Today is Tetris' 25th anniversary, but let's not forget D-Day

Shaggy June 6, 2009 0

I noticed that Google today is paying homage to the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest video games of all time – Tetris. Tetris of course has graced the arcades several times and it’s influence on puzzle gaming reaches heights that are hard to trace. I too tip my hat to the game as it is a favorite of mine when it comes to puzzles but at the same time I would like to throw out the reminder that today is also the anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, a profoundly important part of history that ultimately led to the defeat of Nazi tyranny. It’s impossible to say what the world would be like without the sacrifice made by all of  those who fought in WW2, especially on this day so I think that it’s far more important for us to remember that sacrifice than to pay homage to a video game, even if it is a hugely influential one. With that I am slightly at a loss as to why Google would choose to honor Tetris and not D-Day or couldn’t find a way to honor both since a lot of sites pick up on the things that Google does on certain anniversaries.  I have also noticed many other gaming sites mentioning the Google Tetris page but overlooking D-Day and that’s why I write this, which is a little different from what I normally write about. Either way it’s possible to remember both so perhaps today I’ll hook up my Tetris board to a JAMMA cabinet and later follow up with some Call of Duty.

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  1. ECM June 6, 2009 at 8:44 pm - Reply

    Wow, Google is absolutely shameless: this is the sort of thing that the hard right points to when they’re talking about how certain segments of America literally hate the country and it’s hard, sometimes, to disagree with that assessment. (Yes, yes: spare me the arguments from commenters that follow me stating that Google is a global brand blahblahblah.)

  2. arcads4ever June 7, 2009 at 8:30 pm - Reply

    I agree with you shaggy google could’ve made a picture or image that represented D day made up out of tetris pieces instead of focusing on just tetris’s 25 anerversory as I think thats more important since we may not have been around to play the game of tetris. don’t know much about d day but from what you’ve said shaggy I totally agree with you on that.

  3. Paul June 8, 2009 at 2:58 am - Reply

    D-Day wasn’t the biggest or most important battle of WW2, guys. This is what you get when your grasp of history comes from playing video games. It’s been fawned over annually for 65 years, so it’s a little tired now. The politically incorrect anniversary would be for the battle of Stalingrad, which was the real turning point of the war, and the costliest battle. We Americans didn’t defeat Hitler; those dirty Russians did. And yes, the Google homepage is supposed to be international, not America-worshipping.

    • Shaggy June 8, 2009 at 11:53 pm - Reply

      We’re an international site in many regards as well but focuses will many times depend upon where we live. All I was saying that if you were going to go out of your way to mention Tetris, why not also mention D-Day as well. Granted every battle had it’s own level of importance throughout the war and it would be difficult to commemorate all of them but nonetheless certain ones like D-Day help remind us of the lesser known or less celebrated sacrifices that took place.

      And let’s be fair, it was a combined effort of many countries that took Hitler down, no one country.

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