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Playing Tetris Is Good For You
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jan 07, 2009 09:34 AM
from the wow-still-causes-cancer dept.
from the wow-still-causes-cancer dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Some UK researchers found out that playing Tetris is actually good for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, by interfering with memory. I wonder if playing Minesweeper is effective against boss-inflicted stress."
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Submission: Playing Tetris is good for you by Anonymous Coward
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Great! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Great! (Score:4, Funny)
Actually they were good for nothing, unless you were surrounded by an environment struck constantly by conflict and horror.
In other words, unless he had a TV running somewhere around him.
Parent
Re:Great! (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you ever roll your score through the signed int maximum, 32,767 points? Did you ever roll it back through zero? Did you know that there's a graphical display glitch in the score display: the old score is erased by writing the new score on top, so if the new score has fewer digits (-9,999 as opposed to -10,000, for example) the last digit will stay visible?
My current high score is -256, but that's not counting the time I rolled it through zero (the game didn't think that was a high score).
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft Tetris (Score:4, Informative)
You're obviously not talking about the NES version, so which one are you referring to?
Microsoft's ancient port of Tetris to Windows 3.1 [tetrisconcept.com] used a type equivalent to int16_t for the player's score. Certainly Tetramino for NES [pineight.com] can track up to 6.5 million points, and Lockjaw [pineight.com] can track up to 2 billion.
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Re:Great! (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Great! (Score:4, Funny)
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What if the trauma (Score:5, Funny)
What does it do to healthy memories (Score:2, Interesting)
So, what does playing tetris do when you're trying to store normal memories, like where you put your glasses?
Re:What does it do to healthy memories (Score:5, Funny)
So, what does playing tetris do when you're trying to store normal memories, like where you put your glasses?
They're between the lamp and the glass.
Be careful not to leave the keys on that table, or it will all disappear.
Parent
Re:What does it do to healthy memories (Score:4, Funny)
Easy: if you see the blocks clearly, you glasses are on your nose. See? that's the power of Tetris.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sadly, for me this should read "if you can see the blocks at all". (Ok, not quite... I'd be able to tell they were there. Sort of.)
time scale??? (Score:2)
I didn't catch it in TFA, does someone know about the time scale?
It makes sense that Tetris competes with brain resources WHILE you are playing...it would be hard to have a flashback during a game. But did it have any long-term impact?
As in, therapeutic value? I know COD4 helps me by competing for my brain resources against homework. Without it, I'd be like Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now...."the horror, the horror".
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I know COD4 helps me by competing for my brain resources against homework. Without it, I'd be like Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now...."the horror, the horror".
I couldn't agree more.
Games for a long time have been known to have positive effects towards the user, instead of just negative. The things games do well as it says in TFA, they remove stress. I find it very helpful to come home after a long day and cool down with some PC gaming. It helps me unwind my brain.
Re: (Score:2)
I would think it is a case that PTSD normally fades over time. Paying Tetris during the early stages when it is strongest probably helps. Then after time as it fades and becomes more manageable then you don't have to play Tetris as much. And perhaps except for getting flashbacks of War you get one where those blocks are moving to fast for you. Which is less devastating, but you still have a similar rush.
What is "too fast for you"? (Score:2)
Then after time as it fades and becomes more manageable then you don't have to play Tetris as much. And perhaps except for getting flashbacks of War you get one where those blocks are moving to fast for you.
When you're as good as the players in this video (TGM3 Shirase S13) [youtube.com] or this video (TGM3 Master GM) [youtube.com], what does "to fast for you" mean?
Re: (Score:2)
did it have any long-term impact?
Some people see the blocks falling after they've stopped playing. Thinking about it in relation to PTSD, I wonder if this isn't a minor form of stress disorder as well. Perhaps "post-tetris stress disorder" crowds out the effects of PTSD.
Re: (Score:2)
No, but I've tried playing Tetris (the version that came with Windows) while running PowerPoint presentations. That makes level 10 pretty difficult...
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm talking about playing level 10 of Microsoft Tetris while running a PowerPoint presentation on monitor 2.
No... (Score:5, Funny)
No, but Mine-layer is...
What does this have to do with Tetris? (Score:5, Interesting)
Really, all they did was show people something disturbing then immediately distract them with Tetris afterwards. I'm positive they could have districted them with anything and it would make a difference.
It is common knowledge that the best way to remember something is to put it in your brain then recall it over increasingly long periods of time. If you don't recall it (what they call "flashback" in the article) then the memory will naturally fade. It is at the beginning of a memory when it is weakest so it makes sense that if you distract someone and prevent them from recalling the memory then it will quickly fade.
I Agree: Guitar Hero (Score:5, Interesting)
Talk about replacing memories. Now whenever I hear a song, I'm not thinking about where I was when I first heard it. I'm thinking about hitting those damn color buttons on time.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
If nothing else, it suggests a benign, free, easily found device that can be used to distract oneself after digging up those memories. May not be particularly profound, but it was worth writing up - Not everything is particle physics. Science that is easily understood by the public at large carries an inherent value well worth pursuing.
You just shouldn't take it to extremes. [washingtonpost.com] Sure knows how to pick 'em, eh?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Really, all they did was show people something disturbing then immediately distract them with Tetris afterwards. I'm positive they could have districted them with anything and it would make a difference.
Very true. The more someone thinks about what they just saw, the more firmly it's going to be set into their mind. It's not at all surprising that distracting them (and thus focusing their mental energy elsewhere) lessens the effect of the traumatic memories.
It does reduce stress (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It does reduce stress (Score:4, Interesting)
No won says Tetris is super fun or exciting.
I do, when I win.
