the idea had felt comfortably surreal: I mean, it's Tetris.
April 11, 2022 9:28 PM Subscribe
Does she still hold the record?
posted by potrzebie at 9:42 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by potrzebie at 9:42 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Nope, the record these days is 4988 lines apparently.
posted by Merus at 9:52 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Merus at 9:52 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh man, I love this story. Might be worth a reread, too!
posted by biogeo at 9:58 PM on April 11, 2022
posted by biogeo at 9:58 PM on April 11, 2022
> How hasn't this story been posted before?It has.
posted by Syllepsis at 10:54 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Looks at the age of the article
How do they wedge the Tetris pieces into the record, and why?
posted by miguelcervantes at 10:58 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
How do they wedge the Tetris pieces into the record, and why?
posted by miguelcervantes at 10:58 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
I love the way this is written, thank you Sciatrix.
>How hasn't this story been posted before?
I will swear I saw it recently* but if it is a double we might consider it an April Fool that escaped March's Doubles Jubilee Month. It is a lovely telling of the story, I hope more new readers get up enjoy it.
Previously (an FPP in 2012) and previouslier (cited in an Ask in 2007).
*: maybe via 2021-Dec's "Flyheccing with the Cheez grip" about a novel way to get high frequency controller taps.
posted by k3ninho at 11:13 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
>How hasn't this story been posted before?
I will swear I saw it recently* but if it is a double we might consider it an April Fool that escaped March's Doubles Jubilee Month. It is a lovely telling of the story, I hope more new readers get up enjoy it.
Previously (an FPP in 2012) and previouslier (cited in an Ask in 2007).
*: maybe via 2021-Dec's "Flyheccing with the Cheez grip" about a novel way to get high frequency controller taps.
posted by k3ninho at 11:13 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have never read this before. So fun! Thank you for posting!
The owl t-shirt!
posted by brainwane at 4:13 AM on April 12, 2022
The owl t-shirt!
posted by brainwane at 4:13 AM on April 12, 2022
I don't care if it's on Facebook, Twitter, or Metafilter (even if it's a double) - I always enjoy people stumbling onto this story for the very first time and reading their reactions.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:16 AM on April 12, 2022
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:16 AM on April 12, 2022
if you're interested in seeing how people these days do at Tetris, it's been a staple at GDQ since they started doing skill showcases alongside their speedruns during the marathon. Here's the franchise at gdqvods.com, and more about the GDQ charity marathons if it's something you're unfamiliar with.
posted by flatluigi at 5:13 AM on April 12, 2022
posted by flatluigi at 5:13 AM on April 12, 2022
If I'm reading the Twin Galaxies scoreboard correctly, she held the record for all of three months before her score got utterly shattered by a Neil Gewirtz who scored 2,349 points. The former record holder mentioned, Harry Hong, then reclaimed the title a week later, more than doubling Gewirtz's score. And the current record holder appears to be one Tao Kitamoto, who scored 5,164 points in 2016.
The ceaseless march of human progress.
posted by Naberius at 5:59 AM on April 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
The ceaseless march of human progress.
posted by Naberius at 5:59 AM on April 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also, when this was previously posted in 2012, MeFi's own escabeche noted that five years had passed and Baker still hadn't finished his book on juggling . Ten years after that, he still hasn't. Though he does appear to have published a book about how middle-aged men suck at keeping friends.
posted by Naberius at 6:25 AM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 6:25 AM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
While the world of competition Tetris still seems largely focused on the NES version, Tetris Effect: Connected is a more current console & computer version. It introduced a Zone mechanic that lets you clear more than four lines at a time, all the way up to the top of the screen (20 lines). A player named Kirby703 figured out that you could keep stacking off the top of the screen as long as you left a hole on screen and thus clear 21 lines (which the game renamed a "Kirbtris") and even 22 ("Impossibilitris") and 23 lines ("Infinitris"). Since the longest piece is 4 blocks long, that seemed to be the hard limit. But my son realized that in multiplayer mode, there's a boss attack that drops extra-large pieces. He harnessed this technique to demonstrate that 24 and 25-line clears (which the game renamed "Electris" after his username) are possible. It's funny all the potential niches there are in the world to become just a little bit famous in.
posted by rikschell at 7:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 7:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [13 favorites]
Oh 90s casual sexism. I do not miss you one bit, and wish you had actually well and truly gone away.
posted by eviemath at 7:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by eviemath at 7:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
I kind of love the idea that any of us might have some weird thing we do that we don't even know we're the best in the world at.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 7:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [12 favorites]
Also, when this was previously posted in 2012, MeFi's own escabeche noted that five years had passed and Baker still hadn't finished his book on juggling . Ten years after that, he still hasn't.
