TGM players: How do you explain your addiction to non-TGM players?

[Ray Ayanami]

I'm sure we've all heard snarky/derogatory/ignorant comments about us and our TGM addictions:
- "Dude, how can you do that? You'll never be good as Japanese TGM players."
- "You take Tetris too seriously. You need a life."
- "What? You don't like Game Boy Tetris? BLASPHEMY!"
- "Tetris DS is awesome. Infinity? SRS? What the fuck are you talking about?"
- "Dude, it's just Tetris."

So, how do you all go about countering all of this? How do you explain why you play TGM to the level that fighter fans, MMO fans, shmup fans, rhythm game fans, etc play their games when all you're playing is "just Tetris"? Or why you pick TGM over any other version of Tetris? All without sounding like "some freak with no life"?

[Caithness]

Most people I talk to about it in person are fairly receptive. Probably they're just being polite and are actually thinking some or all of those things, though. I tend to assume that anybody on the internet doesn't care about what kind of games I like to play, so I don't often bother talking about it.

As for what I actually, say, usually it's along the lines of ARS requiring more strategy and therefore being more fun at high speeds. People can generally be relied upon to agree that infinite spin is BS.

[Ray Ayanami]

But then comes this dilemma: why ARS, if it's more limiting than SRS? There are Ti players who would rather play so-bad-it's-horrible games than use ARS.

[an ass]

"Holy shit how the hell do you handle it going that fast?"
"I wanna try that!"
"You're insane!"

People's reactions to the game have been mostly positive, in my case.

[Kitaru]

But then comes this dilemma: why ARS, if it's more limiting than SRS? There are Ti players who would rather play so-bad-it's-horrible games than use ARS.

It handles better under high speeds, and some would argue it is more fun for them even though it is more challenging. I'm sure there is some sort of car analogy here. Something like: Driving some souped-up car with a stick shift might have a bit of a learning curve, but it is a blast once you get the hang of it.

SRS has one core area where it excels -- low gravity finesse. ARS is simply more elegant overall.

ITT sub-mission: Create good analogies I can throw out at people when they ask about TGM.

[Ray Ayanami]

"Holy shit how the hell do you handle it going that fast?"
"I wanna try that!"
"You're insane!"

People's reactions to the game have been mostly positive, in my case.
Even those comments bug me. They're like "wow you're like not human i'm 100% incapcable of that" and I'm like "dude this shit's possible you just need practice." I guess grandmasters are really born and not made then. =/

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

I'm sure we've all heard snarky/derogatory/ignorant comments about us and our TGM addictions:
- "Dude, how can you do that? You'll never be good as Japanese TGM players."
- "You take Tetris too seriously. You need a life."
- "What? You don't like Game Boy Tetris? BLASPHEMY!"
- "Tetris DS is awesome. Infinity? SRS? What the fuck are you talking about?"
- "Dude, it's just Tetris."

So, how do you all go about countering all of this? How do you explain why you play TGM to the level that fighter fans, MMO fans, shmup fans, rhythm game fans, etc play their games when all you're playing is "just Tetris"? Or why you pick TGM over any other version of Tetris? All without sounding like "some freak with no life"?

If someone think i'm "some freak with no life", either there isn't anything that can be said to them, or trying to find out what to say isn't worth my time.

also how can tetris be less interesting than games like bejeweled -____-

Interestingly enough, it's different with speedcubing because you get people who go "OMG you're so smart you're a genius!" but you have to reply "no, I'm actually just applying memorized algorithms and I don't even have to think about it at all..."

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

Even those comments bug me. They're like "wow you're like not human i'm 100% incapcable of that" and I'm like "dude this shit's possible you just need practice." I guess grandmasters are really born and not made then. =/

truth

[Kitaru]

Interestingly enough, it's different with speedcubing because you get people who go "OMG you're so smart you're a genius!" but you have to reply "no, I'm actually just applying memorized algorithms and I don't even have to think about it at all..."
I think it comes down to preconceived notions there. I'm sure plenty of people have tried to solve a Rubik's Cube and have given up because it feels impossibly hard. On the other hand, a lot of people have played a few of the widely popular variations of Tetris -- GB, NES, Microsoft, what have you -- and have some notion of how deep it could possibly be based on how accessible it was for them. Since they were able to play it, relax, and not take it seriously, it must not be all that deep.

Even those comments bug me. They're like "wow you're like not human i'm 100% incapcable of that" and I'm like "dude this shit's possible you just need practice." I guess grandmasters are really born and not made then. =/
I feel like I was certainly _made_ into a GrandMaster over the years. I've always been playing Tetris -- I got a GameBoy and my first copy of Tetris when I was probably 3 years old -- but it took a while for me to develop the interest for it that I have now. I had a bit of a phase with TGM when I was 12 on account of one of those superplay videos, -- "Japan Finals," if I recall correctly -- but it wouldn't hook me back in again until I was 16 and tired of TDS's dull 20G. (I don't think my computer back when I was 12 could emulate TGM1 fullspeed... Maybe that had something to do with it, hahaha.)

[Amnesia]

I prefer having the knowledge and let people in their ignorance..The world always worked like this..

[colour_thief]

"generally positive" +1
I might even upgrade that to always positive. I can't remember get a comment that annoyed me. I once got "Oh my god, I will never play tetris again." I guess that one made me slightly sad. Maybe it's the age group you are in? But I started playing my first year of university... That said I didn't hang out with gamers much.

But then comes this dilemma: why ARS, if it's more limiting than SRS? There are Ti players who would rather play so-bad-it's-horrible games than use ARS.

You're expecting too much if you think you can express this meaningfully to a non tetris player. Just say something like "Well imagine how boring chess would be if every piece moved like the queen? It's kind of like that."

