Online Scrabble Craze

[y66]

NEW DELHI — The latest bane of office productivity is Scrabulous, a virtual knockoff of the Scrabble board game, with over 700,000 players a day and nearly three million registered users.

 

Fans of the game are obsessive. They play against friends, co-workers, family members and strangers, and many have several games going at once.

 

Everyone seems to love the online game — everyone, that is, except the companies that own the rights to Scrabble: Hasbro, which sells it in North America, and Mattel, which markets it everywhere else.

 

The rest of the story ... by Heather Timmons in today's New York Times.

[barmar]

What rights do Hasbro and Mattel actually own? The article says that the inventor's patent was denied, so I guess they must be claiming copyright. But the game was created in 1931 -- wouldn't the copyright have expired by now?

[Winstonm]

S C R A B B L E

U

C

K

S

[matmat]

S C R A B B L E

U          R 

C          I

K          D           

S          G             

            E

[han]

S C R A B B L E

U          R 

C          I

K          D            

S          G             

   F O R E V E R

Your turn Winston.

[Winstonm]

S C R A B B L E

U          R 

C U I S  I N E 

K          D            

S          G             

   F O R E V E R

 

To make it harder, it should make a haiku, to boot.

[matmat]

S C R A B B L E

U          R      N

C U I S  I N E  S

K          D      N     

S          G      A     

  F O R E V E R

                    E

                    S

 

To make it harder, it should make a haiku, to boot.

Have we used all the Ns, Es or Ss yet?

[Winstonm]

No, but I think we've made a haiku:

 

Scrabble cuisine sucks

bridge ensnares

forever

 

Are they serving lunch during the break?

[matmat]

Are they serving lunch during the break?

yes, charades to be played afterwards.

[Winstonm]

Are they serving lunch during the break?

yes, charades to be played afterwards.

That sounds like......two syllables....first syllable....

[finally17]

S C R A B B L E

U          R      N

C U I S  I N E  S

K          D      N     

S          G      A     

  F O R E V E R

                    E

                    S

 

To make it harder, it should make a haiku, to boot.

Have we used all the Ns, Es or Ss yet?

B, C, K, and S are finished.

 

I believe there is one more of the following: G, N, R, V.

 

There are 7 Es yet to be played.

 

Any bridge player who honestly thinks Scrabble sucks, as a game, should read "Wordfreak" by Stefan Fatsis. Many will change their minds on the issue, and all will recognize characters from the bridge world.

[matmat]

Are they serving lunch during the break?

yes, charades to be played afterwards.

That sounds like......two syllables....first syllable....

duck? does it sound like duck?

[Gerben42]

duck? does it sound like duck?

 

No, but it floats like a duck, therefore it's made of wood!

[paulg]

What rights do Hasbro and Mattel actually own?  The article says that the inventor's patent was denied, so I guess they must be claiming copyright.  But the game was created in 1931 -- wouldn't the copyright have expired by now?

They own the Scrabble logo and the artwork, specifically (I believe) the board layout.

 

There is a well-written discussion of the legal aspects at theLegality.

 

The top Scrabble players do play on the site but it is not a serious place for them, unsurprising given it lacks the real-time aspect of a normal game. Also there are doubts over the integrity of the dictionary and the tile distribution - having four blanks in a game is a little like having six aces.

 

Paul

[paulg]

Any bridge player who honestly thinks Scrabble sucks, as a game, should read "Wordfreak" by Stefan Fatsis.  Many will change their minds on the issue, and all will recognize characters from the bridge world.

My wife is a very serious Scrabble player who can be seen discussing the game recently on the regional news (video clip, best viewed in Internet Explorer).

 

I don't play myself (what would be the point!) but I have directed a number of tournaments and attended the last few world championships.

 

Sad to say, but there is little difference between Scrabble and bridge players. During breaks in play, they all stand around saying "You hold ...". At the end of the day they are all in the bar discussing games and how certain players have been lucky. Directors' rulings, unethical behaviour, rudeness and cheating all have parallels.

 

As I often tell them, the only real difference is that bridge players need at least one person in the world who they get on with. This is not a constraint for Scrabble players.

 

Although prize money is almost as insignificant as bridge, the top UK Scrabble tournaments do have larger prize funds that the equivalent bridge events. A little surprising as their entry fees are lower and the entries are a lot smaller.

 

Paul

[finally17]

The top Scrabble players do play on the site but it is not a serious place for them, unsurprising given it lacks the real-time aspect of a normal game. Also there are doubts over the integrity of the dictionary and the tile distribution - having four blanks in a game is a little like having six aces.

If anyone wants real online scrabble, with time constraints and complete and correct dictionaries, and people who write software to help with wordlist and stem memorization techniques etc, and where it's my understanding most of the truly world-class hang out, there's always The Internet Scrabble Club, which has been around for a lot longer than Scrabulous.

 

I imagine you know all of this, but in case there are others who might be interested...

[paulg]

There are two software programs that all the top player use for training and game analysis. Both are freely available and will help you

• verify words for Scrabble at home
  
• cheat at Scrabulous
  
• learn more words
  

Quackle is a crossword game artificial intelligence and analysis tool that rivals the best players in the world. It can be configured to play and analyze crossword games with any board layout and use the newest lexicons. It is the equivalent of Deep Finesse but with single dummy analysis that tells you the percentage win chance following your selected move.

 

Zyzzyva is the word study program of choice. It generates lists of words to study, can verify words and solve anagrams.

 

If you sign the 'Fair Play' agreement on the Internet Scrabble Club, then it may check whether these programs are running when you are playing a game.

 

Paul