Game of the week: Scrabulous
I’ve been playing a couple of games of Scrabulous on facebook lately.
The legally quite contested take on the classic Scrabble word game works well, and is recommended to all fans of the game. This version of the game is optimized for sneak peeks during the working day, since the interaction between players is minimal and there’s absolutely no need for simultaneous activity (there is a token messaging mechanism for gloating).
The game works as expected, and keeps statistics across the tens of million games played. Sadly, the statistics on used words is not available, since easy browsability would lead to rampant cheating. That is, if looking for words outside the game IS indeed considered to be cheating.
Dictionaries are available in three languages, and I seriously think whoever’s been using words like “SINGHIOZZEREBBE” (worth 2000+ points alone) to outscore his opponents has probably has probably been shooting for this word since the very beginning of the game - the fact that the same guy has used the word in multiple games is even scarier. My top word’s been worth 36 points thus far, “JETS” hit both a triple-square and used the “s” to complete another word - hence the unexpectedly high take.
enile:
The people scoring with these unlikely words are cooperating with their opponents - they plan a desired result for the board then swap tiles until they have the required tiles to progress. So the games are not really games at all (just bids for transient fame), and you might easily beat such a player in an actual contest (though perhaps not if your best word score is 36). You can observe their behaviour by opening a completed game and looking at the turn sequence.
March 29, 2008, 15:43lavonardo:
Thanks for the information, I began to figure this out by looking at the scoring stats - it’s always the same guy who scored big with this word. Looking at the individual games confirms what’s been going on.
March 29, 2008, 18:09And yeah, my best word score remains the 36 achieved with JETS, but I’m certain that it’ll improve sooner or later.