A Word Game Change of Heart
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Monday, January 18, 2010 1:00 PM
I never thought I’d say this, but I may yet learn to love Scrabble.
It usually surprises people when I tell them I’m not a Scrabble fan, but I can’t help it. Generally I like word games - Boggle and I have a happy relationship of many years standing, and when I was in college I whiled away many blissful hours playing Text Twist online - but I’ve never enjoyed Scrabble.
I suspect it’s because a) I lack strategical skills and b) I don’t have much patience. A Scrabble game feels like a vicious cycle: I spend five minutes waiting for the other person to take his turn and trying to decide which of several unimpressive words (“cat?” “cap?” “sac?”) I might spell, only to have the other person slap a killer word (“jacuzzi”) on the board and use the exact C I’d been eyeing. I end up frustrated about all the time I’ve wasted, and although I’m truly not a very competitive person, I dislike spending an hour playing and ending up with “come” and “jack” as my highest-scoring words. The fact that my score is half my competitor’s only adds insult to injury.
So when I heard that there’s a Scrabble-like game for the iPhone and iPod touch called “Words With Friends,” in which you can play one-on-one games with friends across the network, I was uninterested. But my friends on Twitter and Facebook kept talking about it, and one of my best online friends was reportedly trouncing everyone who played her. Charitable person that I am, I couldn’t pass up the chance to increase her happiness by giving her the opportunity to beat me as well, so I downloaded the free app and jumped in.
My Scrabble-champion friend beat me, of course. I think she’s beaten me three times now. So have a good percentage of the other people I’ve played. Despite that, I’ve been surprised at how much fun I’m having with the game.
As a word lover and a fan of most word games, I’ve always felt vaguely traitorous not liking Scrabble. I’m happy to discover that it’s not the making-words part of Scrabble I dislike. Without the sitting around involved in traditional Scrabble, and with the chance to work on strategy and try different combinations without wasting the other person’s time, I enjoy myself quite a lot.
I can’t call myself a Scrabble lover yet, but we’ll see. I might get there.
What about you? Do you like word games? Which one is your favorite?
Note: If you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, you don’t have to miss out on the chance to play Scrabble electronically! You can play on Facebook, and a Google search also turns up plenty of ways to play Scrabble free online.
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