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Scrabble To Allow Proper Nouns
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.
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, triple word score. Suck it.
Living With a Nerd
I'm waiting till they start to allow acronyms, so that we geeks can win with our multitude of TLAs.
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.
So now it's scrabble for idiots. Maybe next we can have Jeopardy change to multiple choice.
"Mattel, the makers of the game, hope the changes made for a new edition, released this July, will "add a new dimension" to Scrabble and "dumb the game down so it can be enjoyed by a generation of near-illiterates". "
But... a facebook is a directory of faces and names for cramming before a social event.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/facebook
And Facebook was named after facebook.
For one thing, the article is about the Mattel version. Hasbro sells Scrabble crossword game in the United States and Canada, while arch-rival Mattel controls it everywhere else, so North Americans need not worry. For another, the article states that Mattel is making the proper name rule optional: "It will continue to sell a board with the original rules."
Yeah, there's appealing to the masses and then there's making it so your product no longer makes any sense. They've obvious chosen the Michael Bay approach.
Now considered part of online and texting culture, Mattel has decided to allow "words" such as LOL, OMG, and BFF.
To play this enhanced game, Mattel hopes to sell new copies of the game worldwide. Also slated for late 2010 is a version with exclamation points and other punctuation.
A Mattel representative presenting the new variants on the classic brand, "We have not decided if you earn points or lose points for excessive punctuation. LOL!!11!"
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
1) Change your name via Deed-Poll to the letters left in your rack.
2) Place letters on board
3) ???
4) Profit!
I'm going to start using qwyjibo as often as I can...
In related news, Parker Bros is releasing a new edition of RISK that uses a single coin instead of 5 dice. Heads you win, tails you lose.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I'm going to start using qwyjibo as often as I can...
Why not, it's a perfectly cromulent word.
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.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
it is *NOT* a perfectly cromulent word. The word is "Kwyjibo"
Embiggen your minds here, people
Comedian: "I just flew in from Chicago... and boy are my arms tired! hahaha"
TheCycoONE: "Given the average mass of a resident of Chicago, and comparing it to the minuscule amount of lift that could be generated from human arms, even with vigorous flapping motions, we can extrapolate the following formulas to show the improbability of this occurrence..."
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
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
Some decades after a maternity ward Scrabble game:
"Sir, could please give your full name for the court?"
"Qfuhbix Triplewordscore Inyourface Jones"
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.