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Scrabble To Allow Proper Nouns

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you-gotta-be-kidding-me dept.

Hogwash McFly writes "The rules of the popular word game Scrabble are soon to allow proper nouns. Mattel, the maker of the game, hopes the changes made for a new edition, released this July, will 'add a new dimension' to Scrabble and 'introduce an element of popular culture into the game.' With this rule change, the company hopes to target younger fans and families, although they will continue to sell the traditional version where 'Beyonce' and 'Facebook' are not permitted words." Nobody is listening to my suggestion to penalize by one tile any player who has memorized every two-letter English word.

9 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by TheSpoom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wouldn't this mean you could claim that any name that has been given to anyone is a valid word?

    --
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    1. Re:Hmm by eln · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That was my thought as well. With all the weird names and alternate spellings people give their kids these days, pretty much any random combination of letters could be successfully argued as being a valid word. Personally, I think I'll stick with the old rules.

    2. Re:Hmm by WarlockSquire · · Score: 3, Insightful

      just partner with apple, and create an app that tells you whether a word is valid.
      why leave it to question when there's money to be made providing the answer?

    3. Re:Hmm by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The rules that I always used (from a version of the game that's a decade or so older than me) state no foreign words either, which eliminates a number of the words in the official word list. We play with a real dictionary, and if the word isn't in that or is but is marked as a proper noun, then you can't use it. The official word list has contained words that the rules say shouldn't be allowed for a long time.

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    4. Re:Hmm by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's worse than that. They don't even have to rationalize that it is the name of a person. They can just make up a short story right there on the spot, and name it with whatever random sting of characters they have, and they have now created a perfectly valid proper noun that is completely within the spirit of the new rules.

      E.G.

      Zxggrta: The story of a boy playing Scrabble

      There once was a boy playing scrabble. He didn't have any real words in his tiles, so he decided to write a short story called "Zxggrta". Since he wrote the story, "Zxggrta" is now a valid word in Scrabble.

      The End

    5. Re:Hmm by TheLink · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > Mattel has stepped into a morass that is far deeper than they know.

      I doubt these new rules will be used in Scrabble competitions.

      And they won't cause big problems to most people who understand the unwritten rules of playing games _socially_.

      Basically when people play games socially, people will either agree to play according to a set of rules upfront, or they'll accept what the "house rules" are even if they aren't completely aware of all the "house rules".

      The general assumption is that the participants will behave reasonably because:
      a) they want to continue playing with each other.
      and/or
      b) they want to win AND have the other person admit that it was won fair and square - makes the victory sweeter for them :).

      So the new rules are only a problem when you are playing with people like that stereotypical nerdy kid who keeps insisting on his really stretched interpretations of AD&D rules[1].

      In which case you just don't play with them.

      [1] Yes hackers do like stretching/bypassing the limits, but IMO there's not much point "winning" in games/life if nobody wants to play with you.

      --
  2. Sigh by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So now it's scrabble for idiots. Maybe next we can have Jeopardy change to multiple choice.

    1. Re:Sigh by dummondwhu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not only that, but if people really want to use proper nouns, then what's to stop them currently? Because it's not written on the rules paper? Scrabble is about vocabulary, not about knowledge of popular culture.

      Most surprising to me is that I even care, but the more I think about it, the more I do. Come on, Mattel!

  3. House Rules by Baby+Duck · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Always play with House Rules
    1. 1. No foreign units. Especially not foreign currencies.
    2. 2. No "spellings" of "letters". Example: Why is "en" in the Scrabble Dictionary as a "spelling" of the pronounciation of the letter "n" ??!?
    3. 3. Despite #2, spellings of Greek letters are allowed (example: "alpha") since they are used in so many disciplines
    4. 4. No abbreviations! No to "amp", "ref", "ex", etc. Or while we are at it, "etc" itself.
    5. 5. No Old English or Middle English words or spelling variants
    --

    "Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins