Scrabble - Classic or Dud?

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http://www.acentral.klub.org/richard/crossword.jpg

Alan (Alan), Thursday, 29 August 2002 08:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

I prefer Boggle to Scrabble, but i love most word games

rainy, Thursday, 29 August 2002 08:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Love/hate. I am good with words/anagrams crossword skillz) but a poor strategist. I am sometimes hysterially competitive. I will cheat, but I will tell you this. I am a sore loser but a shamefully triumphalist winner. IN short, even if I did decide to reenter the psychological minefield that is Scrabble, I'd be lucky to find someone still prepared to play with me.

Ellie (Ellie), Thursday, 29 August 2002 10:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Felicity that's an amazing fact.

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 29 August 2002 13:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...
soemone left word freak downstairs on the "communal bookshelf" in the laundry room. i can't wait to read it. i searched the ile archives and i'm not at all surprised by its popularity around here.

stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:58 (nineteen years ago) link

some girl on OKCUPID was talking to me about that book today! i still haven't read it. Can ILX have a Literati league? please?

Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Can ILX have a Literati league? please?

i will kick ALL your asses

stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:00 (nineteen years ago) link

i would like to play scrabble. I should buy a board

kyle (akmonday), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:04 (nineteen years ago) link

you so should.

also, how can I be quite good at Scrabble, but not too good at Clive Doig's Trackword.

MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 28 August 2004 14:37 (nineteen years ago) link

go see WORD WARS [scrabble documentary] , the companion film to word freak that i think just got released to video.

as for literati, i welcome all challengers. I'd watch out for JuliaA.

gygax! (gygax!), Saturday, 28 August 2004 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link

dud dud dud when you play with someone that has been reading the scrabble dictionary.

Carey (Carey), Saturday, 28 August 2004 17:34 (nineteen years ago) link

ILX Lit league? I'm in.

Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 28 August 2004 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Literati has the nice feature of always giving you a blank. I think that's nice and friendly. Particularly if you're a blank-counting sod like me.

edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:03 (nineteen years ago) link

The last time I played Scrabble, my opponant got an 8-letter word. On a triple word score. On his first bloody go. Bastard. Giving him a 100-point headstart.

(partly, I was pissed off because if I'd put *my* first word one space to the side he wouldn't have got the triple word score)

(it was MORAINES, I think)

caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I zonked an opponent with MOFUSSIL yesterday. I was so proud.

edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:23 (nineteen years ago) link

mo' fussil, less bussil

the music mole (colin s barrow), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link

A rural area in India or Pakistan, apparently.

edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I bet there are lots of anicuts in a mofussil

(anicut is my favourite obscure word at the moment)

caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Are there any good online Scrabble sites besides the Internet Scrabble Club (the one on the Romanian server)? I like Literati, but sometimes I get sick of games with 8 or 9 esses or three J's and would like to play actual Scrabble and not a knockoff. But ISC's interface is teh suck for Mac users.

Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:35 (nineteen years ago) link

what's all y'alls' literati ratings?

i'm 2290.

gygax! (gygax!), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:47 (nineteen years ago) link

I just beat Carey in scrabble. I was afraid she was gonna win, but then I got FADER on a triple word score/E on a dbl letter. Tiiiiggght.

Ian c=====8 (orion), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:51 (nineteen years ago) link

IRC won't let me on lately...I'm not sure what's up with that. I could only get on the backup server anyway, and there weren't usually that many good players on.

Games.com has a good scrabble site, though sometimes it gets cranky and is difficult to get into. I've been playing on there most lately, when I play.

Shit, gygax, that's a really fucking good rating. I don't think I ever got much above 2150 or so at literati. I'm 1962 now, or something like that. So, no need to watch out for me lately...though I'm always up for a game.

I had "leucines" once in literati, and was so proud. For just a moment, my sci education amounted to something...

JuliaA (j_bdules), Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Rock, there used to be a channel called #scrabble on the Undernet where you'd hook up with people and play using other software. No idea what's out there for the Mac though, but I have heard the Mac interface is awful and that the command/talk window overlaps the input box.

Literati people accuse me of cheating, so I stopped playing it.

edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 28 August 2004 22:02 (nineteen years ago) link

I've just realised I didn't post about a striking Scrabble moment for me. I mentioned I am used to winning, generally by a large margin, but I was playing with my girlfriend and her flatmate (who I didn't much know) a couple of Christmasses ago, and was struggling. I did win, but that guy came really close to me, and I was worried that I was losing it, and thinking of excuses (I followed him, and he gave me nothing, whereas my girlfriend wasn't so mean - she was Italian, and playing in a second language has to be a big disadvantge). Then he said something about when he was playing in the national championships last year, and I felt much better.

I'd like to play some good players sometime, and I bet there are many on here. I've never like studied any Scrabble dictionaries or learnt words with Q, Z, X and J in them or anything like that, which I suspect means really good and serious players might wipe the floor with me.

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 28 August 2004 22:09 (nineteen years ago) link

That much more reason that there should be ilx literati...someone called me a cheating cunt once because I kept getting bingos. (xp)

Those kind of words are fairly easy to pick up on with time, Martin...we should play sometime!

JuliaA (j_bdules), Saturday, 28 August 2004 22:12 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't have enough online time really these days for games*, and have never played Literati so don't know if I'd be good at it. I think I was the ILX champ at TextTwist, if it's anything vaguely like that.

* time limits on my ISP deal, plus I'm generally doing a couple of things at once most of the time I'm online (browsing ILX, FT, other things; talking on AIM to a couple of people; answering emails), meaning either I'll miss time limits or keep an opponent waiting an unconscionable amount of time.

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 28 August 2004 22:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Some mofo had the last U, when i pulled a Q on my last go. It now stands Ian 1/Carey 0.

