SQSG Number 5! What game have you suffered the tetris effect from?

[Triscuitable]

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we've been very successful with the Serious Questions for Serious Gamers, and y'wanna know why?

I DID IT. I DID IT ALL AND YOU DID NOTHING AHAHAHA

But seriously, it was YOU GUYS AND NOT ME who helped this little weekly Q/A survive, and we're up to "level 5" now. Five weeks is pretty impressive, in my opinion. In fact, if you look at the first Serious Question, there are still posts about favorite glitches! How 'bout that? Nonetheless, you want a question, right? Well, I was thinking, and I thought "Hey! Gamers today LOVE their games that are memorable, and follow something like 'stack this on top of that' and 'shoot this guy but not that one'." But what happens when we take it to far?

Well, with Assassin's Creed, too much Animus time can lead to a bleeding effect, which causes the user of said Animus to see things he'd normally see in the Animus to be "visions" or "ghosts" in the real world. That's what the Tetris Effect is as well, it's when you start seeing a Call of Duty "RANK UP!" symbol, and hear a guitar riff when you run over a deer on the way to a fishing trip. (Okay, bad example.) When you see Guitar Hero notes scrolling down on the freeway? Nevermind, that's what this question is!

Have you ever suffered from the Tetris Effect, and what game caused it?

Or as an alternative, if you answered no:

Would you want to suffer the Tetris Effect? (It IS kind of cool.) If yes, what game would you want to cause it?

I'll post last weeks, and the week's before, and the week's before that results from the previous questions. Got a bit of catching up to do.

Well there you have it folks, another serious question! Oh shoot! I forget! My response!

I suffered the tetris effect from playing a bit too much Mirror's Edge. Seriously, that game is likely the biggest cause of it in the universe. Play that game, and you'll see every door as bright red, see a wall and think "I can run on this", etc. It's crazy. I may have suffered the effect from Fallout 3 as well, seeing my friends (and enemies) in V.A.T.S. kind of freaked me out a little.

AFTER ALL THAT, IF YOU STILL DON'T GET WHAT THE EFFECT IS, THIS IS A LINK TO THE TVTROPES PAGE FOR SAID ARTICLE. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheTetrisEffect?from=Main.TetrisEffect)

[Gamerlord]

TF2: Every now and then I see a glimpse of a RED scout in the corner of my eye.
L4D:Sometimes I see "X killed an insertzombiehere" in the corner of my eye.
Civ IV: When I played the game a lot in the old days I could sometimes hear Leonard Nimroy reading the tech quotes when I was falling asleep.
Dwarf Fortress/Nethack: I have had dreams in ASCII.
M&M World of Xeen: Whenever I see a minecart I hear "Where too?" in my head.

[Dogmantra]

Desert Bus.

The lines in the middle of the road look like little yellow men in bowler hats walking towards you. I saw them when I closed my eyes.

[Comet]

Puzzle Quest and Elite Beat Agents (or Ouendan) both seemed to do the trick for me. At least when I closed my eyes after a session of either game, I would see their respective objects flying and popping back and forth for quite a while before I could clear my head to get some much needed sleep.

Oh, and the music would get stuck in my head for added effect. In both cases.

I play neither of those games anymore. EBA/Ouendan I miss sometimes, Puzzle Quest not so much.

edit: I just remembered something that might qualify. Minor spoilers for F.E.A.R 2 and other weirdness:

Towards the end of the game, you have these scenes where Alma, the game's mascot psychopatic god psychic girl, materializes out of nowhere, runs up to you, grabs you by the neck and starts quite literally raping you to death.

I had just finished the game. Good game, not brilliant. Not even that scary, despite the above mentioned creepy stuff and several 'boo' moments.
It was about four in the morning, I was severely lacking in sleep. So I hit the hay.

Sleep paralysis, I believe the word is. When you feel like you're drifting between consciousness and nightmare and something is pushing you down and convincing your brain that every second of your life is going to be hell from that point onward. You can't move, you can't do anything but freak out.

So, it happens that my brain decides to combine sleep paralysis, which I never normally get, with vivid images of my last few hours of F.E.A.R 2. Which means that it was Alma pushing my sleep deprived, delirious self down. And it looked so very authentic, seeing as I had been staring at that face for the entire night on a computer screen before going to sleep.

I freak out, as any hero would, wake up and somehow shrug the paralysis off. At this point I'm awake and technically in control of myself, but I still feel the need to jump out of bed, take a few steps away from it and spin around in my little dark room in anticipation of the next attack.

A good few seconds passed until I realized what an idiot I was and went back to sleep.
I've never had anything like that before, and probably never will again. Still no idea what caused it, since I'm not prone to stress or insanely intense nightmares or anything like that in normal circumstances and the game in question isn't that scary. Bad luck, I suppose.

