The Tetris Effect

[Mr Twist]

Wiki link [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect]

The Tetris effect is...interesting. I've seen a lot of talk about it without a name being given. The details pop up in "You know you've played too much...when..." threads a lot.

It consists of playing a game so much the game temporarily redefines your cogs. You start to see everything in light of the game. Dreaming about World of Warcraft? Worried that passenger plane is about to start raining missiles? Humming the Tetris theme while you fill your dishwasher?

Share your stories. I find them awesome =)



Link to a topic on Cracked.com [http://www.cracked.com/funny-2708-the-tetris-effect/]

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I remember it when taking the test Mythbusters had about video games.

Never happened to me, since I don't play games for more than two hours at a time. And since I'm basically loner so I don't see anyone else doing it.

I'm exciting.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Sometimes I play waaaaaaay too much SC2 (like everyday) and I look at something after playing and I see and hear SCV's mining and saying "In the rear with the gear" constantly. I have to shake it off. It eventually goes away, I figure my mind was so fixated on one task for so long it is still in "SC2 mode".

It happens to me with work too. If I spend too much time doing a repetitive task, I will continually see it when I close my eyes until I have had sufficient time to wind down from it.

 

[trollnystan]

When I was a kid - around 12 - I played a lot of Doom and I would dream about the corridors and monsters constantly. Still happens to me but not as frequently any more.

 

[Mr Twist]

Really? I used to get it quite a lot with Resident Evil 4. I dreamt every night for a week once that I was in a spanish village tracking down special gems to put in a briefcase I had. The briefcase had special bits laid out for them so I think it was meant to be something else.

And a truck exploded =)

 

[KalosCast]

Happens to me a lot in "real world' sandbox games.

"Hey, I could just run up to that car, throw open the door, threaten the guy with a shotgun and get to class on time... I need help"

 

[SwiftBlade18]

I just imagine meanial tasks being like games...sticking with the tetris idea - i had a pallet of various stock I had to condense to make as small as possible. So hey ho I turned on my tetris mode and worked that bad boy in a tightly packed wonder...shame no layers disappeared giving me a bonus

 

[gazumped]

Pretty much any game I play for a few days at a time I'll dream about.

Games where you have to concentrate really hard on a specific system (I've particularly got this puzzle games like Picross and Bubble Buster) I can't get it out of my head.

Picross actually had me not getting a good night sleep because all I could see was rows of squares and crosses and my brain was insisting on figuring out imaginary Picross puzzles as soon as I got sleepy enough for my subconscious to start kicking in.

 

[Bobbity]

I used to play WoW obsessively, and the worst that ever happened to me was a newfound curiosity of what my suburb might look like as seen from the back of a dragon

 

[similar.squirrel]

I get stuck in a Tetris mindset all too often. Doesn't happen with any other game, though. Except maybe Mirror's Edge.

Edit: It's as good a time as any to post this video, actually. Good luck getting it out of your head.

 

[scrambledeggs]

I thought about minesweeper patterns back when I played it often.

This also happens to me with chess, where I think up openings and their advantages/disadvantages in my sleep.

But never for a video game.

 

[farq1414]

i usally think about sloving problems through video games like the coding with math

 

[blankedboy]

I once wondered where the Silt Strider in my house was. Fun times.

 

[The .50 Caliber Cow]

I once played Mario Kart so long I could of swore I saw Red Shells occasionally.

 

[Zhukov]

I don't really get that.

Although I once caught myself looking at buildings and figuring out how Altiar would go about climbing them.

 

[SamuelT]

I got this with Mirrors Edge. Stuff climable was supposed to turn red damnit! I also cringe every time I hear a tingling sound, thinking it to be a grenade from CoD, though admittedly it's been a year or so since I played it. I have lost one ear, so I have a constant ringing sound in my non-existant left ear. Sometimes it just plays up, and I almost dive away.

...help

 

[epikAXE]

Ive said before, thats I once played so much minecraft that I could see iron ore every time I closed my eyes... *shudder*

 

[Batfred]

Over the years, I have:
Dreamt of falling blocks.
Dreamt of improving cities first with a granary, then with a temple. Ooh, need an archer and some walls would be handy too.
Dreamt of spreadsheets.
Typed out everything I did in my head in walking and sleeping life after doing a 10,000 word dissitation in 1 day.
Struggled to sleep wondering if an AK47 or an AK74u would be best in my offices (it has lots of side rooms, but long corridors too).
Wished I could pause or quick save life.
When pissed pulled out my replica wakizashi and believed that I was Rand Al'Thor...Before Path of Daggers when he started to become a douche.

 

[Vrach]

Dreaming about a game is really perfectly normal. Dreams tend to take the events and things you think about over the past few days and use them for themes/visuals/etc. Anyone who plays or even just thinks about a game is viable to dream about it and it's not just the case of "omg there must be nothing else happening in your life to dream about a game" or "omg, you must've played 17 hours a day for weeks to dream about games". So I call bull on that, but yeah, if you wanna count it, I've dreamed about games and I've dreamt dreams that were about something else using game mechanics, visuals, themes etc.

On the actual topic... yeah had that plenty of times. For example, Assassin's Creed had the effect of me shoulder-pushing-aside people when in crowds. Still kinda do it, it's surprisingly effective

On the music humming, oh God, that was the worst. Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. I remember it cause I played it loads, both home and at a cybercafe with some mates in multiplayer. The thing is, the tune of the multiplayer got so stuck in my head, that when I was in a cybercafe on one occasion, I was humming it, barely noticing myself cause I had the headphones on. The guy next to me playing WC3 turned to me after some half an hour or so looking absolutely desperate and basically completely politely said "could you please shut the fuck up?"... I suddenly realised what I had been doing and was embarrassed as hell ^^

 

[Bayushi_Kouya]

Mostly happens to me with Open World-type games.

I once caught myself calculating how much distance there was between me and a junction box, which is important to know for InFamous.

Whenever I walk past a building with three more stories, I automatically assess whether or not Ezio of Assassin's Creed 2 could climb it without changing surfaces halfway up.