Do any of you play Words with Friends? I am trying to figure out how they get the words. And of course you can't argue anything because you just can't press "play" if they don't think it's a word. But I have good evidence (dictionary entries) that it is a word (such as ok or cuz) so it's a little annoying. And I hate to lose.
It is like online scrabble with friends, except you can only play those words they allow. I've just started playing so I haven't learned their allowed words yet, but my partner has and uses them. So I am losing!
The problem with games like this is that you can spam the engine - play a bunch of random letters until the game accepts them as a word. It's not really about words at all.
Real life Scrabble is different because you can challenge the words your opponent plays, so you need to know what word you are playing and what it means.
Yes, I so see your point, Goofy. And I get mad that certain letters aren't a word. I was so wishing there were a word "quaser" as I'd have gotten 129 points! Unfortunately I didn't have 2 "a's."
As far as "jin," the words shouldn't be in other languages nor should they be proper nouns so I don't get it, and she got a lot of points with it. I did find "aa," though I wonder how many times it has been used - or how many people know it.
As I thought about it, while I agree with Goofy that Words with Friends is different from Scrabble (the latter probably requiring more knowledge), I still learn from it. When my opponent posts words like aa, I look them up - and get mad because I don't think jin is legit.
Aha! And here is a word that my sister had recently (for 72 blanking points!), "amis." I looked it up and it says it's from French, meaning boyfriends. I've not heard of it, but then I've not heard of every word in the dictionary, either.
It is a frustrating game because you also have to play defensively. So, when I have a word I really want to play, inevitably it sets my sister up with a triple word or whatever. In order to win, I have to play stupid short words and wait for her to open the triple words.
The problem with games like this is that you can spam the engine - play a bunch of random letters until the game accepts them as a word. It's not really about words at all.
There are lots of ways to cheat, too. Like finding from their "word radar" the longest words and then look for them in an anagram finder. Or - put into Google certain combinations of letters. I am sure there are other ways. I don't cheat and I am sure my sister, whom I play with, doesn't either. But I am sure some people do. Our cousin who plays my sister wins about 90% of the time - not too likely.
