FFS. Just tried to play "fag" in the official iPad app and it wouldn't allow it. Just tested some swear words too and they're not allowed either. And there's not even an option not to censor the dictionary. When the fuck did this happen?
― Alba, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:12 (thirteen years ago) link
played it for the 1st time ever in October, i'm now hooked.can't believe it's taken me 37 years to actually play this game.
― not_goodwin, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
I started playing again, boy am I lousy.
― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:19 (thirteen years ago) link
i really need to get back to playing this. I used to have several regular rivalries w/ folks whose formidable skillz challenged me to take this kind of seriously, at least to the extent that I memorized all the acceptable two-letter words & also developed quite a skill & making bingos. Once I got formed a bingo ending in S which also pluralized another, existing word ON A TIPLE WORD SCORE SPACE, no less, & also I believe I double or triple letter-scored a high-point letter in the same fell-swoop. The point total for that word (which escapes me at present, tho I have it written down somewhere) was, I believe, in excess of 250 pts. - so, yes, I am both a dork and a badass!
Classic, obv.
― jerkstore cowboy (Pillbox), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Steve do you play Words Free on your iphone?
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:26 (thirteen years ago) link
"Once I got formed a bingo ending in S which also pluralized another, existing word ON A TIPLE WORD SCORE SPACE, no less, & also I believe I double or triple letter-scored a high-point letter in the same fell-swoop."
Whoever let you get access to a triple word score off a pluralized word should be shot. That's terrible play right there.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:27 (thirteen years ago) link
The word ASININE just spelled itself on my rack, which I played for a bingo. A suitable comment on Mattel's removal if "fag" from the dictionary.
― Alba, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:28 (thirteen years ago) link
iirc, I believe I was set myself up for that, betting against the other player being able to utilize the chance & then it just so happens I got the tiles to not only use the s for both words, but also to make a bingo.
xp
― jerkstore cowboy (Pillbox), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:29 (thirteen years ago) link
xp lol
― jerkstore cowboy (Pillbox), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I am playing Scrabble in face to face environment, not isc nor wwf. i had one game with 500+ points but several sub 400 point efforts including a low 300 point game which was pretty :-(.
― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:34 (thirteen years ago) link
I think I'm about 75-5 against random opponents on Words w/Friends. When we started the ILX Literati tourney a few years ago, Edward III beat me so bad I gave the game up for a few years.
― pixel farmer, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Anybody ever want to play a non-rated game on isc, let me know. It's got to be non-rated, though, to save me from myself.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:40 (thirteen years ago) link
personally, I am afraid to start playing online b/c of the distractibility factor. I barely have enough self-discipline to get any work done as it is.
― jerkstore cowboy (Pillbox), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:47 (thirteen years ago) link
It's not a distraction for me. It simply takes over my life.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:49 (thirteen years ago) link
o I def think it is a worthwhile endeavor, for the brain workout & all, it is just that I don't get paid to do it. nor do I get paid to drink booze or post on ilx :-(
― jerkstore cowboy (Pillbox), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Had to give this up. Every game was either a) me winning by so much it was embarrassing; ii) me losing by so much it was embarrassing; or 3) a tense nailbiter with hours of mental torture trying to wring every last possible point and tactical advantange out of every move. None of these things were fun.
― e.g. delete via naivete (ledge), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 23:11 (thirteen years ago) link
hahaha great description *sigh*
― dayo, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 23:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Scrabble has provided me with many hours of harmless enjoyment, so I will rate it on the classic side of the equation. Among my siblings and I it caused fewer internecine feuds than, say, Monopoly or Risk, and had more scope for skill than, say, Candyland or Stratego.
But no one should ever, ever, ever make the mistake of thinking that Scrabble has more than a passing connection to one's aptitude for language.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 01:13 (thirteen years ago) link
more of a spatial logic challenge ime
― jerkstore cowboy (Pillbox), Wednesday, 22 December 2010 01:16 (thirteen years ago) link
That's something I learned pretty quickly when I started playing online seven or eight years ago (triggered by Fatsis's book). It basically comes down to: 1) ability to anagram, 2) board and rack management, and 3) mastery of goofy Scrabble words--kaf, zoon, atonies, etc. (For me, #4 would be facility with goofy "-ers" bingos: moaners, nodders, milkers, etc.) Everyday working vocabulary ranks about ninth on the list. Knowing a lot of words will get you out of a tough spot occasionally.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 01:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Having said that, I'm a big fan of moaners.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 01:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Saw in the paper this morning that the big NSC tournament is about to start, and supposedly the favorite to win is a woman from Toronto:
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/07/word-power
But when I checked NASPA's own page, they've only got Daniel ranked third in the province:
http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/ratings/bystate.html
So I don't why she'd be deemed the favorite--maybe she's in the midst of a DiMaggio-like hit streak. Anyway, I like that Ontario's ranked #1.
― clemenza, Monday, 8 August 2011 12:26 (twelve years ago) link
The reader's comments on the first piece really make one proud to be Canadian.
