I never thought of this game as a waste of time. I still think it's one of the greatest games ever.  I don't know how many batteries my Game Boy went through because of this game.

 And now I have the song stuck in my head....

Not all too surprised by this study.  It's real time problem solving mixed with spatial awareness, testing adaptation and encouraging proper planning (taking out 4 rows at once is a big, yet short lived, ego boost).  This is what logic puzzles try to aim for...and it's been a tradition for gamers for quite some time.

And now I'm looking for a place where I can play it.  Thanks GP, there goes my night.

I wonder if this benifet can come from other puzzle games like Dr. Mario or Bejeweled?

http://www.magicinkgaming.com/

As much as I credit Tetris for giving me some much-needed perspective when I'm trying to pack my car for a road trip, don't we normally start hollering about how misguided and useless these gaming-related MRI studies are whenever they crop up?  I can't really put my finger on why we're all being so agreeable about this one!  Let me play some Tetris and see if it makes my brain expand so I can figure it out.

~la, la la la, la la la, la la la, la la la, la la, the tet-ris song~

Okay, I think I've got it: reading studies about MRI scans where certain parts of the brain light up cause those same parts to activate in the reader's brain.  So when we read about the hypothalamus going off after a subject plays a violent first-person shooter, it also sets us off, resulting in aggressive posts and harsh dismissals of the science.  But when we read that Tetris is making us more efficient thinkers, our brains also gain further efficiency, giving us the extra mental oomph we need to make more agreeable, thoughtful posts.

I know it sounds outlandish, but it's the best explanation I can come up with.  I discarded the notion that there could possibly be any selection bias based on the positive or negative findings of the studies, since as we know, everyone who reads GP is fully capable of considering the merits of each story in a fair and balanced fashion without leaping to conclusions based on personal feelings.  Right, guys? ;D

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The Mammon Philosophy

I once lived in Queens and worked in NYC. Our secretary had TETRIS on her hard drive. I'd play it now and then after work and eventually got hooked. One Sunday I took the E train into town and got to the office about 9 a.m. Went to her desk, fired up the computer and jumped into Tetris. The next thing I knew it was 7 in the evening. I had not gotten up to get a drink, go to the bathroom or grab a sandwich. I can't sit still for a movie but I'd just spent 10 hours in a secretary's chair playing that game. So simple, yet so compelling. Good to hear it's good for the brain. Maybe I'll head off Alzheimer's by a year or two.

Far be it for me to decry Tetris, but from the "waste of time" viewpoint, this seems like just taking time from youth and adding it to old age. Of course, we "waste" a lot of time in our youth anyway. . .