Another game of Scrabble against Scrabblette at scrabulous.com. A glorious victory to her - 368 to 295 using Australian scoring rules. My best word (and only bingo) was BEETING which I'm not very proud of because it's only in the dictionary and we can't find out what it means. I had a chance to play TIDALLY but couldn't figure out where to put it and had to play DELAY instead. There weren't many turns in this game - about 11 each. Scrabblette keeps making long words and using up all the letters. I got stuck with loads of vowels and struggled badly in the beginning, which is how I ended up making RIB and ARIA. There's always next time...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Got My Butt Handed To Me
Another game of Scrabble against Scrabblette at scrabulous.com. A glorious victory to her - 368 to 295 using Australian scoring rules. My best word (and only bingo) was BEETING which I'm not very proud of because it's only in the dictionary and we can't find out what it means. I had a chance to play TIDALLY but couldn't figure out where to put it and had to play DELAY instead. There weren't many turns in this game - about 11 each. Scrabblette keeps making long words and using up all the letters. I got stuck with loads of vowels and struggled badly in the beginning, which is how I ended up making RIB and ARIA. There's always next time...
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11 comments:
How do you choose Australian scoring rules?
Do you and Scrabblette play with an open dictionary? I'm impressed - I've never even heard of some of those words before.
You can't choose Australian scoring rules. I can't get it to add the points at the end no matter what.
The way we've been playing the computer won't let you play invalid words. So if you're allowed to play it it must be right. BEETING was allowed but we can't find out what it means. I think we should try challenge rules which I hope means there is no dictionary and you have to challenge. I played BEETING because it was the only bingo I could think of with those letters and it was in the dictionary.
I'm torn between playing the best rules for learning new words and the fairest rules for the most skillful players.
Traditional rules for Scrabble mean this: Any word can be accepted, but if it is challenged, it must be looked up in the dictionary. A standard dictionary is chosen before the game. If the word is found in the dictionary, it is allowed, if not, the word is removed, and the player does not get any points for that round.
In Australia there is NO penalty for challenging. In the US, there is a penalty for challenging (I can't remember what), so you would only challenge if you thought the word was wrong, whereas in Australia you might as well challenge every darn word.
The dictionary may NOT be used to check before you play a turn "if this word is in the dictionary"
That way, the skills of the player are not just in being able to arrange letters well, and put them out cleverly, but to:
a) know before gameplay the acceptable words
b) to bluff the opponent, if they put out a weird word
Mr Coffee and I use a program called "Quackle" to play Scrabble, which tells you if a word is invalid, but asks if you want to play it anyway, so it is possible to play an invalid word, though you can kick yourself for not challenging it!
BEETING:
Surely to do with eating a beetroot. Or to have a beetroot, without rooting it.
This is a weakness in Scrabble in my opinion. By the Australian rules you might as well challenge, but that would spoil the game. By American rules you can bluff, which is not really how I want to play the game. I wish there was some compromise.
I did find that while a beet was a noun (as I'm sure Friendless knew), there is a verb, BEETE
1. To mend; to repair.
2. To renew or enkindle (a fire).
Not sure if BEETING would have to do with either BEETE or the noun BEET (the vegetable) OR the Olde English spelling of "beat", per'aps? Or something else altogether?
Let's see if you can think up a new & better way to play Scrabble Friendless ... you might revolutionise the ol' game. After all, there's the Simpson's SCrabble (I think it allows KWYJIBO) , and several othre versions of Scrabble, why not a Friendless Scrabble?
"why not a Friendless Scrabble?"
Well... who would you play it with?
I didn't know my name was a Scrabble word!
I don't know what a "maria" is. I think the phrase "Black Maria" is capitalised. I'm finding lots of Scrabble words that don't appear to have real meanings.
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