[Loki_42]

Actually, Assassin's Creed has done it for me. I've spent time plotting the best rooftop routes, and subconsciously make the blending sound when sitting on a bench or joining a crowd. Also Heavy Rain. Others do it too, but those are probably the most serious.

[Domochevsky]

Minecraft. I could totally mine that mofo. :smallcool:

[Mewtarthio]

After playing Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, I would find myself instinctively attempting to activate my night vision goggles after dark.

[ScottishDragon]

MW2: Every time I see a red light out of the corner of my eye I think it's a claymore.:smalltongue:

[Fri]

The first time I ever suffer from tetris effect was from Sunset Riders. You know that game? Wild west themed shooter on genesis, snes, and arcade? Sega genesis was my very first console (my family had an atari 2600 but it's more of my father's I guess) and sunset riders was one of my very first game cartridge besides street of rage. Oh, the time where 'you should only play for 30 minutes at once'...

So yeah, at that point I saw colored bullets flying around everytime I close my eyes.

If we're talking about pavlovian conditioning, Morrowind did that to me. I played that game non stop. I put the bgm into my mp3 player, and everytime the 'encounter' music plays my body tenses as I keep preparing to fend myself from wild rats or cliff racers.

[Triscuitable]

Desert Bus.

The lines in the middle of the road look like little yellow men in bowler hats walking towards you. I saw them when I closed my eyes.

Sounds like someone is a proud supporter of "Desert Bus For Hope"! I'm one as well. I donate maybe $10 every year.


The first time I ever suffer from tetris effect was from Sunset Riders. You know that game? Wild west themed shooter on genesis, snes, and arcade? Sega genesis was my very first console (my family had an atari 2600 but it's more of my father's I guess) and sunset riders was one of my very first game cartridge besides street of rage. Oh, the time where 'you should only play for 30 minutes at once'...

So yeah, at that point I saw colored bullets flying around everytime I close my eyes.

I'm quite familiar with it.


Actually, Assassin's Creed has done it for me. I've spent time plotting the best rooftop routes, and subconsciously make the blending sound when sitting on a bench or joining a crowd. Also Heavy Rain. Others do it too, but those are probably the most serious.

Same here pal. After playing AC1, I was so enthralled by the idea of parkour that I took it up. In fact, up here in Seattle, we have a competition going on right now about it. I tried out, but those guys are GOOD! They can hold a wall run for 3-4 steps! I can only do it for 2!

[psilontech]

Years ago when I was still in highschool I played way too much Grand Theft Auto (Doesn't matter which one, really). Walking home from school one day, I found myself instinctively moving my thumb to press 'R3' to look behind myself.

After playing too much Deus Ex, I was outside smoking one night, leaned against the corner of a building, while two people walked by me without noticing me. I was immediately relieved that I hadn't been spotted and my middle finger twitched to change my weapon to the Stun Rod and take them out before their patrol route had them facing towards me, alerting the more heavily armed guards.

Thankfully, I didn't beat them unconscious.:smalltongue:

[factotum]

I don't recall ever suffering from this while awake, although I *have* dreamed about video games before now. Can't say it's something I'd want to happen to me, to be honest--the real world is OK as it is!

[Dumbledore lives]

For a while whenever I saw rails or whatever I would think of Tony Hawk lines. I would also imagine Super Smash Bros. pretty much everywhere, jumping and fighting and whatever, it was probably unhealthy.

I have actually seen Tetris pieces falling when I closed my eyes, so there is that.

[The_Final_Stand]

Dwarf Fortress has caused me to dream in ASCII. It is somewhat terrifying.

[Winter_Wolf]

Need for Speed Underground 2. Now as you might imagine, having this happen with a game about car racing causes a possibility of increased run-ins with the Law via speed traps. Guilty. Got off with a warning, now I am Eagle Eye when it comes to looking out for patrol cars (and I keep it reasonably close to the speed limit now too!)

I have been known to play so much of SMAC/X that I can now play at least a partial game in my head when I'm bored or lying in bed trying to sleep. I think it says something about how predictable the AI is for that game that I can do that. Not sure if that's Tetris Effect or not though.

[Dogmantra]

Sounds like someone is a proud supporter of "Desert Bus For Hope"! I'm one as well. I donate maybe $10 every year.

Yeah, a few friends and I were inspired by Desert Bus for hope so we did our own miniature version. I think we raised about £120 in the end.