Seriously though, I find tetris to be a whole lot of fun. And if you just start at level 9 every time, it can be pretty exciting, too. It doesn't quite have the clench factor of CMR3 or anything (slide slide slide CRASH - you can see how long it's been since I bought a new game though) but it can be quite engaging. Proof positive that graphics aren't everything - tetris works fine when drawn in text characters.
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Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
How does one "win" at Tetris?
Some Tetris variants have a win condition. Notably, Game Boy tetris launches various rockets when you achieve certain scoring goals. It's not VERY exciting, but if you just think back to how exciting the Game Boy was when it had come out (especially at my age, it was pretty special for me being just at the perfect age to be awed by that little Z80-powered masterpiece - now I'm just duly impressed) then you can recapture a little of that excitement.
I find that it's actually hard for me to truly enjoy the thr
Re: (Score:2)
Whoosh (assuming GP means the Tetris for Windows that shipped with MS OS's back in the day).
Tetris The Grand Master (Score:2)
How does one "win" at Tetris?
First you have to get so good you can almost play with your eyes shut. Then you have to beat this guy [youtube.com].
Re:It does reduce stress (Score:5, Funny)
From what I've seen people do primarily play Tetris to decompress and reduce stress.
It doesn't reduce stress for me! Especially when some high ranked asshole comes into play me on Tetris Party for the Wii and quits after I beat him and before his ranking is affected. Fucking cocksuckers. If I ever find one of those motherfuckers I will pound them in the head with a Wiimote repeatedly until death occurs.
Oh, is that what you meant by reducing stress? Sorry, I got distracted.
Parent
Breakdown of causation (Score:4, Funny)
I wonder if playing Minesweeper is effective against boss-inflicted stress.
I don't know where the poster works, but in most workplaces, boss-inflicted stress is caused by playing Minesweeper on the job. But then I suppose getting a pink slip is one sure way of never being stressed out by the boss ever again...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If you really and truly believe that, then you haven't worked for enough bosses.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
But then I suppose getting a pink slip is one sure way of never being stressed out by the boss ever again...
I think that if I received a pink slip from my boss (both of us being men), I'd be fairly disturbed, compounding my normal level of job-related stress.
Also, I would probably have a good case for a sexual harassment charge.
Any distraction (Score:3, Interesting)
can be very therapeutic. The trick is to be able to regulate just how distracted you become. It's not going to help some one if they have PTSD and then get hooked on Tetris to the point where you can't live without it. Yes, that is an extreme.
My point is actually that Tetris is just the distraction and you can probably get similar results with any sort of simple mind stimulating puzzle like sudoku. Heck, I'm willing to bet any video game would help as long as, say, your PTSD was triggered by almost getting run down by six 18-wheelers and you sit down for a session of Big Mutha Truckers [wikipedia.org]. Course... if you don't have PTSD before playing that game you will after the fact...
Takes over my brain (Score:2, Funny)
Flowers are the new Mines (Score:2)
Dunno, I find that game to be a stress-inducing process in and of itself. I wouldn't be lining up to recommend it to PTSD patients either for obvious reasons (even though in Vista you can optionally swap them out for flowers [shellrevealed.com].
This has worked (somewhat) for me (Score:2, Interesting)
Last year I was in an airport waiting for a delayed flight during a kidney stone attack. I bought Internet access at through Boingo for the day and it helped me get through the attack.
Maybe just getting your mind off things would
And Internet Porn? (Score:2)
As a control, the researchers should have given another test group access to an "Internet full of Porn" (IFOP).
If you RTFA, the researchers showed "distressing pictures" to the subjects, and then they played Tetris. Afterward, they had little memory of the "distressing pictures".
They should do this again, but instead of playing Tetris, let them surf the IFOP.
Afterward, they will have NO memory of the "distressing pictures".
Tetris Payout (Score:3, Interesting)
Tetris was especially good to me back in the late 1980s when I was at university at Sheffield in the UK. There were a few Tetris Payout machines around the city that could hold up to £60 of cash.
The premise of this version was that you scored more points for lines cleared higher up the screen and you had to get as many points as possible in a fixed time limit. The payout was based on how many points you got on a sliding scale. As I recall the maximum payout was £12.
The engineers who built the machine programmed it to get easier each time you failed to win money in a game and it got harder each time you did win. They made a mistake though because a good enough Tetris player could beat the machine on its hardest setting.
There were about 3 or 4 students in the town that could empty these machines. Amazingly at the Student Union bar they came around once a week and filled the machine with cash. Those of us that could empty the machine would race to get to the machine first in order to empty it!
I kept records of what I made and it was over £1000 which is not a lot of money now but it bought a lot of beer for me when I was 19 years old and skint! And I still managed to find enough time to get a degree!
Eventually these machines disappeared no doubt because the people in charge realised that the only people making money were the people playing them!
Minesweeper? (Score:2)
Between Minesweeper [youtube.com] and Tetris [youtube.com], I can see why Tetris helps with Post Traumatic Stress better than Minesweeper.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
QuantumG, you didn't have to post anonymous. We all know it was you, you self-promoting hack!
Now...prepare to be destroyed!
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly, I have to admit that I have also written Tetris in Javascript. (And in BASIC – twice, and once in 80x86 assembly – which I managed to lose the source code for, blast it!)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sincerely,
The uncle that raped you when you were four years old
Re:So is a big dick up your ass (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe you didn't notice, but his name is a keyboard cipher of "Troll".
Parent
Re:So is a big dick up your ass (Score:4, Funny)
You just got Reikk-rolled.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Sure is, but what's the best weapon against OverpaidMan?
Re: (Score:2)
A good shareholder lawsuit.
Re:The page hasn't been slashdotted (Score:4, Funny)
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