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{{trope|wppage=Tetris effect}}
[[File:
{{quote|''The game is on, and you have gone''
''Gone to a world on its display''
''And the game is fun, but when it has won''
''All you ever hear is what it says''
|[[Helloween]], ''The Game is On''}}
You've been playing a game for so long that you start seeing it everywhere outside the game.
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The game follows you. Every time you stop playing, you feel like you still have some pending business. You're seeing passwords in your Alpha-Bits. You try to power-slide on the drive to class. Clouds are looking suspiciously like troop formations to you. You may even begin to dream about tetris blocks and playing cards. The game is the only thing you can think about, even, and especially when you should be concentrating on other things.
Don't feel bad. It's happened to the best of us. '''[[wikipedia:Tetris effect|The Tetris Effect]]
An amusing variant can occur if you've got ''two'' such intrusive games (or two characters in the same
Extreme cases lead players to say: "[[I Know Mortal Kombat]]!".
There are as many examples as there are
This effect is likely due to the process your brain is thought to undergo when learning a new skill through repetition. In order to separate the 'noise' of non-repeating activities from the 'signal' of activities which will need to be performed frequently, and should thus be optimized for recall and performance (within procedural memory/Muscle Memory), the brain relies upon consistent manual repetition of an activity to identify the activity as a candidate for optimization (thus, 'practice makes perfect'). During this process, activity in the brain of the same sort generated by the undertaking of the activity is observable, as the brain undertakes to optimize the patterns of behaviour within the given activity. This can result in the sometimes distracting and disconcerting organization of other aspects of Real Life according to the patterns of a game skill in the process of being optimized - and thus, the specific symptoms of
This trope can drive one to insanity, ''especially'' when combined with [[Ear Worm|the game music also being stuck in your head]].
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{{examples}}
==
* In the manga version of ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'', insane [[Neat Freak]] Chiri's spring cleaning ultimately indulges in this trope. She becomes obsessed with filling dead space and starts stacking objects and people like blocks. Harumi comments that Chiri was always good at ''[[Tetris]]''.
* By [[Quino]]: [http://stuartngbooks.com/images/detailed/18/quino_dejenme_1.jpg Ever wondered how would life be for the guy who draws the sound effects in comics?]
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Psycho]]''. Showers.
* ''[[Jaws]]''. Beaches
* Many movie goers who saw ''[[It Follows]]'' spent weeks afterwards making sure nothing was following them. The movie was ''that'' creepy.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s book ''Smoke & Mirrors'', a collection of his more obscure short stories, is a narrative poem called ''Virus''. It's only two pages long, but describes the speaker finding a computer game that consumes his entire life. One of the first signs that things have gone wrong is when he realizes he's playing the game in his head whenever he closes his eyes and seeing elements from it everywhere.
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Only You Can Save Mankind]]'', Johnny experiences this early in the second chapter where he dreams that he's inside the eponymous video game, and recognises the experience from a previous game he played. {{spoiler|This time, however, he actually is.}}
* In [[Christopher Brookmyre]]'s ''[[A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away]]'', Raymond Ash has just survived an assassination attempt by diving into a river. The next chapter featuring him opens with him making his way towards a ladder out of the water... and he hears the sound of a [[Quake|quad-damage powerup]], and now his attackers are carrying railguns instead of handguns. He wakes up, realises that he'd conflated the events of the previous night with a computer game, and [[Discussed Trope|recalls the times when he was playing another game, would spot a fire extinguisher or barrel and automatically think "switch to melee" to blow his way into the next room]].
* In the [[Psych]] novel ''Mind-Altering Murder'' this is why {{spoiler|Macklin Tanner went into hiding. He got so into his virtual-reality game ''Criminal Genius'' that he killed Walon O'Malley in a hit and run, trying to earn extra points. He immediately regretted it, destroyed the car he had used, and stayed among the homeless to punish himself.}}
* In [[Beverly Cleary]]'s book "Strider", Leigh, the narrator, has a job sweeping floors. He says he feels like he can see the floors' tile pattern in his sleep.
* In the first chapter of ''[[Don Quixote]]'', we see that Alonso Quixano, a [[Impoverished Patrician]] with way too much time at his hands, is a [[Fan Boy]] of [[Chivalric Romance]] books, then he evolutions as to be [[Fan Dumb]], then he wants to write a Fanfiction about ''The tale of Don Belianis of Greece:'', but he insteads decide to change drastically his life by [[Ascended Fanboy|becoming a]] [[Knight Errant]] changing his name to Don Quixote.
* The book ''Math Curse'' by Jon Scieszka has a teacher tell her class that almost anything can be thought of as a math problem. One girl in the class begins to see math problems in everything, even something as simple as a trip to the store.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* One part of a ''[[Drake and Josh]]'' episode in which Josh had to spend several days without playing video games showed him imagining his teacher as the [[Damsel in Distress]] in a [[Save the Princess]] game.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[GURPS]] players often start statting random everyday items, because they can. Similarly, almost every GURPS player has tried making a character sheet for their real-life self.
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]]'' or SPECIAL games have been known to make people think in terms of stats, perks, etc. D&D alignments are especially dangerous: see tropes like [[Lawful Stupid]] for illustrated examples.
** This has reached far enough that the first thing many authors do is figure out what a characters alignment would be in D&D
* [[Mekton]] players on the Mekton Zeta Mailing List have drawn up stats for most anime mecha, most real military vehicles and even stats for Tupperware.
== Video Games ==
=== 4X ===
* ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] II'': referenced in one notable [[Let's Play]] that crossed this over with [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] and [[The All
{{quote|It's my answer to everything. How did I try to mend relations with the Terrans? I destroyed a sun. How did I vanquish the Dread Lords? I destroyed their sun. How did I tackle the volatile Drengin? Destroyed all their suns. Drath relations dodgy? Gear up to destroy some suns.
It was spreading to real life, too. Deputy Editor Tim called just now to ask how this diary was coming along, and all I could say was "It's taking a while. Couldn't we just destroy the sun?" }}
=== Driving Game ===
* Try to avoid driving immediately after playing ''[[Mario Kart]]''. It's not just the temptation to shoot Koopa shells at passing cars that you should be worried about...
** Immediately, heck, if you've ever played ''Super Mario Kart'', when driving a motorized vehicle you need to keep in mind at all times that you don't actually have a jump button.
* ''[[F-Zero]] GX'' has your racer regularly going at speeds greater than 1000 km/h. And the game allows you to put it in a first-person perspective and is compatible with a gaming wheel and pedals. Any speed less than 70 mph is going to seem ridiculously slow if you just got done playing an hour or two of the game.
=== First Person Shooter ===
* ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'' and ''[[Doom]]'' made older games feel the urge to ''strafe'' around real-world corners.
* Play ''[[Call of Duty|Modern Warfare 2]]'' and be scared shitless whenever you hear a plane in fear that it's a Harrier, or start diving into cover whenever you hear a low series of metallic clinks because you think that the grenade proximity alarm has gone off.
* How many ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' players steer clear of the sound of crying, and twitch when they hear a cough or see someone wearing a hoodie?
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* One could argue that any FPS genre game (any WASD key game in general, actually) will forever alter your hand's natural position on the keyboard.
* Playing ''The Darkness'' for very long will have you scanning your surroundings for light sources everywhere you go, just try to remember not to break all of them
=== Puzzle Game ===
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=== Rhythm Game ===
* If you play ''[[Beatmania]]'', ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'', ''[[Pump It Up]]'', ''[[Guitar Hero]]'', ''[[Rock Band]]'', or the like for long enough, listening to music on the radio will start to evoke a picture of a note track, not to mention moving your fingers (or feet) like you're playing the song you're listening to on an invisible controller. [[
** Related is an effect called "velocitization" that players of games with note tracks scrolling toward the player (''Frequency'', ''Amplitude'', ''Guitar Hero'', ''Rock Band'') will notice after playing a song. After looking at the same spot, watching the notes scrolling towards you, for a few minutes then suddenly looking away, you'll notice your perspective seems to warp at the new spot you're staring at. It's not exactly the same thing but a more short-term phenomenon of your eyes themselves adjusting to constant movement in a certain dimension. When you look at a surface that isn't moving towards you, your eyes still try to compensate for the previous situation, leading to the feeling that it is in fact moving/warping ''away'' from you.
** Scantron test sheets have been compared to ''Guitar Hero'' solos because they have 5 slots for an answer corresponding to the five buttons in ''Guitar Hero'', and only one is filled in. There is a [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21071699792 Facebook group] dedicated to this phenomenon.
