Book on Modern Tetris

[Chopin]

lol ya I know

[gif]

Maybe coz most Tetris players are mathematical computer geeks, they don't realize that if Nullpomino was super cute and good-looking, there would be a lot more players.

I'm probably the girliest tetris player and i confirm the game is not so pretty. It's def not cute :'c But its awesomeee

[Maii04]

Maybe coz most Tetris players are mathematical computer geeks, they don't realize that if Nullpomino was super cute and good-looking, there would be a lot more players.

LOL! Kinda like TOJ. It was rather cute <3
Anyway, Good Luck on your endeavor. Its a really god idea :)

[ryanunban]

all this anime sh** DRIVES ME NUTs

[vipjun]

This is a good documentary on tetris. was made a quite a while back i think.

http://documentaryheaven.com/tetris-%E2%80...ssia-with-love/

[Barefootford]

I decided to write a book on Tetris. This might take me a few years, but I want to do it right. I will probably just called it "Modern Tetris", but I tend to change my mind a lot and would be happy to hear any ideas for titles, as silly as you think they may be.
...

There apparently is only one book like this in existence, and so far it appears to be a failure that is only available on Kindle.

...
"

As far as feedback, ANYTHING will be received with gratitude and acknowledgments, but I need particular feedback on the following:

1. How to market this to as broad of an audience as possible while keeping the bulk of it interesting to a seasoned Nullpomino overlord.

2. What sections are needed and how to arrange or proportion them to make the book as interesting

Hey man it looks like you have a really good thing going. Everything looks 'money. It does seem you've bit off a lot, but if you're planning on going to law school I'm sure this will be a tiny work load in comparison.

Also, as far as print versus Kindle only goes, it used to be a huge process to have a book to go kindle, and vice versa. Today though, it's basically a click and a half on the publishers end. I didn't think there would be a huge market for small guide's to Tetris, so it's just Kindle. Maybe that is a mistake on my part.

Tetris can be tricky to write about because many of the strategies don't lend themselves very well to text. I think this explains why many of the best free guides to Tetris are so visuals-heavy. I do like books and text as a medium to learn, but with something as interactive as Tetris, I think a truly modern guide to Tetris should probably be done through video. Just sayin'.

If you want to talk shop or whatever, I'm on Twitter as @Barefootford.

af

[DarthDuck]

I'm glad you know it'll take years....

Also, if it's on Modern Tetris, you may want to consider whether you'll do something on TGM - that's a whole other area you need masterful theory on, but it is at least more accepted what the optimal theory is.

I am now 95% sure I will not include TGM. If it is too much like a an encyclopedia then it will be boring, and by saying "modern tetris" it is really the multiplayer aspect I am interested in, and the SRS 1P modes we use to train at them.

While I plan to give it a one-page shoutout, as well as reference Tetrisconcept.com for TGM info, actually coming up with something that would be useful to a TGM specialist would make this project 10x more difficult, especially since I have never played TGM.

Also, I am afraid that learning ARS might hurt an intuition for sidestepping and twist finesse in SRS. ARS twists are not symmetrical and there is heavy right-side bias; where an L-twist works, a J-twist might not work if mirrored, same with I-twists. That and the fact the the pieces move to the right no matter which way you rotate them will be against he grain of almost everything else in the book.

Please let me know if you think I need to learn TGM and add this complexity to the book, but as of now I am saying good riddance to it with a sigh of relief.

Spoilered is a rough comparison of ARS and SRS.[spoiler]
SRS. column 1 - spawn; column 2 - right rotate; column 3 - 180 rotate; column 4 - left rotate.


ARS.
[!--ImageUrlBegin--][a href=\\\"http://tetrisconcept.net/wiki/images/b/b5/Tgm_basic_ars_description.png\\\" target=\\\"_new\\\"][!--ImageUrlEBegin--][img width=\\\"400\\\" class=\\\"attach\\\" src=\\\"http://tetrisconcept.net/wiki/images/b/b5/Tgm_basic_ars_description.png\\\" border=\\\'0\\\' alt=\\\"IPB Image\\\" /][!--ImageUrlEnd--][/a][!--ImageUrlEEnd--]








Also, wallkicks, drops, and locks are a bit different, but the overall effect is that ARS is designed for hyper-gravity and and SRS for multiplayer pressure. Multiplayer is generally more interesting, wouldn't everyone agree to that? So I imagine that ARS will only fade out. As for those who keep up with ARS/TGM, they will probably have enough resources on TC.net and already have just about all the expertise that they need for that 1P game.

