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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Words over Words With Friends

I consider myself a pretty good Scrabble player when I can get a game up.
Marc and I play anytime we go anywhere on an airplane (and we know how often that is) and we're both fairly competitive. We routinely break 300 points.
We both work with words and so it follows that wherever we go, other Scrabble players tremble...well, maybe that's putting it a little strong.
But when we were asked to join "Words With Friends" on our phone and computer we nodded humbly.
"Sure, we would like to do that," we said.
Yesterday, I signed up with five people and jumped right in.
I'm playing my daughter, and my step-daughter and my son and my grandson and Marc.
Things were going along great, for a while.
Then my son in England played a 59-point word.
What? 59 points is a lot.
I looked carefully at his word, "agenetic."
How did he know that word? I know he's going to college now to learn to make phone apps so maybe he learned it there.
I played my turn, using my "j" and waited for the impressed reaction.
"Haj" was his entry for something like 43 points, using my "j."
What? Where did that come from?
I chatted him, lightly accusing him of playing open-book Scrabble and shopping for words and lucking out.
"That's the only way I can play this game," he said.
Then I got a return play from Marc in the game we had going. He placed the word "mor" in a space that netted him more than 40 points.
I know that "mor" is not a word we both know and use.
I called him. "Since when is "mor" a word?" I asked heatedly.
He finally admitted to trying a few things and being surprised when the game accepted his word.
I told him that was cheating. He said "All's fair in Words With Friends"  because it's not regulation Scrabble. For instance, the triple word spaces are in different places and the board is laid out differently.
I'm ticked and uncertain as to how to proceed. And now I'm hearing something about "Words With Friends Cheats." (Don't think of it as cheating but as a way of playing smarter? Whaaaaat?")
I'm suspecting that if we keep at this, it may lead to actual words with friends, words I might regret.

3 comments:

  1. Haj has been used against me before.
    As for agenetic, it was genetic before I tried it with an A in front to get the extra 35 points for placing all 7 letters.

    I have to experiment with the letters. That's what I meant.

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