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** Any rhythm game with a touch interface will make you compulsively tap to pretty much anything. One ''[[Bemani|jubeat]]'' player [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8FArASfPlM demonstrates] using his calculator.
* Go play ''[[Rhythm Heaven]]'', get a "perfect" on one of the minigames, and then listen to the minigames song by itself. Needless to say, you'll likely be imitating the movements that you do in the game!
=== Roguelike ===
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' is notorious for causing people to start dreaming in ASCII.<ref>Although, technically, the game's standard display is [[CP 437]], not ASCII.</ref>
* After playing ''[[Diablo 2]]'' (especially with friends who quickly grab everything), you will start to hear the "ding" noise that happens whenever a jewel/rune drops.
=== Role Playing Game ===
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* When meeting up with friends, it's common for some people to remark that their friend has just [[Joined Your Party|joined the party]].
* Many MUD players (including this troper) have reported dreaming in text.
* Playing ''[[Fallout 4]]'' enough will make you begin seeing a dialogue menu when talking to people in real life as well as thinking about how people around you “liked/disliked that” when you say or do things around them. Not to mention seeing that it might rain and thinking it might “Rad Rain” (rain radioactive material).
=== Survival Horror ===
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** ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' players get jolly nervous when they hear the sound of a chainsaw...
** ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'': scrape...scrape...scrape...
***
* ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' ... one word: Anus Cakes.
** If you take the time to learn the insane scrawls left all over the game (the cypher is hidden on a viewscreen of the Ishimura), you will eventually try to decypher spraypaint writings left by graffiti artists.
* ''[[Amnesia: The Dark Descent|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]'' players probably avoided water for quite some time. And pretty much everything else that could make a sound. Loud crashing noises were the worst.
=== Turn Based Tactics ===
* From the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110907024645/http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/xcomufodefense/review.html review] for ''[[X-COM]]: UFO Defense'' on Gamespot:
{{quote|Finally, I finished my first game, and proceeded to stumble about for weeks after, having paranoid delusions that aliens really were invading Earth, cautiously looking for a flashing red "enemy in sight" warning in my peripheral vision.}}
=== Visual Novels ===
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* Try playing any ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' game for a few hours then get into an argument with someone without shouting '''''{{color|red|Objection!}}'''''...
** And even then, try not to point while shouting. Good luck!
=== Wide Open Sandbox ===
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** Play or watch the game for half an hour. ''You will never take the real meaning of the word "creeper" seriously again, trust me''.
* Playing ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' for extended periods of time may make one thirst for that extra boost, and start eyeballing power boxes, lamp posts, and even possibly cars.
* Specialise in Alchemy in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV:
** And feel the urge to eat them in order to discover such effects.
=== Miscellaneous Games ===
* ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'' strikes in [http://xkcd.com/161/ this] ''[[Xkcd]]''. The game builds so much momentum with its "always roll forward" pressure that the character starts to see objects on the sidewalk as potential things to make into stars or planets or whatever. Bonus [[Ear Worm]] for "Na naaaa na-na na-na na na naaaa..."
* ''[[Heavy Rain]]''. Every time your character does anything short of walking there'll be symbols floating in the air to follow. Soon anything you do can be accompanied with an imagined symbol telling you which direction to press.
** Turning a door handle will suddenly seem ''challenging.''
* Stealth games like ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'', ''[[Metal Gear]]'', and ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' may have you studying your environment in search of the best spots to hide, plant mines or gently push people.
** The first game (if wearing a hoodie) has a tendency to make one walk slower and bow your head when you don't want to be noticed.
* ''[[Touhou]]'' players may hear a "grazing" sound every time they brush up against something.
** Experienced Touhou players should also avoid listening to the soundtrack while driving. Heavy traffic is NOT an opportunity to display your ability to weave between tight spaces, no matter how small you think your hit box is.
** The classic variety also applies. Get ready to see [[Bullet Hell|beautiful patterns of bullets dance behind your eyelids]].
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' players may see imaginary arrows marking their pathway every time they walk somewhere. It ''does not help'' that most sidewalks already have the squares right there in front of you.
* ''Rodent's Revenge'' Good luck typing properly after a few HOURS of this game.
* FUCKING SOLITAIRE. 'Nuff said.