My new favorite picture:

[!--ImageUrlBegin--][a href=\\\"http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/4bd/bff/570/resized/butthurt-dweller-meme-generator-she-prefers-srs-over-ars-wouldn-t-bang-b5f8c4.jpg\\\" target=\\\"_new\\\"][!--ImageUrlEBegin--][img width=\\\"400\\\" class=\\\"attach\\\" src=\\\"http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/4bd/bff/570/resized/butthurt-dweller-meme-generator-she-prefers-srs-over-ars-wouldn-t-bang-b5f8c4.jpg\\\" border=\\\'0\\\' alt=\\\"IPB Image\\\" /][!--ImageUrlEnd--][/a][!--ImageUrlEEnd--]

[/spoiler]

[Barneey]

Hey DarthDuck, I saw you got some "constructive" criticism saying you weren't experienced enough to write this book, so I figured I'd just let you know that I really hope you go through with it, 'cause you seem like quite the intellectual individual, and you certainly know how to write "proper".
I, for one would be very interested in reading it, best of luck to you!

[Kitaru]

If it is too much like a an encyclopedia then it will be boring, ...

A book filled with reference material about each game would be a boring read -- that sounds like a wiki. A quick primer on what it takes to play other games and what sort of challenges they pose sounds like it could be an interesting section.

While I plan to give it a one-page shoutout, as well as reference [Tetrisconcept.net] for TGM info, actually coming up with something that would be useful to a TGM specialist would make this project 10x more difficult, especially since I have never played TGM.

I don't think you should limit your audience to specialists. Most of your potential readers aren't going to be picking up a book in hopes of learning The French Touch. A short section with general info may very well be of interest to players looking to broaden their single player horizons.

Also, I am afraid that learning ARS might hurt an intuition for sidestepping and twist finesse in SRS. ARS twists are not symmetrical and there is heavy right-side bias; where an L-twist works, a J-twist might not work if mirrored, same with I-twists.

This is rarely a problem. Occasionally you'll have to be a bit more mindful about the construction of the twist to ensure it kicks properly, but the I-piece is the only one that has twists that absolutely do not work in the mirrored setup.

At any rate, one can certainly attain "fluency" in both ARS and SRS without one working to the detriment of the other. If you practice both, environmental conditioning will take over just fine to handle the differences.

That and the fact the the pieces move to the right no matter which way you rotate them ...

In terms of basic rotation, only the I-piece prefers the right explicitly. S/Z are designed such that their vertical state is aligned with the center of the horizontal state. NES is the only game I can think of where SZI are strictly right-handed.

Please let me know if you think I need to learn TGM and add this complexity to the book, but as of now I am saying good riddance to it with a sigh of relief.

It's your book. You could easily write entire books about either domain, so it really depends on what level of depth you wish to cover. I feel that personally I would want to see some degree of coverage seeing as well-designed single player modes don't get much representation or appreciation, but this isn't my project.

Multiplayer is generally more interesting, wouldn't everyone agree to that?

No, absolutely not. Both are equally compelling in their own right.

[DarthDuck]

I appreciate the kick in the pants Kitaru, I really do. But the irony is that you were the particular reason I wrote off TGM as an option.

Every time I start to think I should give it a full chapter, I think "What would Kitaru possibly benefit from any thing I have to say about TGM even if I research it for 5 years... that's right nothing. Nevermind." That is a sample of a live thinking loop.

So, if you can point me in the direction of some aspects of TGM that need to most scholarship then I will look into them and that isn't just lipservice. But I'm just being honest the very notion of it is way out of my comfort zone, and less intimidating than playing Russian Roulette.

As far as my paranoia about ARS undoing SRS finesse, I really don't have that much finesse to lose (yet). And you seem to do ok in SRS. Also, I could just avoid doing twists so I don't program myself to believe that certain twists don't work or they need to be executed in some ways that are anti-SRS.

