One of my favorite apps on the iPhone is Words With Friends – or “Scrabble” for the copyright-challenged.
I’ve always been a word-game buff, be it Scramble, Wheel of Fortune, or generic word find puzzles in Highlights magazine.
I’m guessing newtoyinc gets around the “Scrabble” copyright issue by calling it “Words with Friends” – also, astute players will notice a different pattern of double-letter, triple-letter, double-word and triple-word tiles.
However, during last week’s pool league, Ren and I started talking about modifications that should be pretty easy to code in the app that might make it more fun for people.
We think that when you create a new game, you should be able to select the “type” of game:
Lowest Score Wins
Self-explanatory. Now you have to avoid the tile score modifiers, and hope the OTHER guy gets the Q, Z, J or X. (perhaps you already wish that?). I think this option might get more people willing to play.
Word Length Bonus
Instead of just getting the points on the letters and whatever tile modifiers you place the word on, you get bonus points for the length of the word. In standard rules, you only get a bonus for using all 7 tiles, but it would be an interesting dynamic to also get, say 5 extra points for a 5-letter word, 10 points for a 6 letter word, and an additional 5 points for every letter after that.
Another variation of this would to be to also count appended words instead of just use of tiles out of the tray. Now “e” + “d” are a lot more valuable!
Speed Games
Another interesting type of play would be to actually play head to head and not allow turn-by-turn delays. You get 1 minute to play, and that’s it. If you don’t take your turn in the allotted time, you lose an extra turn (your opponent gets to play twice).
Can you think of some?
btw #1: if you want to play me, my username is in the picture above. Warning: sometimes I play several times in a day, and there have been times when I went a week without playing my move.
btw #2: STROBING is *so* a word! ARGH. Two TL’s and a TW’s, not to mention using all my letters!!!
(and no, there was NO place to play “storing” or ”sorting”)
I keep seeing these Words With Friends tweets. I didn’t know what it was before until now. Seriously. One of these days, I will have to try it out so you can beat me, like you are beating Ren in that game above.
.-= martymankins´s last blog ..The Eyes Have It =-.
I love this game! Whenever I am bored, I open it up and play my twenty games I have going on any given Sunday!
Heh. I don’t have anything Appley, but have been considering playing Lexulous on FB to play with some tweeps. ;p
I love Words with Friends! I don’t even care that Ren, Hilly, and Adam win almost every game.
What’s your name on Words With Friends? We can play. I never beat anybody!
.-= Finn´s last blog ..Timeline =-.
I should really try this out sometime… But I probably won’t.
.-= Sybil Law´s last blog ..Um… =-.
That seems to happen more often than it should.
When I play this game, I ALWAYS secretly play “Lowest Score Wins” without telling my opponent until AFTER the game is over. Then everybody wins!
But really just me.
.-= Dave2´s last blog ..Bullet Sunday 165 =-.
I need that “lowest score wins.” I always get three Is and four Vs or the opportunity to get a great word with no where to put it.
And two things need to be changed with this game: 1. It needs a shuffle feature so the tiles on your rack can be moved. I need visuals! 2. It needs to learn more words. Frustrating.
.-= Finn´s last blog ..Timeline =-.
I’d like to point out that I nearly won this game anyway and only lost by 2 points. A slight play difference at the end would have probably let me win — I should really pay attention to what letters my opponent must have left at the end.
Even though Ren and a number of others are constantly kicking my butt on this game, I still enjoy it. Like you, though, I’m godawful at making timely moves sometimes. OK, a lot.
Lowest score games are a great idea. I do wish they’d change the word dictionary to something more globally recognized, though. I find quite a few words that aren’t “words” as far as Words With Friends is concerned.
.-= Karl´s last blog ..Two Near-Death Experiences in a Week Will Really Take it Out of You =-.
I always like word games. Lately a friend introduced me a new game EPELER, it’s a cute word arcade game. I need to make as many words as possible from the falling letters, and the goal is to clean up the world. Took me 2 days to see the ending~
By the way my words with friends id is hihecat, wanna start a game?