Scrabble lovers the world over have their K-N-I-C-K-E-R-S (18 points) in a twist over an announcement that proper nouns will be admitted into the game.
And look, fair enough. If you’ve just spent a year memorising all the two- and three-letter words in the dictionary (people do this, the proof), then the idea that some “normal person” with a regular New Idea habit could come in and trounce you with Jay-Z is scandalous.
Well, actually, the story’s a beat-up. Proper nouns will only be permitted in a spin-off game called Scrabble Trickster created for the UK market by Mattel. This bastardised Scrabble will also encourage players to steal letters from each other, so it’s hardly the gentle intellect-pitting game of old.
But the story has certainly fired up Scrabble nerds (honestly, is there a group more self-righteous than competitive Scrabble players?). And there’s nothing more fun than seeing pedants purple with rage.
“We got about 2000 new words in the last dictionary. We don’t really need these other words,” said Lower Hutt Scrabble Club president Glenyss Buchanan in The Dominion Post. “What’s next; foreign words, acronyms and abbreviations?” wonders Richard Gottlieb. Etc.
But the very notion of Scrabble Trickster does make one nostalgic for the stodgy, stickler Scrabble of old. Why not celebrate the game that hasn’t changed since 1938 tonight. Play it on Facebook. Head to the local pub for a game. Or become a Scrabble defender, join a local club near you for tournaments.
And if Scrabble seems a bit too squeaky clean, then I swear by dirty word Scrabble — just start with your mind in the gutter and let the game degenerate — no proper nouns required.
Silly! You can’t get 18 points for K-N-I-C-K-E-R-S – one of the “K”s must be a blank!!!! Only 13 points. Unless you get onto a premium square, and you’d have to, with a word that long. And if you were using all your letters you’d get another 50 points. So we’re looking at 63 at least, more unless you are only adding letters on ordinary squares.
I don’t believe I wrote this. It’s so Scrabble-nerdy. Oh dear. I’ll stop now.
No such thing as ‘proper’ scrabble! What about bilingual scrabble? (yes, I have played it and it moved a lot faster than ‘straight’ scabble -exciting moments!). Good to have variants. Bobby Fischer invented various alternative chess rules as exercises in teaching chess. And then there is ‘losing chess’ … where you have to lose pieces instead of winning them, and a form of chess where first player has one move, second player has two moves, first player 3 moves … etc. etc. Very good to see through combinational play. Scrabble purists, get real !!! (within a consensual ruleset, of course … )
Thanks Catherine. I knew I was taking a mathematical risk when I decided to add up K-N-I-C-K-E-R-S.
Hee hee I guess we can forgive you Jane. Wanna play Facebook scrabble? (Mind you, the online dictionary it uses is complete rubbish…)