

Which is why for today’s gamers — and any new gamers that come along — Twitch is necessary and vital for the gaming community (not that it wasn’t before). “Twitch is the catalyst,” said DiPietro. “Twitch is an easy-to-use, cost-effective platform to reach all types of gamers.”

While the journey may be coming to an end soon, the loyal fan base and creator won't let the fever die. “I’ve received a lot of requests to continue with the Pokémon franchise after the Elite Four and the Pokémon Champion get defeated, so I’m going to do that," the creator told The Guardian. "I’m still deciding which of the generation 2 Pokémon games to go with.”

Whatever happens next, the creator is happy remaining anonymous and just watching the game unfold. “I’m very happy to have created something that has created powerful memories and emotions for a lot of people," they said to Mashable. "I hope what I have created has exposed people who don't normally play games or only shallow social/mobile games to other, more substantial games they might be interested in.

For many gamers and Pokémon fans out there, they, too, are happy with this revival and its new way of playing video games.

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