Carey (Carey), Saturday, 28 August 2004 22:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I just played a lit game and I got 4 bingos! But Greg was having horrible luck, so it was really uneven...

JuliaA (j_bdules), Saturday, 28 August 2004 23:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm at 2055 right now, have been as high as 2170. But I'm pretty indiscriminate and will play against ratings as low as 1750, so I'm probably a natural high-1900s.

Christ, Gygax, next time I want an asskicking I'll look you up.

Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 28 August 2004 23:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Same to you, Martin.

Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 28 August 2004 23:28 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...
Yesterday I spelled INQUIRE, on a triple word score, with the Q on a double letter score, using all seven letters in one turn, and creating a second triple-scoring word off of the E, for a one-move total of 128 points. I will post a blurry cameraphone photo of my triumph this evening.

nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 31 August 2005 19:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Someone once played "unquoted" against me on the ISC. I still don't totally get how that's a word (how do you unquote someone?), but it did count. The word stretched across both the left and middle triple-word-score on the top row, multiplying the value by nine. With the 50-point bonus, it was worth 224 points.

merritt ranew (merritt), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 20:20 (eighteen years ago) link

"unquoted" is an adjective, not a verb.

Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 20:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks...The previously unquoted Forest Pines has now been quoted!

merritt ranew (merritt), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 21:31 (eighteen years ago) link

My name is "joshii" if anyone would like to play me on the ISC

JTS, Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:08 (eighteen years ago) link

It's a good thing the Scrabble site sucks for Macs, because otherwise I'd get on there and several months later they'd find my decomposing body leaking fluids onto the keyboard.

Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:41 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate to tell you, but it's much better these days. There's a browser-independent Java application called Wordbiz that has improved the interface quite a bit. So ready set leak!

Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh lord I may never work again.

Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 1 September 2005 01:17 (eighteen years ago) link

JTS--look for "clemenza" and we'll play...My rating bounces around between 1100-1300. I have to force myself to only play occasionally, because I've got an awful addiction, but I'll likely be on this weekend.

merritt ranew (merritt), Thursday, 1 September 2005 01:59 (eighteen years ago) link

eleven months pass...
I bought Scrabble yesterday (and Yahtzee). I wuv it. The first time I played it (as far as I remember) and I'm completely hooked. I lost of course, but I didn't mind at all.

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Sunday, 20 August 2006 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Scrabble is awesome! Losing to your younger brother at it due to subtracted remaining letter scores, however, isn't.

Scourage (Haberdager), Sunday, 20 August 2006 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

where can i find that apple scrabble game????

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Sunday, 20 August 2006 12:03 (seventeen years ago) link

God, those awful obscure letters in scrabble! Who conjured them up man !

akk (akk), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link

programs like these is why i love when you play someone online and they're pretty competitive and then you play face to face and completely mop the floor with them.

actually, that's pretty much why i don't play online anymore.

Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:00 (seventeen years ago) link

I have to keep the WordBiz program off of my computer, or I can't stop playing it :(

A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 03:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Nathalie: http://www.isc.ro/
The Download link gets you to the Mac version of Wordbiz, and that site's also where you pick up games.

I haven't really played much since Edward O annihilated me in the ILX Literati tourney. :(

Danny Aioli (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 03:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Wine Very Game

aaron d.g. (aaron d.g.), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link

two years pass...

These are fun.

Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Friday, 2 January 2009 19:54 (fifteen years ago) link

one year passes...

reads like it shouldve come out on april 1st

johnny crunch, Monday, 5 April 2010 19:09 (fourteen 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

two months pass...

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

365 points on one play ("quizzers")--she out-mesquited me.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/chatham-scrabble-word-score-quizzers-1.5915155

clemenza, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 01:06 (three years ago) link

The fuck.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 01:10 (three years ago) link

ha that is great, I love that the app enables some official validation

John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 17 February 2021 02:59 (three years ago) link

Not only did she draw two z's and a q, but also the necessary u, plus some other nice vowels and an s. Her word play was excellent, but her tile draw was off the charts and over the moon.

Compromise isn't a principle, it's a method (Aimless), Wednesday, 17 February 2021 04:14 (three years ago) link

I think best of all, it's not some obscure word that no one has ever heard of.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 13:16 (three years ago) link

Classic until somebody starts trying to tell me I can't have Antinazi cos they want it to need a hyphen.
Gorlumme what a complete load of tosh. plenitude of irrational convolution, like.

Stevolende, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 13:20 (three years ago) link

two weeks pass...

After almost 20 years and approximately ___________ games of online Scrabble (too embarrassed to fill that in), first time I ever played "gumshoe."

https://phildellio.tripod.com/gumshoe.jpg

clemenza, Thursday, 4 March 2021 03:43 (three years ago) link

one year passes...

Scrabble Go accepts the word "grrrl".

Just thought you should know.

Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 18:18 (one year ago) link

six months pass...

This has happened to me before, and it's pretty much the best evidence I can think of that you play way, way too much Scrabble: you're looking at f-l-o-w-e-r-s on your rack, and your first thought is "Is that a word? Someone or something that flows?"

clemenza, Tuesday, 13 December 2022 23:21 (one year ago) link

There is a great story in Gwen Raverat's "Period Piece," her memoir of growing up in the Darwin household, where they're playing anagrams and Charles Darwin wanders through, looks at the board and goes "Moth-er? There's no such word as "moth-er."

Lily Dale, Wednesday, 14 December 2022 01:44 (one year ago) link

Sounds about right. You just start to see words differently, automatically breaking them down into recognizable building blocks, and four-letter-verb + "ers" are the easiest bingos to spot, hence "flow-ers."

clemenza, Wednesday, 14 December 2022 02:48 (one year ago) link


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