Ah, I see what you mean now about Tetris's status as a great work. It's interesting, too, to bring up games like chess and checkers and compare them to Tetris. Clearly, this is one of those problems we've always had with videogame criticism--will we treat videogames more like traditional games, or look more into aspects that some critics (Espen Aarseth, for instance), would deem irrelevant--namely, things like story, plot, characters, themes, and so on. I suppose if we look strictly at what Aarseth calls the "ergodicity" of games, then Tetris clearly emerges as a great work. It's one of those simple concepts that just wouldn't work well without a computer (indeed, I'm not sure anyone has attemped an electro-mechanical model).
Still, I suppose I'm one of those folks who just want more out of games than hand-eye coordination and the thrills of punching a score up a chart. I've often used the analogy of comparing a crossword puzzle or tic-tac-toe to Hamlet just because they both exist on paper. Obviously, a game like Elite and one like Tetris are far different than they are alike; the fact that they've both only playable on a computer seems almost besides the point.
I also have to wonder if Tetris's isn't a bit hyped as a game. I've played mini-games within some GAGs (7th Guest, for instance, or Missing Since January) that actually seemed to rival Tetris in terms of originality, innovation, and addictiveness. I'm certain that the only reason these mini-games haven't received more attention is that they exist in the confines of a bigger game. Several of the games in Missing Since January would make excellent stand-alone releases, perhaps as casual games. I'm sure there must be dozens of Tetrises hidden in those hundreds of GAGs, though few will ever play them since they're deeply buried there. Her Interactive (Nancy Drew series) almost seems to spin them out as after-thoughts. It'd be a great exercise for someone (Mat and I, perhaps?) to ferret out the best of these mini-games and compare them to stand-alone classics like Tetris and Bejewled.
What I can't help but wonder is if the main reason we appeal so often to Tetris dosen't have more to do with Nintendo and Atari's clever marketing, and the simple coincidence of the time of having a first-generation portable (the GameBoy) capable of running it. It was such a simple game that it could run even on something as limited as a Gameboy, and thus really helped spur the portable game market. Meanwhile, Atari and Nintendo's war definitely hyped up the publicity and made it seem like this game must be somehow miraculous; if two major game companies are fighting tooth-and-nail over it, it MUST be incredible. Finally, there was the whole aura of a "game from the Soviets" smack in the Cold War. It seemed hopelessly charming that some programmer like Pazhitnov was able, in the midst of starvation and deprivation in a communist country, to produce something like Tetris. No doubt the cult of "genius" and the like surrounding the game, enhanced by the overweening hype of its originality and infinite replayability (please), plus its appearance in thousands of clones (to the point where it's now a customary and obligatory exercise in most computer programming courses) all did more to establish it as a great work than the game itself.
The reason I don't like the game is simple: You could play it everyday for eight hours and not be one whit a better person for it. Indeed, you'd really just be depriving your brain of any nutrition whatsoever. Tetris is, at best, a sort of tiddlywinks of a game, whose purpose is merely to kill time as opposed to providing anything remotely edifying. It's really that reason, I think that it emerged from a communist country--what else could you do that was safe? Damn, think about anything, explore any area of art whatever, and you might be killed for vying against the regime. Play Tetris and shut up. I don't find that appealing.
If we're going to trump Tetris as a great work, then I think we must also trump Windows Solitaire and Hearts along with it. These games seem to fit together quite nicely, and I'm frankly shocked to the quick that Microsoft hasn't added Tetris to its included games on the Windows CD.
Ah, I see what you mean now about Tetris's status as a great work. It's interesting, too, to bring up games like chess and checkers and compare them to Tetris. Clearly, this is one of those problems we've always had with videogame criticism--will we treat videogames more like traditional games, or look more into aspects that some critics (Espen Aarseth, for instance), would deem irrelevant--namely, things like story, plot, characters, themes, and so on. I suppose if we look strictly at what Aarseth calls the "ergodicity" of games, then Tetris clearly emerges as a great work. It's one of those simple concepts that just wouldn't work well without a computer (indeed, I'm not sure anyone has attemped an electro-mechanical model).
Still, I suppose I'm one of those folks who just want more out of games than hand-eye coordination and the thrills of punching a score up a chart. I've often used the analogy of comparing a crossword puzzle or tic-tac-toe to Hamlet just because they both exist on paper. Obviously, a game like Elite and one like Tetris are far different than they are alike; the fact that they've both only playable on a computer seems almost besides the point.
I also have to wonder if Tetris's isn't a bit hyped as a game. I've played mini-games within some GAGs (7th Guest, for instance, or Missing Since January) that actually seemed to rival Tetris in terms of originality, innovation, and addictiveness. I'm certain that the only reason these mini-games haven't received more attention is that they exist in the confines of a bigger game. Several of the games in Missing Since January would make excellent stand-alone releases, perhaps as casual games. I'm sure there must be dozens of Tetrises hidden in those hundreds of GAGs, though few will ever play them since they're deeply buried there. Her Interactive (Nancy Drew series) almost seems to spin them out as after-thoughts. It'd be a great exercise for someone (Mat and I, perhaps?) to ferret out the best of these mini-games and compare them to stand-alone classics like Tetris and Bejewled.
What I can't help but wonder is if the main reason we appeal so often to Tetris dosen't have more to do with Nintendo and Atari's clever marketing, and the simple coincidence of the time of having a first-generation portable (the GameBoy) capable of running it. It was such a simple game that it could run even on something as limited as a Gameboy, and thus really helped spur the portable game market. Meanwhile, Atari and Nintendo's war definitely hyped up the publicity and made it seem like this game must be somehow miraculous; if two major game companies are fighting tooth-and-nail over it, it MUST be incredible. Finally, there was the whole aura of a "game from the Soviets" smack in the Cold War. It seemed hopelessly charming that some programmer like Pazhitnov was able, in the midst of starvation and deprivation in a communist country, to produce something like Tetris. No doubt the cult of "genius" and the like surrounding the game, enhanced by the overweening hype of its originality and infinite replayability (please), plus its appearance in thousands of clones (to the point where it's now a customary and obligatory exercise in most computer programming courses) all did more to establish it as a great work than the game itself.
The reason I don't like the game is simple: You could play it everyday for eight hours and not be one whit a better person for it. Indeed, you'd really just be depriving your brain of any nutrition whatsoever. Tetris is, at best, a sort of tiddlywinks of a game, whose purpose is merely to kill time as opposed to providing anything remotely edifying. It's really that reason, I think that it emerged from a communist country--what else could you do that was safe? Damn, think about anything, explore any area of art whatever, and you might be killed for vying against the regime. Play Tetris and shut up. I don't find that appealing.
If we're going to trump Tetris as a great work, then I think we must also trump Windows Solitaire and Hearts along with it. These games seem to fit together quite nicely, and I'm frankly shocked to the quick that Microsoft hasn't added Tetris to its included games on the Windows CD.