Who produced this amazing pixel art by? elden ring‘S Ranni sits next to the protagonist of Hollow Knight, and why? The answer is r/place, a Reddit battlefield where anyone can make a point and change the course of meme history. At a time when so much of the modern internet is junk, r/Place has returned and it’s still really cool.
Part April Fool’s joke, part sociological experiment, the internet pixel mural Place is back after a five-year hiatus and bigger than ever. It original debuted in 2017 with a simple idea: have random internet users collaborate on an artwork, but only let them place one pixel every five minutes. The results ranged from the expected to the bizarre. Some people helped make Van Goghs Starry Night. Others created a great black void where similar anomalies took on a narrative of their own as users reacted to what was unfolding in real time. The idea was Josh Wardlesa Reddit contributor at the time that you may know by now creator of Wordl.
Now r/Place is back, doubling in size while reflecting the last half decade of online culture and technological development. Fans have spent the last four days Battle for the blank canvas to express solidarity for Ukraine and trans rights, promote meme stocks and troll each other’s fandoms. It has led to strange feuds and unlikely alliances as various sectors of the internet and big online personalities engage in real-time takeovers.
A rundown of some of the weirder team-ups reported about fanbytes shows Spyro fans tries to merge with community fans and Deny fans reach to Kingdom Hearts fans. Most groups are unable to compete on a grand scale, and settle for the minimal amount of space they need to properly pixelate an emblem of their fandom. To become even more efficient, some groups have merged images or protected existing artworks as part of larger acquisitions.
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A Final Fantasy XIV Logo is preserved at coordinates 1274 x 534 for over a day. Hollow Knight Fans, meanwhile, try to keep an ode to silk song, the long-awaited sequel to the game. “Our top priority is to fix Hornet’s needle in Silksong,” wrote one of the fans putting powers on Discord. “Need help with thread,” replied another. Meanwhile, the Elden Ring community came together to make an earth tree that is part Hollow Knight shine.
The Just Chatting Twitch category is currently dominated by streamers urging their followers to raid different parts or protect their own. Some people claim to stay up all night to protect their creations, while others claim cheating through the influx of bots. As a strange example, streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel had an encounter with a group of French users that he accused be fake accounts
With the mural constantly changing and its feats coordinated across Twitch streams, other subreddits, or dedicated Discords, it’s incredibly difficult to actually track the micro-history of who is doing what and why. But at all times it looks like an elaborate tapestry reflecting microcosms of internet popularity Between us to bubble ball.
“It’s kind of addictive trying to protect the piece you’re building,” says pixel artist Nyan Cat told the Washington Post. “It’s like a turf war, but it’s also a social statement. For example, we have to defend this little penguin in the corner from this guy who is throwing purple spots at him.”
r/Place will close sometime on April 4th, at which point each community’s triumphs and defeats will be forever recorded. Understandably, this increases the pressure as things draw to a close. Wrote a person on the Hollow Knight Discord: “ME APOLOGIES FOR ALL NEW PEOPLE AND VISITORS.