The Tetris Effect: "Oh, the sun's up..."

"I started playing it around noon, and emerged from my room sometime later to find that the authorities had declared me legally dead."
—Zero Punctuation on Peggle

So named after (and quote-snatched from) the equivalent page on TV Tropes (WARNING: TV Tropes itself may well be the ultimate example of this trope), the Tetris Effect is caused when a game is simply too addictive to stop playing. A popular thread on the Fucking Insane Board brought back to life here, I could say it's because people were enjoying themselves and having fun, but there's really one big reason I'm posting...

KITBUG. YES, YOU, WITH THE PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES LINK. YOU OWE ME MY LIFE BACK. I AM A POPCAP SLAVE NOW.

So yeah I need to water my Zen Garden now

I can generally spend hours on any RPG that has at least a slightly indepth customization system. Also, Harvest Moon, The Sims (any of the 3), and any of the Mega Man games.

I thought the Tetris Effect was when you'd been playing so long you started to rearrange things you saw to make horizontal lines. Or that when you closed your eyes you'd still see the pieces dropping.

I've experienced the DDR Effect (falling arrows when I close my eyes) and the Assassin's Creed Effect (looking for handholds on every building).

Dwarf Fortress does this to me a lot:

Okay, I'll just get the workshops and storerooms set up, then I'll stop.

Oh, hey, migrants. Gotta get them settled, then I can stop.

I can get dinner once I get the moat finished.

Can't stop now, gotta see what this guy with the strange mood is going to produce.

Quit? In the middle of a goblin ambush? Surely you jest!

Then when I finally do go to bed, I see all my little dwarfs running around hauling rocks when I close my eyes. Best game ever.

Miraba wrote:

I thought the Tetris Effect was when you'd been playing so long you started to rearrange things you saw to make horizontal lines. Or that when you closed your eyes you'd still see the pieces dropping.

I've experienced the DDR Effect (falling arrows when I close my eyes) and the Assassin's Creed Effect (looking for handholds on every building).

I used to have that with Minesweeper soooooo bad. Your brain tries to come up with the numbers, too, and that's usually a fuck-up.

Alien Shooter 2. I started playing around 10 PM on the Gun Stand mode. I emerged around 1 AM. My poor sleepless restless eyes.

That quote about Peggle applies to me. There was a period when I quit smoking simply because I was too busy playing Peggle.

grmblfjx wrote:

Miraba wrote:

I thought the Tetris Effect was when you'd been playing so long you started to rearrange things you saw to make horizontal lines. Or that when you closed your eyes you'd still see the pieces dropping.

I've experienced the DDR Effect (falling arrows when I close my eyes) and the Assassin's Creed Effect (looking for handholds on every building).

I used to have that with Minesweeper soooooo bad. Your brain tries to come up with the numbers, too, and that's usually a fuck-up.

All of this plus Guitar Hero tracks. And Rock Band, too.

As for games-I-can't-stop-playing, I just finished my second playthrough of Persona 4, and I have clocked 196 hours on that file. Life, I haz none.

Once I determined how the weapon shop/weapon storehouse concept worked on Far Cry2, and bought myself a sniper rifle, I was hooked. It only got worse after I upgraded from the 1903 to the Dragunov, and it reached its peak after I got the AS50 (I have a guide, so I knew to take out convoys ASAP). I like the Desert Eagle in that game, but my primary happy-gun is the .50 Cal sniper rifle.

KITBUG IS TO BLAME FOR ME MISSING THE LAST MONTH OF MY LIFE. IT IS CLEARLY ALL HER FAULT.

Yeah so I'm gonna go through Last Stand for the quadrillionth time now see you guys tomorrow.

I am innocent of all wrong doing, YOU GUYS YOU CAN'T PIN THIS ON ME.

I've been having too much ADD for games so nothing is grabbing me completely. XD

grmblfjx wrote:

Miraba wrote:

I thought the Tetris Effect was when you'd been playing so long you started to rearrange things you saw to make horizontal lines. Or that when you closed your eyes you'd still see the pieces dropping.

I've experienced the DDR Effect (falling arrows when I close my eyes) and the Assassin's Creed Effect (looking for handholds on every building).

I used to have that with Minesweeper soooooo bad. Your brain tries to come up with the numbers, too, and that's usually a fuck-up.

It's a symptom of the syndrome, not the syndrome itself. Read the page if you dare.

Likewise, though, I was so desperate to be playing Plants vs. Zombies during school that I started doodling plants in my notebook. Before I knew it, I had drawn an entire game board and thirty-five minutes of the most bullshit-entrenched class I've ever been in had magically gone by. It was AWESOME but kind of sad.

...especially since I lost.