Give him a break; he seems to have a lot of balls in the air, and unlike his wife, he might have trouble lining things up so that they fall into place.
posted by nubs at 7:40 AM on April 12, 2022 [9 favorites]
Give him a break; he seems to have a lot of balls in the air, and unlike his wife, he might have trouble lining things up so that they fall into place.
posted by nubs at 7:40 AM on April 12, 2022 [9 favorites]
I kind of love the idea that any of us might have some weird thing we do that we don't even know we're the best in the world at.
She sounds absolutely charming, and confident yet still humble and down to earth. The whole “who’da think my little wife was that clever” vibe, though, I could do without. The author seemed like he truly hadn’t noticed that she had good (let alone award-winning) spatial reasoning skills - from the sound of it, it had never particularly occurred to him that that was even a possibility. His pride in her accomplishment was great. His surprise about it, on the other hand, says unflattering things about his attitudes at the time that the piece was written. Which makes him entirely average for the time, and probably also for the present time, unfortunately. Imagine how many other women or other people not fitting the stereotypical video gamer demographic at the time could have also set records, but no one ever thought to test their skills? Having lived through the 90s as a nerdy girl/young woman, I guarantee you the number is not insignificant.
posted by eviemath at 7:47 AM on April 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
She sounds absolutely charming, and confident yet still humble and down to earth. The whole “who’da think my little wife was that clever” vibe, though, I could do without. The author seemed like he truly hadn’t noticed that she had good (let alone award-winning) spatial reasoning skills - from the sound of it, it had never particularly occurred to him that that was even a possibility. His pride in her accomplishment was great. His surprise about it, on the other hand, says unflattering things about his attitudes at the time that the piece was written. Which makes him entirely average for the time, and probably also for the present time, unfortunately. Imagine how many other women or other people not fitting the stereotypical video gamer demographic at the time could have also set records, but no one ever thought to test their skills? Having lived through the 90s as a nerdy girl/young woman, I guarantee you the number is not insignificant.
posted by eviemath at 7:47 AM on April 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
I didn't find that all that off-putting. I mean, who would think that their spouse was unknowingly the best in the world at something they did as no more than a casual hobby to fill time on airplanes? If it ever turns out my mom is secretly the best in the world at solving those logic puzzles where Harry has a red car but Jane's car isn't purple, I'm going to be pretty surprised, too.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:01 AM on April 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 8:01 AM on April 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Eh. I tripped over the story for the first time on Tumblr a month ago, and the sense of unexpected surprise and joy made me happy, so I brought it here.
Personally, I would also not expect general hand eye coordination skill or even general spatial skill to make a Tetris champion: the challenge of the game is the speed constraint, after all, and I know quite a lot of people who are excellent at seeing how to fit complex items together who nevertheless are not capable of performing those judgements at rapid speed. They aren't things that automatically go together, and a big part of the skill that Lori developed at Tetris is almost certainly a function of practice and effort--she enjoys the game, she plays it often--rather than purely innate skill.
The sexism angle doesn't stand out to me. I do see what you're saying, and I see how his startlement at her exceptional skill can chafe an old sore, and maybe it's just that I've been rubbed raw in slightly different places. But I do think this one is one of those cases where there can genuinely be a difference of opinion as to how things land rather than a hardline either-it's-problematic-or-it's-not case.
In that venue, it's kind of interesting to contemplate: all communication is a dialogue between signalers, the environment a signal passes through, and receivers. Obviously, no one here can get an objective look at the intention the columnist had twenty years ago, but we can certainly talk about the things that shape our reception of the piece and our understandings about the environment both now and then. It's a neat object lesson into communication itself, viewed from that angle.
posted by sciatrix at 8:05 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Personally, I would also not expect general hand eye coordination skill or even general spatial skill to make a Tetris champion: the challenge of the game is the speed constraint, after all, and I know quite a lot of people who are excellent at seeing how to fit complex items together who nevertheless are not capable of performing those judgements at rapid speed. They aren't things that automatically go together, and a big part of the skill that Lori developed at Tetris is almost certainly a function of practice and effort--she enjoys the game, she plays it often--rather than purely innate skill.
The sexism angle doesn't stand out to me. I do see what you're saying, and I see how his startlement at her exceptional skill can chafe an old sore, and maybe it's just that I've been rubbed raw in slightly different places. But I do think this one is one of those cases where there can genuinely be a difference of opinion as to how things land rather than a hardline either-it's-problematic-or-it's-not case.
