Frustrating Scrabble

[watervole]

I'm having one of the most frustrating Scrabble games of my life.

Owing to some bug in Scrabble Worldwide, instead of a game with megamole , it set me up with someone else.  As the other person seemed quite happy to play, I decided to continue with the game.

She's an absolutely terrible player (14% wins in 157 games), though I realised she was bad from her opening move which wasted a number of good tiles for hardly any score at all.

The laughable thing about it is that her playing style (all two and three letter words, spread out along the double word scores) is actually making it quite difficult to beat her (that and a lucky play that gave her a two letter word with Z in a good position that netted her 60 points).  There's simply nowhere to play long words.  I've already had to discard one bingo as there was nowhere to place it.

I guess it's good for me in a way. For once, I'm actually having to think hard about how to create hooks and bingo lines, whereas normally, I just rely on them appearing in the normal course of the game.

It's actually possible that she'll beat me through sheer grinding board-lock. (I'm not the world's best player, but I expect to win around 2/3 of my games - with a bit of help from Richard)

She's just blocked a 'I' that I'd set up so there would be something to cross through. I wouldn't mind so much if it had been a better use of the position.  She wasted her Q there for 11 points, when there was a free U not far from a double word score which she could surely have used to much better effect if she'd waited to collect whatever she needed.  (The U would still have blocked me, but at least I'd have felt it was doing something useful)

Anyway, enough moaning. I'd better try and set up a new bingo line.  I nearly did it this time, but I could only make six letter words from the tiles I had in hand.

Comments

[emmzzi.livejournal.com]

I don't think we'll agree on this one as I think 'bad' is subjective. So, I can cope with 'I find her a bad player', or 'I find her a frustrating player'; but not 'she is (objectively) bad.' (or absolutely terrible.) as in, I think it, therefore it is.

There may be learning problems, dyslexia, a totally different motivation to you for playing the game which make her, in her mind, wonderful; and winning, having lots of long and interesting words, whatever, may not be her motivation!

But, I'll agree to differ! And I hope your next few moves with her enable you to get enjoyment out of the game.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Let's say then, that I find her an unskilled player.

Now I've opened up the board, it's a whole new game. I'm 80 points in the lead and lots of space to play in.

Dyslexia isn't really an issue in Scrabble, you can use the ingame spellchecker to check a word is valid before you play it. There's an on-screen list of valid two-letter words to give you a hand.

I don't think she's stupid, some of her moves aren't bad at all. I suspect half her problem is that she puts down the first word that comes to mind without looking to see if there's a better one.

[gaspodex.livejournal.com]

The problem with dyslexia and scrabble (aside from the fact i believe it's in the rules that you can't check words until after you have played them whatever the online version seems to think) is that dyslexia is not just bad spelling (in fact yes, scrabble can help bad spellers) - although thats a big part, the real issue is that i just can't see words from a jumble of letters - my mind (the diagnosed dyslexic part) just doesn't make the conection with the tiles on the rack, it certainly nothing to do with my vocab, its simply something my mind will not do - and i've tried.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

The online version comes with two options. you can play what they call a 'challenge' game where you aren't allowed to check words before playing them, and 'regular' where you are allowed to keep on trying until you get a word spelt correctly.

I've no idea if my opponent is badly dyslexic, but if she is, I would have thought that she wouldn't be keen enough on Scrabble to have played over 160 games?

For mild dyslexics like my youngest son, there's a still a game to play even with poor spelling. Henry (and Richard) both play better tactics than I do, even though I have better word knowledge. Their ability to spot a way of playing a high scoring letter on a bonus square means they will often find a better move than I will - even though the Scrabble program will reject many incorrect spellings.