** Pretty much any game that's been part of a Windows game pack (Rattler Race; Rodent's Revenge; fucking solitaire; Galactic Pinball; etc...).
** Depending on whether you fought or embraced your addiction to these games, you're either pissed or relieved that most of them are not part of the more recent Windows gamepacks.
* Try getting a high score on any given [[Wario Ware]] microgame, especially the ones from Mega Micro Games$! Watch your score climb, and the beats just get faster and faster, and the "da da DA" sound get more frantic every time... then leave, do something calm, and the frantic pace STAYS with you.
* Playing [[Pong]] for long periods of time will often result in players trying to bounce small objects back and forth.
* You know you've played too much Shenmue when QTEs begin to pop up IRL, whether it be in fights or doing menial tasks.
* Play ''[[Among Us]]'' enough and you will see [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/things-that-look-like-among-us-crewmates Things That Look Like Among Us Crewmates] eveywhere.
* From [[Scott McCloud]]'s ''[http://scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/chess/chess.html My Obsession With Chess]'':
{{quote|My brain was being rewired. I began to see diagonal lines of force emanating out of the corners of any orthogonal pattern such as the tiles of a floor or the legs of a chair.}}
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* ''[[Homestuck]]'': The official forums have threads full of people talking about what the webcomic has made them do, including more than a few mentions of attempting to captchalogue items and jumping at the sound of [[Hell Is That Noise|bicycle horn honks.]]
* The ''[[Cracked.com]]'' article [http://www.cracked.com/blog/when-video-games-get-stuck-in-your-head/ "When Video Games Get Stuck In Your Head"] is a short story about the effect of too much ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130529005137/http://bash.org/?42949 This] [[QDB]] quote.
* [[This Very Wiki|This wiki]]. To the point where we have [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|two]] [[All the Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary|tropes]] dedicated to the phenomenon.
* ''[[Doug]]'' got a [[Bland-Name Product|Super Pretendo]]. When local bully [[Jerkass|Roger Klotz]] bothered him in class, he imagined his game's targeting system locking on.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' did this once, when the family buys too much stuff at a yard sale, and Homer goes through a Tetris sequence to fit everything inside the car... except himself.
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* Watch enough ''[[Transformers]]'' and you could find yourself visualizing what every vehicle or household appliance would look like if it spontaneously turned into a robot.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* This is not limited to gaming. If you've ever had a repetitive job that involves working with large quantities of the same kind of object all day long, you probably dreamed about them on the night after your first day.
** Try working a job that has you answering the phone a lot. Ever answer your phone at home with the name of the company you work for?
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** Off duty taxi drivers will sometimes look for the meter if they are driving their friend in their regular, non-taxi car.
* People who grew up (or spent a substantial part of their lives) during the period when films, and later television, were in black-and-white had a tendency to dream that way. For years it was assumed that some (non-colorblind) people just naturally didn't dream in color, or at least not exclusively... until sleep studies performed on people who were born after color TV proved otherwise.
* The name of the now-defunct programming forum
* The Tetris effect is so strong, that people with short-term memory loss can experience the effect, despite not remembering even playing the game.
** Better than that. It showed scientists that humans have a secondary type of memory. So Tetris actually helped advance science.
* Professional copyeditors and proofreaders are usually among the most thorough and unrelenting [[Grammar Nazi
* There's a story, probably a legend, of a 40 year Marine Veteran with Alzheimer's who only responded to a few commands from the Marine Drill manual.
* Spend a few days on a [[LEGO]] project and try not to see the blocks on the insides of your eyelids.
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* Watching films or playing games of any genre will likely get you thinking about your life in terms of the same cliches, though it's advisable to retain a sense of the distinction between reality and fiction.
* Unfortunately, this is actually a big problem in the military. Many battle-trained soldiers must undergo "deprogramming" to get the "anything could be out to kill me" mindset out of their heads, among other ideas that are useful in a war zone, but not conducive to civilian life. When it gets too bad and they will never be the same, they call it PTSD.
* If you watch too much ''[[My Little Pony:
* When discussing something with somebody you know [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|you might just start pointing out recurrent tropes by name without realizing it.]]
* After spending quite a bit of time on any graphic design or art program (such as Photoshop or Blender), it's difficult not to start looking at the lines on the roads or various architecture and think, "Now how would I make that in [the program]?"
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Videogame Culture]]
[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tetris Effect, The}}
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