Since its release 40 years ago, Tetris has become one of the most prevailing video games ever.
Recently, science has revealed some perplexing elements of this cultural phenomenon.
The combination of total focus, scintillating 8-bit music and intense pattern recognition has led to consequences its inventors never predicted.
Tetris, miraculously, can seep into the real world for some players.
THE TETRIS EFFECT
Hardcore Tetris players often report visual and auditory distortions occurring outside of the game – what’s known as the Tetris effect.
This manifests as a hyperfixation with geometric patterns or how inanimate objects might better connect.
Dr Angelica B Ortiz de Gortari is a research psychologist who spent decades studying game transfer phenomena (GTP), a term she coined in 2011.
It’s a surprisingly common occurrence that can result from any type of gaming, not just Tetris.
GTP AND ME
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