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Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Joshex on April 07, 2013, 03:27:45 PM

Title: Scrabble
Post by: Joshex on April 07, 2013, 03:27:45 PM
ok, so, I was playing scrabble and my brother decides he can play the letters 'za' I asked him for the definition and he said it's in the online scrabble dictionary and is slang for pizza... I had him look it up in a real dictionary however and it was the last letter in the arabic alphabet and was listed as a suffix for pizza (which are not legal to be used)

so my point for this thread is, how dumb are the makers of scrabble? seriously za means pizza? maybe somewhere deep in the bronx it does but that is hardly enough justification to validate it's usage as a valid word.

the scrabble people justified it on the basis that it was slang, and apparently slang is now allowed to be used.

I say we write up a petition to have slang removed from the scrabble dictionary and removed from the scrabble rules making it invalid.

otherwise the makers of scrabble just walked into a world of hurt; I.E. type something, anything and it can be socital slang for something somewhere in the english speaking countries.

for example 'Teh' is slang for 'the' as is 'da' and 'ta' depending on your community. and as the cat said in red dwarf (oddly enough while playing scrabble) 'Jozxyqk' is a word in cat slang, which I will not type the meaning of here for family environment purposes.

we need to let the scrabble people know that they could potentially have just unwittingly made a game breaking rule and thier slang dictionary should be erased and removed from the game's valid word ruling.

other wise lets all make a list of 7 and 8 letter slang words featuring every letter combination in every order.

we'll call it the scrabble breaking slang dictionary.

thier choice, they have to choose, do they want people to buy and play thier game? or do they want people to think it's just a silly waste of time.

in end, the purpose of scrabble was to be a game about spelling of the english language
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 07, 2013, 05:36:02 PM
The English language itself will probably cease to exist soon anyhow.  :-\

The standard rules for English will like end up getting replaced by some combination of ghetto and leetspeak.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: GuyPerfect on April 07, 2013, 07:43:44 PM
The English language itself will probably cease to exist soon anyhow.  :-\

It is the sworn duty of pedants, snobs and grammar nazis all over the internet to ensure English retains its proper use far into the future!
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Minotaur on April 07, 2013, 08:01:48 PM
How long before scrabble requires numbers so you can make words like t3h or 1337 :)
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Stratoburst on April 07, 2013, 10:43:04 PM
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

--James Nicoll
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: houtex on April 07, 2013, 11:45:54 PM
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 08, 2013, 12:33:39 AM
One, won, Juan...

Deja vu...  8)

Anywy, I think the point though is that if scrabble accepts every version of a word that more than 100 people can agree IS a word, then is there even any point to it anymore?

Any combination of letters randomly dropped on the board will probably form SOMETHING that in some remote corner of the world is an actual word.

Hmm... is Yesby in that there dictionary?
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Shenku on April 08, 2013, 04:56:59 AM
I've always played Scrabble with people under the simple old rule of the words having to be able to be found in a dictionary(physical copy, not an online dictionary) and not be any form of proper name(No Jim's, Alabama's, Pepsi's or the like).

Still don't agree with some of the new rules for acceptable words, but that's what house rules are for. House rules don't work in digital versions though...
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: KoA on April 08, 2013, 05:19:54 PM
Speaking of Scrabble, how in the heel does Words With Friends come out with a board game?  Is it not like............oh I don't know...........Scrabble?
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Shenku on April 08, 2013, 05:44:06 PM
Speaking of Scrabble, how in the heel does Words With Friends come out with a board game?  Is it not like............oh I don't know...........Scrabble?

Nope. It's "I Can't Believe It's Not Scrabble!", completely different game... :P
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: GuyPerfect on April 08, 2013, 06:37:20 PM
I've always played Scrabble with people under the simple old rule of the words having to be able to be found in a dictionary [...]

Unfortunately, dictionaries don't make words words (http://www.fun-with-words.com/websters_dord.html) either. In some cases, I find great comfort in that fact (http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/grrrl).
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Triplash on April 08, 2013, 06:38:35 PM
Speaking of Scrabble, how in the heel does Words With Friends come out with a board game?  Is it not like............oh I don't know...........Scrabble?

And you just know that a year or two from now, there's going to be a Words With Friends Board Game App.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 08, 2013, 07:49:55 PM
I don't know what 'Words With Friends' is. My spider senses are telling me that this is probably a good thing.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Minotaur on April 08, 2013, 09:14:53 PM
I don't know what 'Words With Friends' is. My spider senses are telling me that this is probably a good thing.

Facebook scrabble, or as close as you can get without lawyers intervening.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Shenku on April 08, 2013, 09:16:56 PM
I don't know what 'Words With Friends' is. My spider senses are telling me that this is probably a good thing.

Short version, it's a free ad-supported generic scrabble game you can play on a smart phone.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TonyV on April 10, 2013, 06:13:23 AM
I don't know what 'Words With Friends' is. My spider senses are telling me that this is probably a good thing.

