When you play tetris is your goal to get as many lines as possible or to get as many points as possible? I personally validate how well I played by the number of lines I acheived. I wonder if this is a personality thing, the type of tetris player you are.
Points...Tetris is set up to award points for getting a tetris, so the only real way to play it to try and get tetrises (and thus, points). I've only played the first Tetris on the original NES. My mom actually has one, so I'll occasionally still play it when I visit. I've scored over 800,000 on two occasions.
You show your true skills in going for points. Playing for lines is fun, but then it's pointless to get quadruples.
On the contrary, one's real skill is shown on how many lines you can clear. On the PC, anyone can do tetrises all the way to 10th level. But, how long can you hang at that speed? That's all that matters.
That's how I think, but points is almost a different game all together. My problem is that I can't remember points as well as lines.
i'm personally all about the lines. i remember when playing games on our calcs during school was huge (back in high school) i got like 185 lines one time (i think that was the number, the calc version went slower then the NES version) but my score was barely a 1/3 of what my other friend could get b/c he was all about the 4 line thing (is that a tetris or is there another name) but he couldn't get 185 lines. yeah i always remember my line total over my score, it's the only way to go. the other way you basically just hope for tetrises the whole time and it gets boring for me at least. also it's also good to see how empty you can make the screen really far into the game. like only having two blocks showing at like level 10 or something.