games you dislike that everyone likes and vice versa

[Vipershark]

I don't get the appeal of Tetris.

I used to be the same way for years until one day it just sort of suddenly clicked. Like, I could play Tetris and know what to do and know that clearing lines was the goal of the game, but I got no enjoyment out of it and it would bore me really quickly and I never understood why everyone loved it so much. It was just... Tetris. It was boring. Where was the action?

Then one day I was playing Tetris DS and I had an almost physical reaction in which I suddenly just *understood*. The game quite literally /felt/ different afterwards and it was as though some whole new layer of complexity and enjoyment was opened up to me and I got really into it.

I would say that a lot of the complexity/competitiveness/fun probably came out of understanding the "Tetris" mechanic (that is, clearing four lines at the same time) so that the game becomes less about just clearing lines and more about thinking ahead and making setups that will allow you to get more than one line with one piece.

I think the best way I can explain it is by using a completely different game as an example.

If you're familiar with Puyo Puyo/Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine/Kirby's Avalanche, then you might be familiar with the difference between casual and hardcore play in those games. If you play casually, it's a pretty basic line-up-four-of-the-same-color game and generally is pretty slow paced and not very exciting. You do what you can to not die and that's pretty much that. Playing competitively on the other hand is completely about lining up as many chains of color matches as you possibly can to wreck the opponent with garbage as hard as possible before they can do the same to you. It's all about thinking ahead in order to set up patterns that will fall into place when the right conditions are met, while simultaneously making sure the opponent can't sabotage you.

I think this video shows the difference in playstyle pretty well. Granted, this is the second level in the game so the computer isn't exactly trying but what you're seeing here is essentially a hardcore player on the left and a "normal" player on the right. The normal player slowly drops blocks and tries to line up four that match, while the hardcore player instead opts to start creating patterns that come into play by the end of the video. Note how everything is carefully put into place so that once the last piece is played, the entire field begins falling in a domino effect where one piece affects the next piece, and so on.

Playing Tetris uses effectively similar concepts but with planning your block placement to clear as many lines as possible in a single drop as opposed to trying to destroy an opponent.
First off, I'll show you a video I made back in 2008 of me playing (very badly, I hadn't set up the controls for this recording so half of me playing so bad is me hitting the wrong buttons) casually and it's a really boring video.

Note how I clear some lines, but there's not really any sort of understanding or plan to it and I kinda just put stuff in whatever placement and leave holes and such.

Now, compare that to high level Tetris play.

You've probably seen this video before, but note the strategy that's being used. The player carefully builds a wall that fits together so that any time he gets an I drop, he scores a Tetris. For me at least, this is where the enjoyment comes from. Other people might play differently and can share their experiences on that but this is what I get out of Tetris.


...to be fair, the old NES and GB versions are pretty boring and I can see how someone wouldn't enjoy playing those as opposed to the newer versions. Newer features like the Ghost and being able to use Hard Drop and infinite spins make the game a lot more accessible. I'm pretty sure Tetris DS is still considered the best game in the series, so if you can find a copy of that then it's probably your best shot at really getting what makes the game good. Tetris' enjoyability comes from the fact that it's super simple, yet super complex.