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Shapes fall from the sky, all you have to do is to control how they fall and fit within each other. A simple premise, but add an annoyingly addictive electronica soundtrack (based on a Russian folk tune called Korobeiniki, apparently) and you have a revolution in entertainment.
所有你要做的事情就是控制這些從天而降型狀的落下，讓他們可以排列整齊。簡單的遊戲方式，加上讓人中毒的電子音效(某俄羅斯民謠Korobeiniki)，就會讓人感到愉悅。
Since Tetris was launched on the world in 1986, millions of hours have been lost through playing this simple game. Since then, we’ve seen games consoles grow in power, and with it the appearance of everything from Call of Duty to World of Warcraft. Yet block and puzzle games like Tetris still have a special place in our hearts. Why are they are so compelling?
自從俄羅斯方塊在1986年問世以來，有幾百萬個小時被浪費在這個簡單的遊戲上面。自從那時開始，遊戲主機不斷地進化，從決勝時刻到WOW，但像俄羅斯方塊的這種拼圖遊戲還是在人們心中有相當的分量。他們為什麼會這麼吸引人呢？
The writer Jeffrey Goldsmith was so obsessed with Tetris that he wrote a famous article asking if the game’s creator Alexey Pajitnov had invented “a pharmatronic?” – a video game with the potency of an addictive drug. Some people say that after playing the game for hours they see falling blocks in their dreams or buildings move together in the street – a phenomenon known as the Tetris Effect. Such is its mental pull, there’s even been the suggestion that the game might be able to prevent flashbacks in people with PTSD.
一位作家Jeffrey Goldsmith非常沉迷於俄羅斯方塊，他甚至寫了一篇很有名的文章問這個遊戲的創造者Alexey Pajitnov，是不是發明了一個讓人如藥物沉迷一般的電玩。有些人說在玩了好幾個小時的俄羅斯方塊之後，他們在夢裡都會夢到那些方塊，甚至感覺街道上的房子會自己合起來，這個現象也被稱為「俄羅斯方塊效應」。因為它能如此的影響人們的思考，甚至有人認為可以用它來避免PTSD(災後創傷症候群)的人再想到以前的事。
I had my own Tetris phase, when I was a teenager, and spent more hours than I should have trying to align the falling blocks in rows. Recently, I started thinking about why games like Tetris are so compelling. My conclusion? It’s to do with a deep-seated psychological drive to tidy up.
當我還是個青少年的時候，我花了超級多時間在玩俄羅斯方塊。最近，我開始思考為什麼俄羅斯方塊這類的遊戲如此吸引人。我的結論呢？這跟整理東西的心理狀態有很大的關係。
Many human games are basically ritualised tidying up. Snooker, or pool if you are non-British, is a good example. The first person makes a mess (the break) and then the players take turns in potting the balls into the pockets, in a vary particular order. Tetris adds a computer-powered engine to this basic scenario – not only must the player tidy up, but the computer keeps throwing extra blocks from the sky to add to the mess. It looks like a perfect example of a pointless exercise – a game that doesn't teach us anything useful, has no wider social or physical purpose, but which weirdly keeps us interested.
很多人類的遊戲很簡單，就是很機械式的把東西整理好。司諾克就是一個很好的例子。第一個人把球弄亂（開球）之後，參賽者輪流把球按照順序打到袋子之中。俄羅斯方塊在這個簡單的情況之中加上了電腦的引擎--不只是玩家一定要整理好，電腦還會持續地在空中丟東西，讓場面更混亂。這個遊戲其實根本就是沒有意義的--它並沒有教我們任何事情，沒有社會上或生理上的任何目的，但他就是很好玩。
There's a textbook psychological phenomenon called the Zeigarnik Effect, named after Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. In the 1930s, Zeigarnik was in a busy cafe and heard that the waiters had fantastic memories for orders – but only up until the orders had been delivered. They could remember the requests of a party of 12, but once the food and drink had hit the table they forgot about it instantly, and were unable to recall what had been so solid moments before. Zeigarnik gave her name to the whole class of problems where incomplete tasks stick in memory.
