Words with Friends Fiend

Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.

My plan is to spend much of the day outside, beating back the rain forest that threatens to overtake my castle. But it looks like more rain is on the way.  I may be trapped here forever by the advancing flora, sort of like the thorns that surrounded Sleeping Beauty's castle in the Disney movie, except for the Sleeping Beauty part.  I may take a nap later, but that is where the analogy ends. (As an aside, googling "Sleeping Beauty" these days does not automatically get you to the Disney movie).

I'll probably catch up on Words With Friends.

 My name is Bob, and I am a Words with Friends addict.

For the innocent who have been untouched by this blight, Words with Friends is an internet word game, a Scrabble knock-off, which allows the addict to make connection with other addicts, so-called "friends", and play a game.  Insidiously, the game is available twenty four hours a day, and one can be involved in  multiple games with multiple friends at the same time, with absolutely no protection. When one cannot find enough friends to satisfy the addict's growing needs or when your friends become disgusted with your habit, the game encourages hooking up with complete strangers, or multiple strangers, regardless of sex, age, nationality, or religious affiliation, and with no way of knowing how many playing partners they have been involved with.    How did I fall so far?  I personally blame Alec Baldwin.   I can assure you, I now know Alec is no role model.

Excuse me for a moment, I need to check and see if anyone has played a new word.

Okay, I'm back.

The addictive quality of the game is the negative.  But like prescription meds properly used, there is much good that can be derived from Words.

There are the obvious things, like sharpened  vocabulary (those of you who resort to Scrabble Cheat and like websites should at least have the ethics to memorize the definition of those weird words you discover using your devious little device.  We all know you do it.)  Vigorous mental exercise. Entertainment.

But are there deeper lessons in the game?  The origins of many of our favorite competitive sporting games comes from preparation for battle.  War games.

Words with Friends is kind of like that.  At least that's my excuse. It is good for us.

In fact, Words with Friends should be called "Life."  But that's another game.

As in life  (not the game, it doesn't really require much), one's ability, creativity and determination are important.

But as in life (again, real life) , it is not that simple. Luck is a factor. You must play with the letters you are randomly dealt. Some days it's all vowels. Some days its all j's q's and x's.   And you can't just put a word down in a vacuum. It is only valuable in the context of the existing reality.  It must connect to other words, often words that were offered by your opponent (friend). Sometimes you can't play a word at all and must take a pass. Sometimes your best word, or your chance to dump the q comes as a result of your opponent's play. Sometimes you have to pass up a good word because playing it might allow your opponent to make a better word.

And, I suppose it seems obvious, you must spell real words.

I could go on, but I'll save most of it for the book, "Words with Friends, Words for Life", soon to be available on Amazon.   Just one last observation this morning. I've got to get back to the game pretty soon.

Like all games, the manner of play depends on the goal of the game.  Words with Friends is fiercely competitive.  The goal is to play in such a way as to score all the points you can while holding your opponent to an embarrassingly low score and send him or her back to Farmville.

But one of the annoying little notifications that pops up from time to time on Words with Friends exclaims with excitement "John Doe and Jane Doe have scored an amazing 943 total points in a game of Words with Friends".  It doesn't say what the individual scores were. It doesn't say who won or lost.  It just celebrates the huge combined score of the players.  It is clear that when players are playing to produce a higher total score rather than against one another, significantly higher total points are scored.  The same skill, knowledge and creativity is required.

 The only thing different is the goal of the game.

And those are my last words here this morning. I've got to go play.

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