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Playing Tetris Is Good For You
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:34 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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Firehose:Playing Tetris is good for you by Anonymous Coward
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What if the trauma (Score:5, Funny)
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: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.
Parent
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: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.
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...
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.
Parent
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.)
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:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
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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
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.
Parent
Re:Great! (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Great! (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:The page hasn't been slashdotted (Score:4, Funny)
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