有一個教科書會出現的心理學現象叫做Zeigarnik效應。Bluma Zeigarnik是一位1930年代的俄國心理學家。有一天，她在一間繁忙的咖啡廳裡，發現服務生在他們把東西拿給客人之前，都有著驚人的記憶力，可以記住所有客人點的東西，但是當東西送到客人的桌上的時候，他們就會把訂單忘得一乾二淨。而Zeiganik效應指的就是這種情況--人類會一直記得未完成的工作。
The Zeigarnik Effect is also part of the reason why quiz shows are so compelling. You might not care about the year the British Broadcasting Corporation was founded or the percentage of the world's countries that have at least one McDonald's restaurant, but once someone has asked the question it becomes strangely irritating not to know the answer (1927 and 61%, by the way). The questions stick in the mind, unfinished until it is completed by the answer.
Zeigarnik效應也是為什麼quiz shows(譯註：臺灣的超級大富翁)會讓人感到那麼有趣的一部分原因。節目內問的問題及它的正確解答其實一點也不重要，但是當一個問題被問出來之後，就會讓人很在意它的正確答案到底是什麼，一直到解答公佈為止。
Game theory
遊戲理論
Tetris holds our attention by continually creating unfinished tasks. Each action in the game allows us to solve part of the puzzle, filling up a row or rows completely so that they disappear, but is also just as likely to create new, unfinished work. A chain of these partial-solutions and newly triggered unsolved tasks can easily stretch to hours, each moment full of the same kind of satisfaction as scratching an itch.
俄羅斯方塊就是藉由不斷地創造為完成的事情抓住我們的注意力。每一個在遊戲裡的動作都會讓我們解決這拼圖的一部分，但這也同時創造了新的未完成的事情。這些部分解答及未完成的事件所引起的連鎖反應足以耗掉我們好幾個小時，而且這段時間當中的快感就好像一直抓癢一樣。
The other reason why Tetris works so well is that each unfinished task only appears at the same time as its potential solution – those blocks continuously fall from the sky, each one a problem and a potential solution. Tetris is a simple visual world, and solutions can immediately be tried out using the five control keys (move left, move right, rotate left, rotate right and drop – of course). Studies of Tetris players show that people prefer to rotate the blocks to see if they'll fit, rather than think about if they'll fit. Either method would work, of course, but Tetris creates a world where action is quicker than thought – and this is part of the key to why it is so absorbing. Unlike so much of life, Tetris makes an immediate connection between our insight into how we might solve a problem and the means to begin acting on it.
俄羅斯方塊會那麼棒的另外一個原因是因為問題跟解答是同時出現的--每一個不斷從空中烙下的東西都是一個問題也是可能的解答。俄羅斯方塊是一個簡單用視覺呈現的世界，解答可以用五個控制鍵(往左、往右、往左轉、往右轉、往下掉)被馬上試出來。針對俄羅斯方塊玩家的研究顯示，人們喜歡真的去旋轉那些方塊去看他們是否真的可以合上去，而不是只是腦袋裡想想而已。當然兩種方法都可行，但是俄羅斯方塊創造了一個動作比思想還要迅速的世界，而這也是為什麼他這麼吸引人的原因之一。
The Zeigarnik Effect describes a phenomenon, but it doesn't really give any reason for why it happens. This is a common trick of psychologists, to pretend they solved a riddle of the human mind by giving it a name, when all they've done is invented an agreed upon name for the mystery rather than solved it. A plausible explanation for the existence of the Effect is that the mind is designed to reorganise around the pursuit of goals. If those goals are met, then the mind turns to something else.
Zeigarnik效應描述了一個現象，但並沒有解釋其真正的原因。這是心理學家很慣用的小把戲，給一個現象名字，去假裝他們已經了解它了，但事實上他們只是發明了這個現象的名字而已。這個現象一個可能的解釋是人的思考是被設計用來重新組織以完成目標。如果這些目標完成了，那我們就會轉移去想其他事情。
Trivia takes advantage of this goal orientation by frustrating us until it is satisfied. Tetris goes one step further, and creates a continual chain of frustration and satisfaction of goals. Like a clever parasite, Tetris takes advantage of the mind's basic pleasure in getting things done and uses it against us. We can go along with this, enjoying the short-term thrills in tidying up those blocks, even while a wiser, more reflective, part of us knows that the game is basically purposeless. But then all good games are, right?
問答遊戲藉由打擊我們來達到這個目標。但俄羅斯方塊更厲害，它創造了一個連鎖的挫折及滿足。就像一隻聰明的寄生蟲一樣，俄羅斯方塊讓我們自己為把事情做好感到開心，又用相同的東西來打擊我們。我們可以接受這件事情，很享受這個不斷的整理東西的遊戲，或者有些人更聰明一點，了解這個遊戲基本上是完全沒有意義的。但是所有的好遊戲都是如此的吧？
