I turned to Tetris after my father died – then something strange started happening
I stumbled across Tetris after all other gaming sites had been blocked by our school, and a friend sent me a scrambled URL that bypassed the firewall. Desperate to do anything other than schoolwork, I started playing the stripped-back Tetris game relentlessly. I'd play in class. I'd play at home. I'd play while simultaneously watching movies and scrolling on my phone in the opposite hand.
After months, something changed. I started to notice cubic patterns everywhere. I'd organise my desk so that the pencils lined up with the edge of my laptop. I'd be distracted in conversation, picturing how I could throw a Ritz cracker to land perfectly between the other person's lips. The two-bit music started running constantly in my head. Everything became squares tumbling towards the earth.
Scared for my sanity, I quit cold turkey.
The rudimentary, hyper-coloured video game was invented by a Soviet software engineer in 1985. It soon swept over the globe, and through myriad iterations, it is today considered the best-selling video game franchise of all-time, with more than 1 billion people estimated to have rotated the plummeting blocks.
World championships are held annually, but it wasn't until 2023 that the first person finally 'finished' the game – a 13-year-old in his Oklahoma bedroom.
Years after my addiction began, I came across the Tetris effect. What I experienced after gawking at falling squares all day happens to others, too. The real world can become Tetris. Researchers have studied what's called Game Transfer Phenomena and found that it's surprisingly common. It even cropped up in an episode of The Simpsons.
The phenomenon is characterised by sensory, perceptual and cognitive intrusions. It often involves involuntary hallucinations, recurring thoughts, and unique unexplainable behaviours, which can occur after playing almost any video game.
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I turned to Tetris after my father died – then something strange started happening
When I was 15, about the time my dad died, I became addicted to Tetris. I stumbled across Tetris after all other gaming sites had been blocked by our school, and a friend sent me a scrambled URL that bypassed the firewall. Desperate to do anything other than schoolwork, I started playing the stripped-back Tetris game relentlessly. I'd play in class. I'd play at home. I'd play while simultaneously watching movies and scrolling on my phone in the opposite hand. After months, something changed. I started to notice cubic patterns everywhere. I'd organise my desk so that the pencils lined up with the edge of my laptop. I'd be distracted in conversation, picturing how I could throw a Ritz cracker to land perfectly between the other person's lips. The two-bit music started running constantly in my head. Everything became squares tumbling towards the earth. Scared for my sanity, I quit cold turkey. The rudimentary, hyper-coloured video game was invented by a Soviet software engineer in 1985. It soon swept over the globe, and through myriad iterations, it is today considered the best-selling video game franchise of all-time, with more than 1 billion people estimated to have rotated the plummeting blocks. World championships are held annually, but it wasn't until 2023 that the first person finally 'finished' the game – a 13-year-old in his Oklahoma bedroom. Years after my addiction began, I came across the Tetris effect. What I experienced after gawking at falling squares all day happens to others, too. The real world can become Tetris. Researchers have studied what's called Game Transfer Phenomena and found that it's surprisingly common. It even cropped up in an episode of The Simpsons. The phenomenon is characterised by sensory, perceptual and cognitive intrusions. It often involves involuntary hallucinations, recurring thoughts, and unique unexplainable behaviours, which can occur after playing almost any video game.
The Age
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I turned to Tetris after my father died – then something strange started happening
When I was 15, about the time my dad died, I became addicted to Tetris. I stumbled across Tetris after all other gaming sites had been blocked by our school, and a friend sent me a scrambled URL that bypassed the firewall. Desperate to do anything other than schoolwork, I started playing the stripped-back Tetris game relentlessly. I'd play in class. I'd play at home. I'd play while simultaneously watching movies and scrolling on my phone in the opposite hand. After months, something changed. I started to notice cubic patterns everywhere. I'd organise my desk so that the pencils lined up with the edge of my laptop. I'd be distracted in conversation, picturing how I could throw a Ritz cracker to land perfectly between the other person's lips. The two-bit music started running constantly in my head. Everything became squares tumbling towards the earth. Scared for my sanity, I quit cold turkey. The rudimentary, hyper-coloured video game was invented by a Soviet software engineer in 1985. It soon swept over the globe, and through myriad iterations, it is today considered the best-selling video game franchise of all-time, with more than 1 billion people estimated to have rotated the plummeting blocks. World championships are held annually, but it wasn't until 2023 that the first person finally 'finished' the game – a 13-year-old in his Oklahoma bedroom. Years after my addiction began, I came across the Tetris effect. What I experienced after gawking at falling squares all day happens to others, too. The real world can become Tetris. Researchers have studied what's called Game Transfer Phenomena and found that it's surprisingly common. It even cropped up in an episode of The Simpsons. The phenomenon is characterised by sensory, perceptual and cognitive intrusions. It often involves involuntary hallucinations, recurring thoughts, and unique unexplainable behaviours, which can occur after playing almost any video game.
