Re: Scrabble, Officially

bill van <billvan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>  Greg Goss <gossg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > bill van <billvan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > >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. 
> > And AA and QI are not words either.  Once you start inserting words
> > into the dictionary because they yield neat scores, it's not a game
> > I will be playing with you.
> I think you're way misunderstanding what I'm saying. AA is actually a
> word independent of the game: it means, according to the Scrabble
> Dictionary, "rough, cindery lava." QI isn't in my Scrabble Dictionary
> so can't be used in Scrabble at my house. I'm not sure if it's in my
> Oxford; if it is, it can be used.
> But I was arguing for the principle that you need a consistent set of
> rules, whether they are restrictive or permissive. You can modify them
> at your house as you please, but you need rules to play that sort of
> game. Whether you approve of a particular word or not is neither here
> nor there.
> > When I was a teen, the house rules we ended up with were that we'd
> > pick one of the five dictionaries in the house at random.  If the
> > word that my brother had picked up somewhere wasn't in the
> > dictionary we were using THIS TIME, then that's a chance he took for
> > using a word that's not in mainstream English.
> Mainstream, Schmainstream. We put an armful of (English-language)
> dictionaries on the table and if it's in any of them, it's legitimate.

Yeah, that's just like us. Except our dictionary is stored in the
computer, and includes 'QUIJYBO' and 'ZIDJIOTS'. And any other words 
that have been spontaneously made up in reponse to the computer cheating. 

The other solution, for people who are both prescriptivist language
purists and hardcore neckbeard propellerhead dorks, would have been,
whenever the computer attempted to cheat, to make a note of the
offending word, and then hex-edit the dictionary file that the game
used, and remove that word. Unfortunately, that would have still spoiled
the gameplay, as the game didn't have a "Hey, you cheating ****, back up
a move" button. 

I suppose the only answer that satisfies everyone would have been to
edit the entire computer dictionary. But, really, this was a computer
game, and regardless of whatever case you may be able to make that I'm
some kind of hardcore neckbeard propellerhead dork, I don't think that
simple amusements should begin with "First, edit a dictionary". So, we 
played our Scribble and drank our beer, and if you don't like it, you 
can blow it out your quijybo. 

-- 
Huey