Tag: games

humor

One Way To End a Relationship? Play Scrabble

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If you think that your relationship can withstand the divisive power of the almighty Scrabble, good luck with that.
“Sources said that since the vengeful, lovelorn [Hasbro CEO Mortimer Z.] Hassenfeld first began marketing Scrabble under the Hasbro brand, roughly 1,447,055 romantic couplings have been destroyed by the game’s devastating ability to turn otherwise felicitous partners into fierce, seething rivals.”
Remembering how the last two times my wife and I played Scrabble went (there multiple word challenges where the dictionary was called in as an arbitrator), I would say no truer words were ever spoken.

ramblings

Settle This Debate – Best Board Game Ever?

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I’ve always loved board games. I have been playing them for as long as I remember. From games of Chutes and Ladders to Candy Land to Monopoly to Clue to Stratego to Scrabble to RISK (my maybe current favorite) I have loved to just sit in a basement somewhere with friends or family and watch the hours roll on by while hoping to outplay and outsmart my opponents. I still love it. I just get to do it less.
RISK occupied plenty of my afternoons and evenings during my formative years. Each one of my friends played a certain role: one took Australia, one made an ill fated attempt to control Asia, one took Africa and could never hold it, etc. I was big on trying to take North America & Europe. Sometimes it was effective, sometimes not so much. The RISK themed Seinfeld episode – “The Ukraine is weak!” – is one of my favorites for the love that it bestows on my maybe favorite game.
I keep saying maybe favorite because a new game possibly has supplanted it for fav game status. The game to which I am referring to is Settlers of Catan the 1995 winner of the German Spiel des Jahres “Game of the Year Award” which over the past few years, through simple word of mouth, has become one of the most popular games in the world. It literally has sold 15 million copies. No joke.
If you’ve never heard of the game, let me tell you that it is flat out awesome for more than a few reasons. I could start with how each game begins with the random placement of 19 different hexagonal pieces but instead I would rather like to point you towards a Wired Magazine article in this month’s issue titled “Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre.” Here is an excerpt:

Settlers is now poised to become the biggest hit in the US since Risk. Along the way, it’s teaching Americans that board games don’t have to be either predictable fluff aimed at kids or competitive, hyperintellectual pastimes for eggheads. Through the complex, artful dance of algorithms and probabilities lurking at its core, Settlers manages to be effortlessly fun, intuitively enjoyable, and still intellectually rewarding, a potent combination that’s changing the American idea of what a board game can be.

The article is about 1000% true: after my friends turned me onto the game a few years back I’ve been addicted ever since. I regularly get together with between 3 – 5 friends to play both the Regular and expanded Seafarers editions and truly we all have become addicted – case in point, when a number of us took a trip abroad last year, we brought not one but two boards with us and played not one night but two nights in a row. Sick.
Net / net: I see no reason for this tread to not continue. I think 20 million copies is just around the corner…

vocabulary

How To Win At Scrabble

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Sure, I’m giving away a secret but future victories will be even sweeter knowing that my opponent could have been on the same level as I am in terms of obscure word knowledge. Courtesey of Wired Mag’s “How To” issue, here are recommended “words to know” from John Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association:
azo, jo, ka, ki, qaid, qat, qi, xi, xu, za, zin and zoa.
Also on the list for when you have too few or too many vowels:
hm, hmm and ourie.
When I pull a “zin” on someone, when he or she is complaining that it isn’t a word, I’m simply going to say “next time read my blog.”
Via Wired.

ramblings

Puzzle Du Jour II

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My department head seriously decreased productivity yesterday when he sent out a link to this puzzle game called Crimson Room. Basically, there are 13 items hidden in the room that you need to obtain in order to get out of this room.

If you find:

>> 0-6 items: Your IQ is very low, total idiot
>> 6-8 items: Low IQ, you are an idiot
>> 9-10 items: You are normal
>> 11-12 items: Your IQ is high, above the average.
>> 13 items found and you get out of the room: Mazel tov! Not many people can do it so you should be very proud of yourself.

Trust me, this puzzle can be solved and you can get out of the room. I know this because I’ve gotten out. The only hint I’ll give is that at some point, the number 1994 is important. I only give this out because as this game is a few years old, that number, which is needed to finish the game, is no longer available. That’s all I’m saying.

If you get stuck, email me and I’ll help you out.

Thanks Phil

ramblings

Scrabble is a Religion

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I watched an interesting flash movie just now. I found a link to it in a post at Screenhead, the latest Nick Denton micropublishing vehicle. This post was about a newly launched web site called Vid Lit which “offers a different kind of Flash, with the emphasis on storytelling, and images as more of an incidental device. Feels like This American Life, but with pictures. Entry ‘Craziest’ by Liz Dubelman offers up the idea of the word game Scrabble as a religion. Like the Da Vinci Code, only mildly less insane.”

After watching the flash video, I checked my Amazon Wish List and unfortunately, although I added Word Freak:Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players a while ago, it is still on it. I really want to read it though so if you want to buy it for me, I’ll promise to write a book review.

This post goes out to Jay, Keri, Eric, Michelle and Erik – scrabble nuts, every last one.