Oyez

Scrabble: Words with Friends

2/15/2019

I’ve never been one to sit around playing games on my phone, I couldn’t’ figure out the attraction.   I’ll play Sudoku while waiting at the doctor’s office or waiting to board a plane, but outside of that, nah, there’s always something else that has to, or should be, done.  This was the week to check out what games on cell phones is all about .  I figured it would be more engaging to play something challenging with someone, so I went in search of a game and a play buddy.  With my account activated and my invitation challenge sent out, I was ready to roll. 

 .  The harder the letter is to use the more its worth.  Seven tiles are added to the bottom of your empty game board, the challenger places a word on the board first.  One of your seven tiles has to be placed on the + sign in the middle of the board, subsequent tiles are placed to connect to existing tiles while forming new words on the board.  The quest is to score the highest number of points per word, resulting in high score when all the tiles have been given out.  A counter near the bottom of the screen tells you how many tiles are left, and if you want to know if the Q, Z, or other high scoring tile are still up for grabs you can navigate through the hamburger menu to see the remaining tiles.  Like the game board there are spaces to double and triple letter and word values (DL, DW, TL, & TW).  These are the squares you want to use since that’s where the real scoring happens, especially if one of your tiles intersects two words! Once you drag your tiles into place the game tells you the score for the tiles you’re trying to use and gives you either a green lightning bolt, if it accepts your word, or a red exclamation point if the word is a “no go”.  It won’t hesitate to give you a red exclamation point for words you think, or know, are valid.  But there’s no sense arguing with the game master, he isn’t listening.

You wrack your brains, drag your tiles around, then finally decide on your word, and submit your word using the “Play” button on the bottom of the screen, then watch your score.

There are daily mystery box bonuses, and you can earn rewards by completing challenges; playing the “match of the day” player, getting 30+ points on a word, 300+ points in a game, or using all the letters in designated daily words in the various words you build, like “  on valentines day.   Your reward board tracks your longest and best scoring words amongst other things, but it’s really all about bragging rights.

 

Back and forth you go, place your tiles, hit play, then strategize for your next word so you’re ready when your phone dings to tell you it’s your turn.  Then check out the updated score, how many points they got on their last word, and where they played.  Rejoice when you place two tiles and score 32 points, and roll your eyes when you realize your opponent stole the spot you spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for before figuring out that “sizars” would fit perfectly there to give you 108 points.  Then up pops   for 114 points, seriously?!  Your opponent wins and it’s time for a rematch, best two out of three?  Then you’re listening for the ding again to see what’s happened and figure out what to do next.

How do we get wrapped up in such a simple game so easily?   Sure it’s nice you can put it down to focus on something else, no one is really waiting on you.  When you return to play it’ll be there,   and there’s no game board in the way taking up space on the dinner table, so you don’t ever have to put it away!  But there must be more to it, something that pulls you in.  I was reflecting on a podcast I listened to this week where Professor Game was interviewing Steve Bocska the CEO of PUG Interactive, a game building company with a client base that includes Disney & Sega.  When asked about his processes he chose to focus on two things in the podcast, one of which was the five C’s.   As I thought about them and how the five C’s impacted my engagement with this game I saw a lot of truth in what he had presented.  The engagement model, as he calls it, that they use in the middle of the design phase revolves around incorporating game mechanics that ensure that the game covers all five to some extent.  As I reviewed them I decided they were on to something.

• Competition ☑     You plan a friend or select a random player online
• Collaboration ☑    Kind of, most of the time he was collaborating me right out of my spaces.  However there was an interactive component nonetheless and a chat element available if you wanted to use it.
• Collection ☑    Badges, tokens you could redeem, and the ability to earn things to customize your experience, provided plenty to collect.
• Customization ☑    For example different colored to customize your game board.
• Completion ☑    Although you could literally play forever there was an end to each

 

Ah but now I am seeing visions of a game designed to practice spelling words or something like similar.  What if the only tiles that came up were from a   Could there be questions or definitions that popped up with the tiles to provide a hint & reinforce word definitions?     Could it keep a leader board for posting on a TV in class??  So many options, the question is are they realistic?  Time to find, and talk to, a game designer to research the reality of it all.

Resources:

Rob Alvarez Bucholska (Producer). (2019, February, 11).  Professor Game: From Triple-A games to gamification with Steve Bocska [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.professorgame.com/podcast/068/