― clemenza, Monday, 8 August 2011 12:29 (twelve years ago) link
I would suggest that the media focused on a woman as she's one of the few women who play in the top section in North America - Scrabble is still seen as a curiosity that the media needs an "angle" into, and women stand out amid a sea of largely interchangeable nerdy men. She's certainly a good player but I'd be very surprised if she finished top 10. Before the event my money would have been on Nigel Richards or Kenji Matsumoto.
― unskinny blap (edwardo), Monday, 8 August 2011 14:09 (twelve years ago) link
(And no, pretty much nobody at the event would be rating her among the favourites to win)
― unskinny blap (edwardo), Monday, 8 August 2011 14:11 (twelve years ago) link
I have to say that the internet has taken much of the fun out of the game for me (too much time in online Scrabble groups).
I could go for a game of Candyland or Life right now.
― ReRecorded, ReMastered (Mount Cleaners), Monday, 8 August 2011 14:38 (twelve years ago) link
I've been on the wagon for five or six months, so I didn't need to read this, but fascinating nonetheless:
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/gaming/2012/08/scrabble_cheating_the_real_story_behind_the_stolen_blanks_scandal_at_the_national_scrabble_championship_.single.html
(They must be trying to honor the game with the pointlessly lengthy URL.)
― clemenza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
http://magratheazaphod.livejournal.com/333131.html
― queequeg (peter grasswich), Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:45 (eleven years ago) link
http://p.twimg.com/A0WqdLtCEAAB4--.jpg
― Mordy, Sunday, 19 August 2012 05:47 (eleven years ago) link
http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/04/news/scrabble-dictionary/index.html?sr=fb080514scrabblewords130pStoryLink
"Hashtag," "selfie," "mixtape," "bling" (I've been waiting for that one--had it turned down by various computer opponents many times), etc. That's good. I hope they don't get stupid and start adding internet acronyms, though. Those things need to be eliminated from the world, not encouraged. (I can guess the next post.)
― clemenza, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 20:42 (nine years ago) link
What happens when you play too much Scrabble: you're looking at E-F-L-O-R-W-?. You immediately spot F-L-O-W-E-R-S, but you pause, because you're not 100% sure it's a word. "Flower...something that flows...yes, that should be a word."
― clemenza, Friday, 26 September 2014 00:06 (nine years ago) link
Had to laugh when Meadow Soprano laid "oblique" (season 3, the episode where she's sick and playing with Jackie Jr. in her dorm) in such a no-big-deal way. I've never played "oblique"--not even sure I'd recognize it on the rack if the letters were scrambled enough. She didn't mention the 50-point bonus, either.
― clemenza, Saturday, 20 August 2016 01:37 (seven years ago) link
Same scene, three years later: Jackie Aprile, Jr., worst Scrabble player ever. (Three words: "ass," "poo," "the"...laid two s's so he could get four points. (Actually was after more than that, but that didn't work out either.)
― clemenza, Sunday, 21 June 2020 19:33 (three years ago) link
Totally legit: "quashing" on a triple-triple for 216 + 50 = 266 points (729 for the game). I knew I was headed for a high game score, so I wanted to take a screenshot right when the game ended--it was Pogo against the computer--but I forgot they immediately go to a different screen, so I didn't get a chance to.
― clemenza, Thursday, 25 June 2020 05:53 (three years ago) link
legit flex
― assert (MatthewK), Thursday, 25 June 2020 06:17 (three years ago) link
If you were trying to figure out the theoretically highest-scoring play you could make, I have to believe "quashing," situated so that you could hook an 's' onto the beginning for "squashing" (a triple score) and start a triple-triple in a downwards direction (you'd need to hook onto another letter in the middle of that word), would be part of it. You could probably score over 400 points on a single play.
― clemenza, Thursday, 25 June 2020 06:26 (three years ago) link
I'm still sore about this 12 years later:
https://live.staticflickr.com/3292/2830369713_c6d93b2d28_c.jpg
SK(A)TINGS, 167pts penultimate move, overcoming my 155pt lead.
(I'm not really; Pam used to kill me on a regular basis.)
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 25 June 2020 11:48 (three years ago) link
and a callback to the first post in the thread!
― assert (MatthewK), Thursday, 25 June 2020 12:45 (three years ago) link
"Skatings"--I'll never understand some of the permissible pluralizations of -ing words in Scrabble. Even "skating" as a noun seems weird to me ("We had a great skating yesterday afternoon"?--wouldn't you just say "We had a great skate"?).
I thought about (s)quashing, and I don't think you could get over 400. If you hooked on "sizzlers," with the first 'z' a blank and the common 's' in the top left corner, you'd get:
squashing = 22 x 3 = 66sizzlers = 26 x 9 = 234bonus = 50
total = 350
Which is less than the record play, 392 for "caziques."
http://bestlifeonline.com/highest-scoring-scrabble-move/
Now I'm compelled to figure out "caziques" hooked onto "quashing." That might do it.