In that venue, it's kind of interesting to contemplate: all communication is a dialogue between signalers, the environment a signal passes through, and receivers. Obviously, no one here can get an objective look at the intention the columnist had twenty years ago, but we can certainly talk about the things that shape our reception of the piece and our understandings about the environment both now and then. It's a neat object lesson into communication itself, viewed from that angle.
posted by sciatrix at 8:05 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
"Internet juggling forums"
posted by shenkerism at 9:26 AM on April 12, 2022
posted by shenkerism at 9:26 AM on April 12, 2022
The history of women in computing, alongside knowing how women gamers were commonly treated at the time, are definitely pieces of context that inform my reaction to the piece, that other folks wouldn’t necessarily be thinking about, for sure. So yeah, I probably am more likely than other folks to notice or focus on the little details like him saying “there was nothing about her to suggest she had some innate ability for the split-second decision making required to succeed at Tetris when the pieces are really coming fast” despite having noted in an earlier paragraph that she was particularly good at Tetris. Or describing her cute t-shirt as a sort of counter-balance to reporting Day’s observation that “Tetris is the embodiment of comprehensive thinking”. He kind of minimizes his wife immediately after reporting Day’s praise again a paragraph later:
He is also obviously quite proud of her - her Tetris record is the meat of the linked piece! He’s clearly not (/wasn’t even back then - again, this was from quite a while ago) a raging misogynist. But even though his wife has performed at Tetris to a level that he knew her to be capable of previously, the fact that she obtained a world record necessitated a bit of a reevaluation of his relationship afterwards - thinking of her as embodying comprehensive thinking was far enough off from his previous image of her. Contrast this with his description of the other record holders mentioned. He doesn’t heap praise on them or describe them as singular geniuses or anything, but neither does he express surprise.
posted by eviemath at 9:34 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
“Here's what's going on," Day, who's 58 with a salt-and-pepper beard, tells me as I watch and he analyzes Lori's play. "Tetris epitomizes those types of games that require a coordination of the eyes, the hands, and mental comprehension time. When Mickey Mantle heard the crack off the bat, he got an extra step. That's what your wife has. She's got to plug into the data she's seeing immediately. Success at Tetris is based exclusively on the ability to recognize the information you're getting faster than the average person."Then implication being that Day’s commentary as applied to his wife is a bit laughable. She’s his spouse and he’s seen her compete at least in softball, but he “didn't even know she had a game face.” It didn’t occur to him to let her pack the car or he never noticed that was a thing that she was good at until after she had won a world record at Tetris.
I am amazed that Lori is able to keep a straight face and concentrate.
He is also obviously quite proud of her - her Tetris record is the meat of the linked piece! He’s clearly not (/wasn’t even back then - again, this was from quite a while ago) a raging misogynist. But even though his wife has performed at Tetris to a level that he knew her to be capable of previously, the fact that she obtained a world record necessitated a bit of a reevaluation of his relationship afterwards - thinking of her as embodying comprehensive thinking was far enough off from his previous image of her. Contrast this with his description of the other record holders mentioned. He doesn’t heap praise on them or describe them as singular geniuses or anything, but neither does he express surprise.
posted by eviemath at 9:34 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
I was literally a woman in computing at the time this event happened, and I still think that suddenly finding out that your spouse is not just good at something but world record level good at the thing is going to surprise anyone and cause them to re-evaluate a person, regardless of the gender of the spouses in question. The only thing he knows about the other record holders is that they are record holders. Why would he be surprised that they do, in fact, hold records?
The one thing that did jump out at me as casual misogyny in the article was the person who said she's also the prettiest Tetris player, but that wasn't said by the author. Instead it was said to the author, as if it was somehow a compliment to him that his wife was pretty. On the other hand, he did choose to include it, so I guess he takes some of the blame for it anyway.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:35 AM on April 12, 2022 [8 favorites]
The one thing that did jump out at me as casual misogyny in the article was the person who said she's also the prettiest Tetris player, but that wasn't said by the author. Instead it was said to the author, as if it was somehow a compliment to him that his wife was pretty. On the other hand, he did choose to include it, so I guess he takes some of the blame for it anyway.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:35 AM on April 12, 2022 [8 favorites]
This is great.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:38 AM on April 12, 2022
posted by ominous_paws at 11:38 AM on April 12, 2022
Mod note: A couple deleted. It's fine to note your "this one thing kind of bugs me" thing, and move on, but not good to hijack the entire discussion to now be only about that thing. (even if someone says, "huh, I don't really see it that way.") As a general note for discussions here, because it happens a lot, everyone needs to mindfully try to move away from that dynamic of feeling like if other opinions are somewhat different or differently focused, one must try to convince everyone to change or shift their position before discussion can resume about the main topic. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:45 PM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 11:45 PM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
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Always good to share it with people who haven't seen it before.
posted by Merus at 9:33 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]