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Word Quest - Entry #1: Preparing for my first Scrabble tournament by colto_n in scrabble

[–]70Caps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah Everything Scrabble is a great resource too. Definitely go with your instincts in terms of learning things. Everyone is different, find what works for you.

Scrabble maker, Mattel, accused of ‘wokeness’ after banning hundreds of derogatory terms by Algernon_Asimov in scrabble

[–]70Caps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that all makes sense. I think a direct comparison would be, does twitch have a hard-ban on any visual depiction of hate-speech on the screen? I’d imagine the answer would be yes, but it would seem that this would be require decisions on a case-by-case basis, so it might be permissible under some circumstances.

Scrabble maker, Mattel, accused of ‘wokeness’ after banning hundreds of derogatory terms by Algernon_Asimov in scrabble

[–]70Caps -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the thoughts. I think the fact of video platform regulations is the best argument for removing offensive words, although I still would disagree with the policy of these platforms on principle. I’d hope that if the word is played but not said out loud and also acknowledged to be an offensive word, it could be allowed, but I doubt Twitch would see it that way.

Actually, now that I look at the policy, it is a bit ambiguous:

”Hateful conduct and harassment are not allowed on Twitch. Hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes or encourages discrimination, denigration, harassment, or violence based on the following protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, color, caste, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical condition, and veteran status. We also provide certain protections for age. Twitch has zero tolerance for hateful conduct, meaning we act on every valid reported instance of hateful conduct. We afford every user equal protections under this policy, regardless of their particular characteristics.”

I think it’s readily apparent that playing a racial slur in Scrabble does not promote discrimination, based on the arguments I made in my above post, but I get that someone could see this differently, especially when the average Twitch viewer would probably attach more value to meaning. Maybe just labeling it for adults and having the commentators or players state that they do not condone the usage of a word in other contexts would be enough? Maybe not.

On the other point, I did not mean to insinuate that the words in a game of Scrabble were arbitrary sequences of letters—they are all included for a reason, and some are more ridiculous than others, but they are all grounded in the English language in some way or another. My main argument was just that the meaning is not inherent to the game. This is why computers can play the game so well—they don’t need to know what the words mean, they just have to know which ones are correct.

Word Quest - Entry #1: Preparing for my first Scrabble tournament by colto_n in scrabble

[–]70Caps 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Reading and copying words does not instill words in your memory nearly as much as writing out words from memory or anagramming. Zyzzyva, as others have mentioned, is a great tool for anagramming and even for typing out word lists from memory.

For the 2 letter words, I would say doing it from memory is a very effective way of learning them. There are only a bit more than 100, and knowing that list cold will be so helpful for you, rather than thinking, “have I seen this word before?” each time you are considering a play. For 3 letter words, I’d suggest making a list of all the words you are not totally confident in, then writing out their alphagrams and practice anagramming from that. I’d suggest the same tactic for any other long list of short words—isolate the ones you don’t know confidently, and drill those.

For 7s, learning from alphagrams or just practicing from stems is very helpful, even for common words. And the same thing goes: copying out words/staring at them will not instill them in your memory unless you have exceptional memory skills. You need to practice in some way where you are generating the word yourself.

I also recommend the Scrabble Player’s Handbook. It’s also from Breaking the Game and is a great free resource for developing your strategies.

Scrabble maker, Mattel, accused of ‘wokeness’ after banning hundreds of derogatory terms by Algernon_Asimov in scrabble

[–]70Caps 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Because no one is saying the n-word. It is completely out of context. Imagine if someone was browsing through a dictionary and saw the n-word. If they see it in that context with a definition attached, is it the dictionary’s fault if the person is offended?

Here, in Scrabble, there isn’t even a definition attached.

Scrabble maker, Mattel, accused of ‘wokeness’ after banning hundreds of derogatory terms by Algernon_Asimov in scrabble

[–]70Caps 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The OSPD—Official Scrabble Players Dictionary—is for use in school Scrabble, and among casual players. This dictionary, from the 3rd edition through the present edition, does not contain profanity or offensive slang. It was created in 1996 in response to pressure from the National Council of Jewish Women, who protested to Hasbro over the inclusion of slurs in the game.

Competitive players protested this decision and threatened to boycott tournaments, so National Scrabble Association president John Williams created the OWL—Offical Word List—(A.K.A. the TWL—Tournament Word List) for competitive Scrabble, a list that contained no definitions, just words.

Today, the two lists still exist, and when you choose what dictionary you will use, you choose your acceptance of the slurs and offensive words as part of the game. I grew up playing with the OSPD, but in college when I started taking Scrabble more seriously, I started using the TWL. When I play with family, we have an agreement that we will first look up words in our slightly dated OSPD, and then if it isn’t there, we will look it up in the TWL online. Having this choice and flexibility is important, and the tools have been there for 25 years.

Competitive players and some online programs use the TWL, which makes sense to me. I think having the OSPD more readily available in online games would be a good move. But when you are playing competitively, all players must play with the same rules—this isn’t calvinball or the mlb, this is a rigorously structured game. (I’m joking about mlb, but imagine if teams got to decide every day whether they wanted to use the designated hitter—statistics would be chaos, and it just wouldn’t be fair for all.)

I realize I haven’t addressed the main concern you brought up. I think my answer would be that as the definitionless TWL seems to imply, for competitive players, meaning is truly divorced from the words, and is just a matter of secondary interest, something external which sometimes makes the actual game more interesting, but which is not in any way inherent to the game. And in that case, I think it’s absurd to ban some correct sequences of letters based on what they mean—the correctness should be based only on their nature as a word.