― clemenza, Thursday, 25 June 2020 14:08 (three years ago) link
looked @ some screenshots, its almost the 4 yr anniversary of someone playing 'uniquest' on me for 275 pts in wwf (final score of that game was 737-428, i kept it respectable lol)
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 25 June 2020 14:14 (three years ago) link
This has already been a big issue a couple of times in the past (going back to the late '70s, I think).
http://www.cnn.com/2020/07/09/us/scrabble-slurs-ban-trnd/index.html
― clemenza, Friday, 10 July 2020 01:58 (three years ago) link
This was a good article on the debate, especially on the reasons not to ban them:
https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/06/scrabble-players-debate-slurs.html
― neith moon (ledge), Friday, 10 July 2020 09:33 (three years ago) link
Thanks, I'll read that for sure. It was Stefan Fatsis I blame for my addiction in the first place--his Word Freak got me started 15 years ago.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 July 2020 13:08 (three years ago) link
That was interesting, thanks. Yeah, it's a tough call. Words are often offensive based on how they are used, or certainly how they are received, but they're still ... words, with meanings, offensive or not, that could and do appear in books, and music, and movies, in all sorts of contexts, sometimes to be offensive, sometimes to comment on offensiveness, and so on. Removing these words from Scrabble play seems like a slippery slope, not because of censorship or because it's any great loss, but because there must be countless dumb semi-words in the Scrabble dictionary that probably have equal basis for removal once you apply some sort of (non-point) value to it. At the same time, there are some words whose complete erasure from the English language would probably make the world a better place, so ... I dunno.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 July 2020 13:32 (three years ago) link
Hmm, thinking about it a couple of more minutes more, I think a better solution could have been to allow those words but penalize their play. Fewer points, or subtracting a few points, something like that, which would both disincentivize their use and also acknowledge their offensiveness. Just like in professional sports, there are certain things you can do to foul or draw a foul or otherwise do something wrong on purpose strategically, even if it comes at a cost. Playing these words could have been recontextualized as desperation moves that come at a price, which I assume is kind of how they were often played, anyway.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 July 2020 13:56 (three years ago) link
Kudos to Gabriel in The Americans (Frank Langella), who plays both "phlox" and "stygian" against a very skeptical Philip. (Philip lays "askew," no blanks visible, and is credited with 20 points on a double-word score. The only way that works is if he extended "as" with the "kew," but why would either of these very good players have played "as"?)
― clemenza, Saturday, 22 August 2020 02:08 (three years ago) link
Usual disclaimer: against the Pogo computer, where you're allowed to "steal" a blank (i.e., if the blank's on the board and you have the matching letter on your rack, you can switch). So scoring is much easier (I'm over 400 about 90% of the time).
I think this is my highest single-game score ever, and also the first time I laid two triple-triples ("quainter" and "braiders"--the first was for 203 points). I took a screenshot of the board right before my final play, but then accidentally replaced it with this.
http://phildellio.tripod.com/778.jpg
― clemenza, Wednesday, 16 September 2020 03:14 (three years ago) link
sweet!
― error prone wolf syndicate (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 16 September 2020 03:17 (three years ago) link
I can't seem to post photos anymore on ILX, so you'll have to trust me here...Highest single play ever, I'm pretty sure: "mesquite" across a triple-triple, with the 'q' falling on the double-letter, 311 points (261 for the play + bonus). I laid down "quite" initially--the 'u' was already down--which would have been worth 72, noticed 'mes' still on the rack; "'mesquite,' that sounds familiar..." It was my third play of the game: I started with "cutties," then "tux" for 26, so I had 411 points after three plays. Followed with "wailers," and I started thinking of an 800-point game. Finished with 735.
Pogo, computer, etc.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 25 November 2020 03:33 (three years ago) link
I can post photos again, so here was my "mesquite" play from two months ago.
https://phildellio.tripod.com/mesquite.jpg
Also, I took Scrabble as my category for a Zoom trivia group tonight. My questions:
1. What are two most valuable tiles in terms of point value?2. What are the two most valuable tiles strategically?3. Which three consonants are the most common tiles (name one)?4. What is a triple-triple?5. Within 100 points either way, what is the highest game score ever in tournament play?6. Within 10 years either way, when was the game invented?7. What is the 7-letter word that uses the ‘q’ and all five vowels?8. What is the meaning of either ‘qi’ or ‘za’?9. Name one of the two famous game companies that rejected Scrabble?10. In the film Rosemary’s Baby, what does Rosemary learn when she spills out all the Scrabble tiles and starts anagramming?
Obviously, some of those are giveaways. My categories for the last three--movies, post-war presidents, and the Beatles--produced average scores of 2 or 3 out 10, even though I thought most of the questions were basic. So I'm feeling pressure to up those scores. Meanwhile, I routinely score 2 or 3 out of 10 on categories like Italian cooking or inventions. I live in a different universe, evidently.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:10 (three years ago) link