Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
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Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#2Enjoyable article! I don't play NES Tetris so much but I do play Nullpomino. I only do the 40-line clear race. 38 seconds is my best so far but I'm a long way from the WR.
Holy cow, I just looked up the current record, and it was actually set today! MicroBlizz says in this video description (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUUKKuye24) that he finished a game in 20.28 seconds. It will be neat to see who is the first sub 20! (MicroBlizz or Lapsilap).
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#3Wow, the writing of this article is superb. I never quite got into the super competitiveness of gaming myself (for record breaking and etc) but the story alone has intrigued me as well as let me take a glance inside the lives of the players. I don't really know what else to say but the way the article is written was truly engaging.
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#4Just downloaded The Magazine app. This is the kind of stuff I love to read.
That sly Marco may have another hit on his hands.
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#5I did ten years of work. I'm in a CIA prison. A job would be a CIA joke. Fuck them and die! God's gonaa FUCK YOU UP!
gOD SAYS... C:\Text\BIBLE.TXT
fill to her double.
18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and l
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#6When I play too much tetris I start thinking about the blocks all the time and find it maddening. I wonder if these guys can ever stop thinking about the blocks or if it just becomes so hard-wired in their brain that they lose consciousness of it.
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#7Wow, the writing of this article is superb. I never quite got into the super competitiveness of gaming myself (for record breaking and etc) but the story alone has intrigued me as well as let me take a glance inside the lives of the players. I don't really know what else to say but the way the article is written was truly engaging.
Thank you! Writing the article, I was struck by a few constant themes: everyone in this community is VERY NICE, they are VERY COMPETITIVE, and the game is BRUTAL. The game itself is punishingly hard.
To me, the central revelation was that the game was so fatalistic that only nice people could survive it. And when those people get together to play each other, it's a huge party. I wanted to tell a human story about people who just happen to be extremely good at Tetris.
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#8Enjoyable article! I don't play NES Tetris so much but I do play Nullpomino. I only do the 40-line clear race. 38 seconds is my best so far but I'm a long way from the WR. Holy cow, I just looked up the current record, and it was actually set today! MicroBlizz says in this video description ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUUKKuye24 ) that he finished a game in 20.28 seconds. It will be neat to see who is the first…
Hi Xcelerate,
I understand you're in the "Tetris world". I'm also interested in starting to play Tetris more seriously, but am not sure where on the internet all the Tetris people hang out. Got any pointers for me?
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#9When I play too much tetris I start thinking about the blocks all the time and find it maddening. I wonder if these guys can ever stop thinking about the blocks or if it just becomes so hard-wired in their brain that they lose consciousness of it.
There is a well documented thing called the Tetris Effect, where you see the blocks in dreams or when your eyes close. There's been some neuro research on it. When I asked these guys about it, they said they got past it after a while. They all say, yes, I have experienced Tetris Effect stuff, but at some point the brain seems to filter it out.
My impression is that these players are spending a lot of their conscious energy on the next-piece box, constructing the stack, and just staying calm. I think the majority of what they're doing is near instinct at this point, since they play so much, they just kinda "know" the right move for any given situation. Or at least, most of them. A max out game is a combination of random luck and extreme skill/practice.
The documentary "Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters" (steaming free on Hulu) has more on all of this. Disclosure: I wrote parts of that film. Ben Mullen is one of the main subjects of the film.
Re: Playing to Lose: How Competitive Tetris Players Approach An Unwinnable Game
#10Enjoyable article! I don't play NES Tetris so much but I do play Nullpomino. I only do the 40-line clear race. 38 seconds is my best so far but I'm a long way from the WR. Holy cow, I just looked up the current record, and it was actually set today! MicroBlizz says in this video description ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUUKKuye24 ) that he finished a game in 20.28 seconds. It will be neat to see who is the first…
Hi Xcelerate, I understand you're in the "Tetris world". I'm also interested in starting to play Tetris more seriously, but am not sure where on the internet all the Tetris people hang out. Got any pointers for me?
Check out TetrisConcept and Hard Drop.