[Forbiddenwar]

Minecraft. I could totally mine that mofo. :smallcool:

Minecraft, I can't walk around in the dark anymore. Not with the leaves making a SSSS sounds

[Triscuitable]

Need for Speed Underground 2. Now as you might imagine, having this happen with a game about car racing causes a possibility of increased run-ins with the Law via speed traps. Guilty. Got off with a warning, now I am Eagle Eye when it comes to looking out for patrol cars (and I keep it reasonably close to the speed limit now too!)

I have been known to play so much of SMAC/X that I can now play at least a partial game in my head when I'm bored or lying in bed trying to sleep. I think it says something about how predictable the AI is for that game that I can do that. Not sure if that's Tetris Effect or not though.

Personally do me a favor and take that warning to heart. I've got a DeLorean I don't want wrecked. $20,000 is expensive enough.

[Eakin]

Need for Speed Underground 2. Now as you might imagine, having this happen with a game about car racing causes a possibility of increased run-ins with the Law via speed traps. Guilty. Got off with a warning, now I am Eagle Eye when it comes to looking out for patrol cars (and I keep it reasonably close to the speed limit now too!)

I have been known to play so much of SMAC/X that I can now play at least a partial game in my head when I'm bored or lying in bed trying to sleep. I think it says something about how predictable the AI is for that game that I can do that. Not sure if that's Tetris Effect or not though.


I see your need for speed and raise the burnout series. Everything feels slower after a long session, maybe because i've been white knuckle focused and usually hopped up on caffeine in an effort to boost my reflexes. I usually give myself an hour or so to come down from that before I'll drive a car anywhere

[RPharazon]

Neat story, when Rollercoaster Tycoon first came out, I played it before I went to school, after I went to school, and until I (sometimes literally) had to be dragged back to bed.

Now, combine this with a nasty head flu, and I actually started hallucinating that I was building pathways around my room. Vivid, full-on, colourful hallucinations. To the point where I was going insane because I thought that the supports would block my passage in the room, and to the point where I built ramps to get onto my bed. My parents were quite worried that day.

[Gadora]

Same answer as last question; NetHack. I had to give it up for a while after e-mail addresses started making me nervous. All those monsters ganging up on that poor @.

[Brother Oni]

Super Puyo-puyo.

After I first discovered the game, whenever I closed my eyes, I saw exploding bubbles.

[boj0]

Alright, which one of you works for GameFAQs? (http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4302)

Oh, and after an extended Morrowind session I started seeing dialogue options next to people I was talking to.

[Triaxx]

Fallout 3: GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! Seriously, I keep looking at people and seeing the VATS targetting grid pop up. Though it now has additional locations such as Eyes, Groin, and Boobies.

Any game with a lead indicator. The fact that I've always been able to do it naturally doesn't really help, but now I see the little indicator.

And if anyone knows how to make my health bar stop flashing I'd love to know. And no, standing still and not getting hit isn't helping.

[hajo]

LodeRunner: after playing for a while, then looking at some normal text, I could see those little men running around on the lines of text :smallamused:

[Triscuitable]

Fallout 3: GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! Seriously, I keep looking at people and seeing the VATS targetting grid pop up. Though it now has additional locations such as Eyes, Groin, and Boobies.

NO WAY! ME TOO! (I'm starting to believe this thread has shown I have severe limits when it comes to sanity.)

[shadow_archmagi]

Old school adventure games. Space Quest. King's Quest. Monkey Island.

My coat pocket has 3D glasses, a piece of string, a chess piece, and two mustard packets just in case. It isn't kleptomania, because it isn't about stealing EVERYTHING.

Just things that seem like they'll solve puzzles later on.

[Triscuitable]

Old school adventure games. Space Quest. King's Quest. Monkey Island.

My coat pocket has 3D glasses, a piece of string, a chess piece, and two mustard packets just in case. It isn't kleptomania, because it isn't about stealing EVERYTHING.

Just things that seem like they'll solve puzzles later on.

I keep a flag of human flesh in my messenger bag in case I need to remove a manhole cover and trampoline to the top of a shack.

[Weimann]

Surprisingly, I can't remember many times it's happened. However, when I was playing WoW the most, I could sometimes think "Oh, I'm going to miss the bus home. Is my hearthstone up?"

[TricksyAndFalse]

For me, it was Katamari Damaci. I played it for a couple hours, and when I next stepped outside, I was thinking I wasn't yet big enough for the cars on my street, but that some bushes and fence posts were the perfect size to roll up.

[potatocubed]

The first time it was UFO: Enemy Unknown. I'd keep seeing little flashing numbers in the corner of my vision and look around to see where the alien was. :smalleek:

Most recently, it was Puzzle Quest 2 - I'd have dreams about those coloured orbs, switching and matching, switching and matching...