Reddit Place: how to participate in the Pixel War, the biggest battle on the Internet?

Place returns to Reddit on July 20, 2023, much faster than you might think. For those who were already there for the 2017 and 2022 editions, there is probably not much to explain: you know the workings of this community game with accents of social experimentation. Maybe you’re looking forward to the possible Pixel War rematch.

For everyone else, there are a few things to keep in mind — especially if you’re planning on participating in this new session, but don’t know anything about Reddit or Place. Here is what to remember from this activity, which will probably last a few days, and what you need to know (and do) before participating.

Have an account. Place its pixel.

First, Reddit is a community site founded in 2005, notably by the late Aaron Swartz, a little genius of the net. Its pages are structured around areas of interest, called subreddits (sub-forums, basically). The themes are varied. It can be France, personal finances, manga, space, a particular actress, etc.

Among these subreddits, there is Place (or r/Place in the jargon). It is a space a little apart, since it is interactive. Place is a blank canvas made available to Internet users, where you can color a pixel (also called a tile). The idea is to leave the area to the public and see what can emerge from an apparent chaos: at first, the pose of the pixels is anarchic, then order appears.

If you want to participate, you’ll need a Reddit account — sign up here if you don’t have one. Once your profile has been validated, you can then place a pixel of the color of your choice throughout the duration of the event in the location of your choice, within this blank space (which is less and less blank by force of circumstance).

Of course, there are a few rules. For example, this interactive space prohibits the same person (or at least the same account, because you can try to open several to try to reverse the course of things on r/Place) from chaining the pixels without delay. You will have to wait five minutes between placing two pixels on the playing area.

For further

Collaborate in communities

Alone, you won’t achieve much. Where the exercise becomes interesting is through collaboration with other Internet users. To do this, you must join another movement that you manage to identify on the spot. For example, if you see a French flag or references to France being drawn, it may be on the r/France subreddit that it is happening.

During r/Place, the subreddits are also often ad hoc headquarters to try to bring out a particular design on the canvas or to determine an area to defend – especially in the event of an attack. You want to defend or help complete a drawing from the manga One Piece ? You will need to coordinate on the appropriate subreddit. And so on.

Sometimes Redit communities go to war with each other without respite. Sometimes they find common ground to co-create a drawing that everyone will like or to share the area on good terms. Sometimes one community takes precedence over the other, forcing the latter to migrate elsewhere — if it can. This is why we occasionally talk about pixel wars.

The social experience that is Place sometimes overflows Reddit as well. During the Pixel War of 2022 precisely, Internet users also organized themselves on Twitch, in particular by following the instructions of streamers at the head of large communities. In France, we think in particular of Zerator, Kameto and Squeezie, as well as their friends from Twitch Game FR.

So here’s what to remember for r/Place: have an account on Reddit, join a community to create or defend a drawing and, depending on what will happen for the 2023 edition, see if the battle spreads beyond the community website, with mobilizations on Twitter or Twitch. Otherwise, you can stay in your corner and stubbornly defend your pixel.

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