It's this awesome cool social networking word game that Scrabble mercilessly ripped off and made a board game of, but now that there's a board game of Words with Friends, everyone can play the real board game version and not that cheap knock-off version instead!

(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/885356_564077246956858_479266101_o.jpg)

In other news, did you know that "praxes" is a word?
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 10, 2013, 06:20:34 AM
In other news, did you know that "praxes" is a word?

Pfft... that's not a valid scrabble word. It's a PROPER NOUN. Every Klingon knows that.  8)
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Minotaur on April 10, 2013, 10:15:55 AM
Pfft... that's not a valid scrabble word. It's a PROPER NOUN. Every Klingon knows that.  8)

What's the letter distribution for klingon scrabble ? I presume Ks are worth 1 and there are lots of them.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Kistulot on April 10, 2013, 11:28:29 AM
All I know is a true warrior's game doesn't use blank pieces.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: houtex on April 11, 2013, 01:46:14 AM
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Praxis (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Praxis)
But, it turns out, this is the spelling of 'praxes' that's found in the dictionary, so I tink the 'i' one is the more accepted version...

The definition of 'praxis' is interesting for the naming of the Klingon moon, in that one of the definitions of 'praxis' is 'the application or excercise of a branch of learning', which the Klingons would have definitely been doing, re: learning how NOT to mine, and learning to get along with others. 

/Sneaky Trek writers.  I now see what y'all did there!
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Triplash on April 11, 2013, 02:28:58 AM
The definition of 'praxis' is interesting for the naming of the Klingon moon, in that one of the definitions of 'praxis' is 'the application or excercise of a branch of learning',

Wait so, if there was a coalition of countries dedicated to developing research into usable products... they could be called The Axis of Praxis, right?

They would fund their operations by charging their citizens Praxis Taxes.

And they'd communicate with each other by sending Axis Faxes.

And one day they'd establish a field office in an old music store. Then they'd be sending Axis Faxes about Praxis Taxes from Max's Saxes.

While eating... snackses?

Okay, I'm done now. This post is officially off its rocker. :P
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 11, 2013, 02:35:27 AM
Triplash, I am now officially sharpening my axes.
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Triplash on April 11, 2013, 02:49:19 AM
Triplash, I am now officially sharpening my axes.

Whoa, dude! Relaxes! I'll take it backses!

Awww man now I can't stop :gonk:
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 11, 2013, 02:53:31 AM
Whoa, dude! Relaxes! I'll take it backses!

Awww man now I can't stop :gonk:

Tricksy Triplashes turning this thread to ashes (yeah I know, I'm cheating now)
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Golden Girl on April 11, 2013, 06:28:45 PM
Facebook scrabble, or as close as you can get without lawyers intervening.

The correct term is "spiritual successor" ;)
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: TimtheEnchanter on April 11, 2013, 07:06:44 PM
The correct term is "spiritual successor" ;)

Last time I checked though, scrabble was still being played. And nobody can kill a server to make us stop playing scrabble.  8)
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: Triplash on April 11, 2013, 08:10:02 PM
Last time I checked though, scrabble was still being played. And nobody can kill a server to make us stop playing scrabble.  8)

Yeah. Then it'd be Words Without Friends. And that game's just called "babbling". (See my earlier posts in this thread for examples :P )


Come to think of it though, Words With Friends is pretty much a spiritual successor to Scrabble. Albeit one with "The WiFi Generation" as its target market. You still form words on a grid to collect points, so the core gameplay is there. This version has just been updated in several key areas to make it more accessible to the current strain of video gamers and social network users. Namely:

1) The original game's strict rules on qualifying words have been relaxed significantly, and it added a spellcheck so you couldn't submit a misspelled word even if you wanted to. Heck, you can just try random letters until something works if you feel like it!

2) In an effort to make it feel more familiar to today's video game playerbase, when the game was first introduced it was full of bugs and the company offered little or no support. Obviously this was a wise tactic as the game became a massive success, soon branching off into an entire stable of "... With Friends" titles; not to mention the revolutionary idea of playing the game in an offline setting using a specialized nextgen console called a "board".

3) Finally, to draw in that fiercely loyal contingent of hardcore PvP gamers, they added an item store to the game where you could purchase addons that gave you an unfair advantage over those smelly free-to-play bums.

I can't imagine what they could do with a Checkers reboot!
Title: Re: Scrabble
Post by: GuyPerfect on April 11, 2013, 08:34:06 PM
3) Finally, to draw in that fiercely loyal contingent of hardcore PvP gamers, they added an item store to the game where you could purchase addons that gave you an unfair advantage over those smelly free-to-play bums.

You have just conjured images of a Knightmare Chess (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knightmare_Chess)-like game, but for Scrabble.