Re: Scrabble, Officially

In article <qKSdneSUJK0AqnbanZ2dnUVZ_ufinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 huey.callison@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> bill van <billvan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >  huey.callison@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> > > I remember a friend had a computer scrabble game that I think was
> > > official, and that ****er pulled all kinds of that 'QI' and 'AR'
> > > ****.  So eventually we created a new game, which we called
> > > 'Scribble'. It was basically scrabble, but we rearranged the rules a
> > > little: you had to use dictionary words, until the computer cheated,
> > > and at that point, you could cheat, with the following qualifiers:
> > > 1) It had to look like a word, with vowels and consonants in roughly
> > > the places where you'd expect them to be in something that looked
> > > like a word
> > > 2) You had to pronounce it, and 
> > > 3) You had to define it convincingly.
> > > ... 
> > >  ...over time, the dictionary the computer was using got more and
> > > more surreal, and the words got more and more creative.
> > I couldn't play a game in which the rules can be changed as you go.
> > That would be like real life, and surely we play games to get away
> > from that.
> 
> No, the rules were consistent, they just allowed for cheating under 
> certain cir***stances. It was kind of like politics in that regard.

Ah, but those words you think of as examples of the computer cheating -- 
ar and qi, say -- are consistent with an official set of rules that 
allow the way letters sound to be spelled out, and that allow qualifying 
foreign words that are rendered into English. People who are into 
scrabble at a high level memorize lists of allowable two-letter words; 
they're handy for making overlapping words that score good points with 
modest letters. That you don't know them is your shortcoming, not the 
computer's. But the words you're making up are definitely not words. So 
it's you cheating, actually. 

With one set of friends, I play a very open game: we consult 
dictionaries and word lists during play; we don't lose turns when 
someone challenges a word; if we get three of the same letter at one 
time -- UUU, say -- we can exchange one, two or three of them without 
forfeiting a turn; and when a blank is played, anyone who has the letter 
the blank represents can exchange it for the blank, at the start of a 
turn.

But those rules are agreed upon before the game is played. Something 
that's not a word when the game starts is still not a word when it ends.

Rest assured. I will not burn your house down for playing Scrabble the 
wrong way. But I won't play with you, either.

-- 
bill
remove my country for e-mail