'New Scrabble Rules Must Be a Joke - Is it a late April Fool?' blog discussion

grahamm

The point is that this is a *NEW* version of Scrabble:

Here is a comment from Association of British Scrabble Players :

Your news article relating to a proposed rule change in Scrabble is almost entirely inaccurate and misrepresents the facts. Here is a statement from the Association of British Scrabble Players issued this morning:...

6th April 2010

STATEMENT: Proposed rule changes for new Scrabble spin-off

The ABSP has been contacted by several news associations looking for comment on Mattel's decision to launch a Scrabble spin-off game later in the year which will allow capitalised pronouns and other rule variations such as playing words backwards.

We would like to make it clear that these rule changes only relate to a new Scrabble brand product which will be available in shops in time for Christmas. The original Scrabble game is entirely unaffected.

Further clarification can be obtained from Mattel's Scrabble representative, Philip Nelkon, on 01628 500283 or through the ABSP Publicity Officer, Stewart Holden, who can be reached on 07971 634098.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

grahamm wrote: »

The point is that this is a *NEW* version of Scrabble:

Here is a comment from Association of British Scrabble Players :

<SNIPPED>

Glad to hear that current scrabble in unaffected. I would not have changed the way I play in any case. When I thought the new rules applied to current scrabble I was a bit peed off. However, my good friend Zrk Wyd was delighted.

SusieQ49

This is ridiculous! If everyone boycotts the rules and continues to play as usual, the manufacturers will have to retract.

I know it is the age of so-called 'celebrity' - most of whom I have never heard - but this is taking it too far.

Sublime_2

I hope they keep the original, as the one of the main rules of scrabble was not to use proper nouns. If they don't, it holds no appeal for me, as it degrades what the game was about.

grahamm

If people look on this wikipedia artile they will see that there are many variations on Scrabble, some official, some not.

When I was a child we had a "Junior Scrabble" set with the standard board on one side and words already in place on the other side, this wasn't "proper Scrabble" yet there was no outcry about its production.

People are free to play this game with whatever rules they like and I'm sure many people do allow proper names etc as well as the standard SOWPODS list, but that doesn't mean that the rules that competition games or those games on Facebook etc will change and this just strikes me as the media creating another storm in a teacup simply to sell more papers/ get more viewers by misleading people to cause a bit of public "outrage".

wordability

Some of you might think it is a joke but we don't. The "new" scrabble rules are almost identical to our online game "Wordability Solo". We aint amused. Check it out and let me know what you think -
George Morrison
Wordability Limited

grahamm

wordability wrote: »

The "new" scrabble rules are almost identical to our online game

Err, is Scrabble going to be allowing diagonal words? No.

Are they going to allow words to be played upwards or backwards? No.

But...

Does your game have Double Word and Triple Word Score squares like Scrabble with the Red Triple ones in the corners and the middle of the sides? Yes

Does your game score 10 points for a Q and a Z and 8 points for a J etc? Yes.

So who is copying whom, exactly?

And was your post just an excuse to get some free publicity for your game...??

consumers_revenge

I would love to see this brought in. I'd never lose....:j

fzaj, zhacs, terrygropz, ffojds, vanderzeez, iqq, lampard, kkzoxd, colezzz, jcolezz, foyqz.

The new chelsea starting eleven ( well thats what I'll tell the missus! )

oh and iiiiiiiiiilmk as a sub as you always get them left over.

WASHER

I have recently started to play Scrabble with my two children (10 and 11), it teaches children how to use a dictionary, how on earth will this new updated version do that? We will not be playing the new version.

The problem I feel is youngsters and parents reply on too much technology now a days, playing a good old fashioned board game can bring endless hours of fun whilst the children are learning new words and challenging them at the same time, does Facebook do that? I think not!

aris

Surely you can play by whichever rules you choose? Certainly when we were playing with my son at 5 years old, we were _very_ lenient about what words he could use - and even how they were spelled (in fact anything was OK - as long as he was participating and it was somewhat phonetically correct).