I don't even have the app, but I will figure something out and I know Blink doesn't want any PC-TGM links. Just saying that to show how little I know about it. I have not tackled any of the threads at TC, and would appreciate any direction/advice/links. If that advice is "nevermind just stay away from TGM", then that's cool too. But I have enough respect for you to let the contents of my own book to be your call.

[Profane]

You should focus a lot of your research on the people involved, obviously Alexey Pajitnov's story is interesting but Modern tetris can be created to the current pool of recognizable players.   I'd say John Tran has taken the game to new levels.  the competitive aspects of the game are still pretty underground but i'd say he's the closest thing we have to a commercial representative. Talking about the games mechanics are pretty limited, talking about the games originators and innovators leaves you with limitless topic potential.

[DarthDuck]

You should focus a lot of your research on the people involved, obviously Alexey Pajitnov's story is interesting but Modern tetris can be created to the current pool of recognizable players.   I'd say John Tran has taken the game to new levels.  the competitive aspects of the game are still pretty underground but i'd say he's the closest thing we have to a commercial representative. Talking about the games mechanics are pretty limited, talking about the games originators and innovators leaves you with limitless topic potential.

I want to do what you are saying but without having it be too biographical. While a dry account of game mechanics would be boring, yes, I think that a well-constructed collage of the views of top players can be interesting. And in many ways, it's the sum of their views that define the game; it's what we think of it not the raw code.

Most of the static setups in the wiki don't have practical merit (as Paradox keeps mentioning in his streams). But certain top players can still use unorthodox methods in a meaningful way and give them life. Apocalypse and and especially ZeroT turn the DT cannon opener into an art. Chopin likes to do those midgame. Larry can polymer spin and reinvent tetris itself while he plays, and Alexsweden could beat me with ZT stacking while rearranging his sock drawer. Now by these examples, I'm not pigeon-holing these players in any way. But while watching them for a couple/few years in weekly tournaments, I will be noting how their styles interact. As an overarching example, Maserati's 6:3 style can turn into the styles of a variety of players. The way that open-ended styles naturally transpose into other styles will be an important theme.

Much of it will also be on "Game Status", which is inspired by tactical play in chess and will be largely influenced by what Blink comes up with in his tetris guide. This is about reacting to what your opponent is doing. Paradox is also very insightful with this in his streams.

So by focusing more on unique player styles and how they interact against each other rather than the autobiographical details of the players themselves, there will be plenty of room for creative play and elaboration. One thing that will also be interesting to see is how players of relatively equal abilities are weak to each other because of inherent style strength/weaknesses. As a rough example: person A tends to beat more people than person B, but person A has a poor playing record against person B. That sort of analysis should be interesting.

I assume that the top players would like to be more remembered by their styles and unique contributions to the game rather than real-life details. For example, I think Kitaru would rather be remembered for his oldschool stacking skills, TGM achievements, and being a bridge between old and modern tetris rather than being known as the guy who looks pimpin in a red sweatshirt. Could be wrong.

[Kitaru]

By the way, I'm still planning to respond to your previous post... Life is getting in the way.

[myndzi]

You say in the OP that you want the book to be interesting, but mostly useful to pros. I think you are narrowing your audience significantly with that goal. For one thing, anyone classified as a Tetris "pro" won't be needing a book format to get what might be useful to them. If you are planning to write a manual (some sort of Tetris how-to-own type thing), it won't be very accessible/interesting to a wide audience. Conversely, if you write something interesting to a wide audience, it will necessarily not be so technical that the pros will get a significant benefit from it.

This is just my opinion, but for the Tetris veterans, I think the primary interest will lie in 1) learning about new skills and 2) strategy. By new skills, I mean things like preview awareness, playing ahead, finesse, twisting, forecasting, rotation system knowledge, stacking methods - both what is commonly used by the best players and why, and how to learn to do it yourself. By strategy, I mean the same sorts of things but pertaining to specific contexts: 40 lines stacking techniques and required skills; Ultra stacking techniques and required skills; multiplayer techniques and required skills, etc. You could write a whole book on just this stuff, and get extremely technical - but the more technical you get, the more you will lose casual readers. I do believe it's possible to write for both, but it will have to be done carefully, and it will necessitate these sections being not the majority of the book.