[muf]

I've pretty much always had positive reactions. Sometimes people would play the "no-life" card in an inquiring manner, by asking stuff like "don't you need to like play it all day to get good at this?" and I'd just answer that with a few set goals you can get "as good as this" by playing just a few days a week.

If the topic decided to turn towards guideline games, I could generally brush it off just by saying that I do sometimes play them but the game is pretty much ruined by the fact that gameplay, even for the PC and console titles, is optimised for cellphones and that there's really no challenge. Either that or I demonstrate infinite spin (bonus points for getting an I piece and also showing off the absurd SRS rotation states and wallkicks).

If my conversation partner is really interested (a few of my friends are), I'll go the length of explaining cool stuff like IRS, IHS, and finesse. Most of the time it's either "wow that would be really cool if I were into Tetris, but I'm not", or "gee, I'll want to play that sometime".

Maybe you're hanging out with the wrong people, Ray?

[cyberguile]

when it comes to "get a life", I start to talk about my life and then ask "what about you", to which I generally don't get an answer considering most people that tend to ask this kind of question did so few things I did in my life.
then, talking about "why do you play tetris", I answer "why do you watch tv/do sport/go to parties/etc etc etc ? because you like it. I play tetris because I like it"
then, to people who play a lot video games "why tetris specifically ? because it's a non ending challenge in which you are your own challenger"
at last, to people who play a lot other tetris "why tgm ? well, because it's da best :p "

[Amnesia]

The son of the sister of NoTGhost (don't know the english word), I am his uncle, anyway..
He is 9 years old..He told to some young children in his school that his uncle was a great player of Tetris, and they replied : "oh tetris ! that is a game for gay people.."

I abandonned a while ago to attempt explanations to people..They are completely undoctrinated by the gameboy concept of tetris which is, one of the worst existing tetris game today..I am bored, I know that TGM is the deepest and hardest game of the planet, and I don't need to convince people to be happy with myself.

[Zircean]

I tend to find people giving similar comments to what an_ass said... nobody's really told me I've got no life because of Tetris, and if anyone does ask about "How do you get that good?" the answer is generally something like "Practice... the game's difficulty makes you step it up pretty fast".

And if someone asks why, then like cyberguile said, it's because it's fun.

Also Amnesia, the word you're looking for is "nephew".

[KevinDDR]

I've kind of given up on explaining it. People will always just think of me as a freak who plays Tetris way too much, and I can explain and explain but it won't change my personality or even my appearance. My best friends understand the parallels between my personality and the gameplay of TGM, but everyone else is totally lost. To those people, I just say that TGM is hands down the most skillful and best video game ever created.

[Caithness]

It handles better under high speeds, and some would argue it is more fun for them because it is more challenging.

Fixed that for you.

[orz]

hey kevin don't sell dm games, shmups, starcraft, and fighters short

[DeHackEd]

I've never had to explain the difference between ARS and SRS, but infinite spin's shown up a few times.

Caithness has it dead right: We play the TGM games because they're challenging. I'm getting excellent rates for GM in TGM1, but I still have to work for it and I don't think that'll ever change. Out of ~10 TGM modes, I've clearly only 5 of them, and that includes Doubles and a Master2 clear without a GM. Where's the fun if there's no effort involved in conquering it?

[Rosti LFC]

People will always just think of me as a freak who plays Tetris way too much

I wouldn't limit that to just non-TGM players :awe:

[COL]

I don't have to explain anything. I show the game/vids to people and they are amazed. If they want to get into it they will eventually play it and get stucked (it has actually happened). Otherwise they don't play but what's the matter? I don't think it is necessary toinvolve people who aren't genuinly interested in the game.

[Ai]

There's nothing to explain really. We just play these games because we enjoy playing them pure and simple. Like most I'm attracked to the game because of the challenge. People who play seriously and frequently will eventually get better given enough time. I'm certain we'll have a lot more extremely skilled Western players in a few years.

Friends who have seen me playing think I'm amazing, but I'm quick to show them videos of the truly amazing people.

I was once told there were more useful things to spend my time on. Truth is that everyone is doing at least a few things that would be considered time wasting by others. So I don't care about that. ^^

[PetitPrince]

I usually don't explain why I play TGM so much. I usually go with "Yup, that's actually human. Lot of training, but human.". But then I study in one of the most geeky place in the planet (EPFL (http://www.epfl.ch/)), so having an elite Tetris player is not a surprise amongst those mad scientists :) . But if I wanted to explain it in details, it would have the following points:


Tetris is elegant. "Easy to learn, hard to master" as they say.
Tetris (and most of TGM clones) doesn't require an hepta-core-from-the-computing-hell to run, so I can play it wherever I like.
Tetris has a near-infinity replayability (2x10^60 possible playfield, more than the number of oxygen atom in the whole universe).
TGM makes Tetris more elegant and prevent it from being boring.
TGM is never unfair, or at least tries to(*): it has an unpredictable yet regular randomizer, consistent and logical rotations(**) and there is no brusque acceleration that would takes the player by surprise nor unsurmountable wall that would kill an unaware beginner.
There's a grading system that gives a very paplable ranking amongst the players ("I'm S4" is infinitely more intuitive than "I finished the 1st section in less than fifty seconds), effectively giving them the will to continue and improve. Reaching a new grade is a very, very satisfying feeling.
Warning: may sound even more geeky than intended. Tetris enables me to enter into flow state / "the zone" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_state). That's not my only way to enter it (I felt it in karate, iaido (!) and I'm pretty sure by doing some hard song in Guitar Hero), but that is nonetheless an pleasurable feeling.


(*) Murphy's axiom of Tetris: you will never ever get the right piece at the right moment
(**) well, at least on the wallkick part ; SRS' center-of-mass rotations is logical after all.