I used to not like using the ghost piece (the feature in modern Tetris games that shows in advance where the piece is going to land) due to the fact that I considered it a crutch and that a "true" Tetris player would not need to use it. But in a heated battle I have a severe and extremely annoying tendency to misdrop, and the ghost piece helps fix that. However I've seen a lot of players faster and better than myself use it, and to get faster and better is going to require practice and skill whether you use the ghost piece or not, so I've come to the conclusion that there's no shame in using it whatsoever. What do you guys think?
Most of the people on this forum play either TGM, where it disappears 1/10th of the way through the game, or NES, which doesn't have it at all.
I've relied on it for the better part of the 9 years that I've been playing Tetris seriously. Only the last year or two when the ghost piece has been mostly invisible on my CRT in a sunlit room I've come to really start using my muscle memory from level 0 so that I don't need it any more. It's one of those things that you can train yourself to go without, but if it's there, why bother?
I find this is a "prejudice" I hear a lot among people who really aren't deep into Tetris. Sure it helps, but it's no more cheating or "a crutch" than any other helping method in the game. Stuff like lock delay, piece previews, faster DAS, etc. also makes the game easier, but keep in mind that it's designed with those in mind, just like the ones with the ghost piece are designed with the ghost piece in mind. As with most of the things that make the TGM series "easier" to play than many other (mostly earlier) Tetris games, I feel that it's mainly there to make the gameplay feel much smoother, whereas they allow themselves to conversely turn the difficulty way up in other areas (the speed, obviously). A good example is TGM3 that allows you to hold a piece, allowing for much sloppier stacking, but on the other hand it also expects you to play much faster. Whether you like that or not is a matter of taste. I think the ghost piece is a good example of one of those "helpers" that result in the game having more of a "I failed because I'm not good enough" experience, rather than a "I failed because the game is unfair" one. In TGM you'll never have a misdrop because you misjudged where the floating piece would drop - an element that I don't feel should be a part of a tetris game, whereas I feel that lightning quick reactions and tactical stacking should. Once again, I guess it's a matter of taste. Of course, as you start playing faster and faster, it will be less relevant. In games like TGM1 without sonic drop I still see it being pretty relevant.
This is exactly what got me into TGM. I always had the latter feeling when I played GB Tetris, and I didn't feel it at all with TGM.
I HAVE to use the ghost piece at faster speeds, because I have a tendency to think too fast (not just in Tetris, but in life). Sometimes my mind just moves faster than my hands and in some cases, the game. The ghost piece allows me to not really have to think about where the piece will land, but where to put it. If I see the piece is in the wrong spot, I can slow my thoughts enough to correct the problem.
Of course if it is there, you may use it. But at some point if you want to time attack the game, the ghost piece becomes totally unusable since you'll have to DAS/finesse every piece from the very beginning.