For the non-pros, the interesting things are going to be the evolution of the game; how new mechanics came in and affected the way people play. Significant game types (Guideline, TGM, classic) and significant happenings and people in each type. Where those people came from, how they affected the game, etc. How their history influenced their present ability perhaps, and what they bring to the game better than anyone else.

The casual reader isn't going to really understand stacking technique and twists and all that, but there is plenty about Tetris that can be interesting to such a reader. The very fact that there are less than half a dozen TGM3 GMs in the world, for example, or the few people who have maxed out NEStris, or the effect of Tetrinet on multiplayer popularity, community, play style, and so on.

The "pro" reader will find that historical stuff interesting too, I believe, but not 200 pages of Tetris theory (at least, not a significant number of people). Personally, if it was well written and insightful, I'd probably read that. I'm sure people like caffeine would be quite interested too. But look at the population of people who are competitive at Nullpomino, and that may well be your audience for such a book. If that's what you want, then that's fine - but if you want the book to be widely accessible, or monetarily successful, I think you're better off devoting the majority of the content to stories and history/information that is accessible to anybody - and this section can double as an intro and technical primer for a smaller section about the highly detailed technical things.

For the record, I'd be happy to contribute what knowledge and writing ability I have should you want it. I can proofread both from a grammatical standpoint and a technical-knowledge standpoint on many Tetris-related topics  I'm sure there are others who would also happily contribute.

[DarthDuck]

Anyone classified as a Tetris "pro" won't be needing a book format to get what might be useful to them... For the Tetris veterans, I think the primary interest will lie in 1) learning about new skills and 2) strategy...You could write a whole book on just this stuff, and get extremely technical - but the more technical you get, the more you will lose casual readers. I do believe it's possible to write for both, but it will have to be done carefully, and it will necessitate these sections being not the majority of the book... Look at the population of people who are competitive at Nullpomino, and that may well be your audience for such a book. If that's what you want, then that's fine - but if you want the book to be widely accessible, or monetarily successful, I think you're better off devoting the majority of the content to stories and history/information that is accessible to anybody - and this section can double as an intro and technical primer for a smaller section about the highly detailed technical things.

I spent some time pondering over what you said and it occurred to me that categories of readers don't necessarily need to be put into beginner/intermediate/advanced/pro. One of my favorite books is called Chess for Zebras. The author jokes that the reader might think the book was poorly marketed since zebras can neither read nor play chess. But what he meant was how zebras will make you think that you have them lined up for a kill, but then will move in the last second. So if you think of what that implies for chess, someone might waste 14 moves building up an elaborate attack (that you saw from the very beginning) but you refute it right before its execution, leaving your opponent with a useless setup. I want to name the book "Modern Tetris" because its self-explanatory and informs someone browsing a shelf that the old game has changed, but may consider a more interesting title like Tetris for Zebras that identifies a certain motivation or style.

My TF avatar teehee:

But if forced to pinpoint a general market, I would say advanced-intermediate. By doing so, I aim the book at people who are where I am right now while coming up with the idea to write the book: barely or unable to sub one minute and very interested in theory but still utterly incapable of scoring a match off a seeded tournament player. After reading it carefully and practicing along with it, they would ideally end up about where I also will end up once I finish writing the book. I like that market because any lower and you get the people who are cynical as to why they should even care "that much" about tetris. I also expect that enthusiastic and aspiring Tetris players will be a growing population.

But where I think I disagree with you is that "A Tetris 'pro' won't be needing a book format to get what might be useful to them." While that may be the case with the technical side of it, plenty of pros are curious about the psychological and philosophical side which helps them rise to the challenge. I already mentioned this to Caffeine in a PM, but a story that continually inspires me is how there was once this world-GM who was a celebrity guest in a chess tourmament; it was a huge deal that he was there but he basically lost to everyone. This was like Meow or Secret Salamander going to a random Tetris LAN round-robin in a Starbucks and getting dead last. Afterward, when asked what (the hell) happened, he said it wasn't enough to be a good player but that you have to play well. That's what the bulk of Chess for Zebras is about: how to rise to the proper mental state needed to play someone on the grandmaster level.

There is also the curious question of how Tetris improves our overall quality of experience and general skills. A pro might be interested in this to help justify the massive amounts of time dedicated to training, and how to get more out of that training than just Tetris fame (lots of feedback needed here).