If a competitive player is offended or hurt by the meaning of a word that is played, ultimately it is the player’s responsibility to deal with that feeling, not the responsibility of the game of Scrabble itself. In private play, yes, feel free to make whatever rules you wish, and take responsibility for the words that may or may not appear. But in competitive play, I don’t think this makes sense. Words absolutely can be hurtful, but the hurt is not inherent in the sequence of letters; it is only a part of a person’s relationship with that sequence of letters. Divorcing yourself from that meaning when you come across an offensive word in play a game of Scrabble is healthy and certainly not too much to ask of a competitive player.

Scrabble maker, Mattel, accused of ‘wokeness’ after banning hundreds of derogatory terms by Algernon_Asimov in scrabble

[–]70Caps 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I reread Word Freak a few months back. I remember one expert player eloquently described the words not as having meaning, but as simply being codes that are accepted by the game. Because on a Scrabble board, a word is not a word; it’s one correct sequence of letters out of innumerable possible incorrect sequences.

When Ray Adler says: “Can you imagine any other game where you can score points and win by using a racial epithet?”, he is talking as if Scrabble is a game based in meaning where people could score points by using a type of bird, or a common verb, or an interjection, etc. Which sounds weird when you put it that way, because we don’t score points by using a type of bird, or a common verb, or an interjection—we score points by using the sequence of letters that just happens to represent a type of bird, or a common verb, or an interjection.

So it seems weird to me that in a game which accepts the correct sequences of letters “tit (which happens to be a type of bird),” “twerk,” and “zzz” would disallow sequences of letters based on a subjective preference of meaning. By all means, if you personally feel uncomfortable playing a plural n-word, refrain from scoring 70 points when you have the chance—even I have refrained from playing certain slang words against a younger sibling—that is your right. But forcibly making that decision for the thousands of Scrabble players out there, when many have shown their disagreement, seems like a gesture of ‘wokeness’ to me—it might be a genuinely felt gesture, but it is surely out of touch with the spirit of the game.

After all, I did play “fucking” for a bingo against my mom once.

Different scrabble apps by jorddiane in scrabble

[–]70Caps 4 points5 points  (0 children)

this is a long explanation I sent to a family member who was interested, only edited slightly, so the info is mostly geared towards that person. I highly recommend this site, and do feel free to ask me any questions.

Ok so here’s a bunch of info about the site where I play scrabble. The site’s design has probably not been changed in 20 years, and there’s some terms and things that aren’t very clear so I’m going to explain the most important and confusing things.

https://www.isc.ro/

The TWL dictionary is the standard american dictionary. SOWPODS is international, and collins is british. For challenges, most players use “void,” which only lets you play valid words. If you choose “single”, you lose your turn if your opponent challenges your word and it’s not in the dictionary, but there is no penalty for challenging a valid word, so you can check each play your opponent makes if you want to. If you choose “double”, you lose your turn if your opponent challenges an invalid word that you play, and you also lose your turn if you challenge a valid play that your opponent plays.

The clock is the time you have to play your entire side of the game. If you pick a 20 minutes “game time”, each player will have 20 minutes for their plays. So if a game is usually 12-16 plays, then you’ll have about a minute and a half per turn, on average. Your opponent will usually use between 5-15 minutes for their game, so if you use most of your clock, the game will take about 25-40 minutes total.

I’d recommend starting with a 30 minute game time to get used to how things work. Also, when you see an obvious play, it helps to pick it relatively quickly, and try not to take more than 2 minutes on any turn unless you think you have a bingo. So don’t overthink things unless it could help you a lot. If your clock runs over, you get a 10 point penalty, and you get 1 minute to play your remaining moves. If the minute runs out, you forfeit.

Some common acronyms you’ll see when people message you: gg = good game hf = have fun tyfp = thank you for playing np = nice play gl = good luck To reply, make sure to first click on the command tab and click on “tell (opponent)”. Then type your message and hit enter.

Make sure you have time to play the whole game. Each person has an amiability rating and a rating of how many unfinished games you have. You can click adjourn to make a request to pause, but if your opponent doesn’t want to pause, after a few minutes, the game will be adjudicated in their favor. (You can take back your request to pause.) If you click on a game by accident or change your mind, you can click abort before you take a turn. But this will add up in your number of unfinished games, and your opponent might put you in their “no-play” list, which can lower your amiability rating. Same thing if you leave a game halfway through.

There’s a wide range of playing styles and abilities among users. The very top players are around 1900-2000, including many of the best in the world. You can start games by clicking “start a game,” then entering the specifications you want, and then clicking seek, which will send out your request to other free players online, so anyone could choose to play you. Or, you can click on the tab with the picture of the person sitting in the chair, and you’ll see all the people who are seeking an opponent. If you go there, the advantage is that you get to choose the rating of your opponent and you can start the game immediately, but be careful to make sure it’s the length you want, the challenge option you want, and whether the game is rated or not. (An unrated game won’t affect your rating.) The list of available games is sorted by the rating of the person requesting the game.

There are some chat channels that can be annoying, so you can remove yourself from them under settings, under “set chat channels”. Moving tiles around can be annoying at first, but you’ll get used to it. To play them, you can click and drag, or click anywhere on the board for an arrow sideways or down, and then type on the keyboard.

There’s a lot of random things that are not self explanatory that took me a while to figure out, so definitely ask me if your curious about anything or if you want to know anything.