...I felt like winning a game I was drawing myself would be godmoding, okay? Jeez.

That's happened to me with Sims 2. I've been known to leave it on for hours, mostly because loading it back is a pain in the ass.

Meanwhile, for Kingdom Hearts 2, I got it on launch day and almost beat it in two days. When I realized I was halfway done, I started to pace myself to make the crack last.

The original Sims was like that for me. I'd spend all day avoiding housework by having my digital self...do housework.

I have no current addictions, but that's because my PS2 is still packed from the move. Otherwise, I'd be all over Digital Devil Saga 2.

Spore and the Paper Mario 1 and 2 series for me. I managed to go an entire day without eating because I lost track of time.

Ever since I got those debug Badges for Paper Mario TTYD, shit's gone deliciously crazy. 12 points of damage to every enemy? Superb action commands without lifting a finger?

Just...don't use anything like Power Bounce. :downs:

There might have been a scattered days that I only remembered to eat because I saw my sims eating.

Also, my fiance and I had to stop playing WoW after we pretty much stopped doing anything else but.

We were like, "What do we even DO now?" It was sad times.



(so we got a 360 >.> )

AudioSurf is my cocaine. Why, God, why did you allow me to use my own music to play a game? And for 9.99 USD, too.

Pokemon games for the DS have that effect on me. I recently bought Pokemon Platinum and beat it after a little over two weeks. It would've been less if I didn't have something slightly resembling a life. Goddamn Platinum, I still have to play it at least two hours a day or I crack.

And Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia... I completed the main game, the goddamned browser and played every mission I could in FIVE DAYS. I just couldn't put the stupid thing down, I just wanted to draw circles with the styler over and over and over again...

Sims 1 or 2 (when I get 3, it'll be just as bad. But I am broke Sparrow at the moment)

Cave Story.

Delcat wrote:

grmblfjx wrote:

Miraba wrote:

I thought the Tetris Effect was when you'd been playing so long you started to rearrange things you saw to make horizontal lines. Or that when you closed your eyes you'd still see the pieces dropping.

I've experienced the DDR Effect (falling arrows when I close my eyes) and the Assassin's Creed Effect (looking for handholds on every building).

I used to have that with Minesweeper soooooo bad. Your brain tries to come up with the numbers, too, and that's usually a fuck-up.

It's a symptom of the syndrome, not the syndrome itself. Read the page if you dare.

Actually, Miraba's right; the "Tetris Effect" refers to the weird shape-seeing, attempting-to-apply-game-mechanics-to-everyday-life symptom. It has a Wikipedia article that appears to predate the TVTropes article (actually, it might predate TVTropes altogether).

Sparrow wrote:

Sims 1 or 2 (when I get 3, it'll be just as bad. But I am broke Sparrow at the moment)

I wouldn't be too sure about that.

Sims 1 and 2 had me hooked so thoroughly that after playing a few hours, I'd start thinking about "satisfying my needs" and actually made action lists in my head, sims-style. I got Sims 3 on release day and haven't played much. As matter of fact, I am much more enamoured with my brand-new Wii Fit. Too many bugs for now, not as computer-friendly as advertised and kinda blah. I might change my mind once the worst bugs have been fixed and the mods start pouring in.

Fucking FreeCiv. The worst thing is, it's also installed on our university computers.

Then there's this rather old building game "Zeus". I don't know how often I have completed all missions in God Mode, but it doesn't get old. I wish it'd run on Bootcamp!XP.

Word on Sims 3. I played, got bored and started wishing I'd been playing Sims 2 instead.

Ouch. Okay, no Sims 3 for Sparrow until at least the first expansion pack. The bugs should be fixed by then, hopefully (and I'll have money). (Though that'll just make my Sims 2 addiction worse in the meantime...)

Pirate Cat doesn't pay for downloads. Arr!

(Seriously, Pirate Cat would be royally pissed if money had exchanged hands for Sims 3. It's just. that. lame.)

Miss Prince wrote:

Actually, Miraba's right; the "Tetris Effect" refers to the weird shape-seeing, attempting-to-apply-game-mechanics-to-everyday-life symptom. It has a Wikipedia article that appears to predate the TVTropes article (actually, it might predate TVTropes altogether).

I remember thinking like that when I was a Kindergarten (hell they had tetris-shaped blocks to make matters worse). Back then, the Brick Boy reigned supreme and it couldn't fit in your pocket even if you tried.

Oh, and the Sims 3 may be a bit fun, but it's damned tedious and glitchy. It's like Sims 2 Pets expansion pack glitchy, as it already gave me this lovely little glitch which claimed two uninteractable victims on my lawn and they WILL NOT GO AWAY. Makes me kinda glad I didn't buy it... :whisper: