Scrabble: Now for Stupid People
By: Keith
Update 04/0610:
A spokesperson for Mattel today clarified previous statements about the upcoming revisions to the Scrabble rules. It turns out that they have no plans to change the Scrabble that we all love. Instead there are plans for a new Scrabble game called Scrabble: Trixter that will have all of these crazy new rules and allowances. I’m not a Scrabble fanboy by any means, but the thought of changing a classic rubbed me the wrong way. I can’t imagine playing any other game than the original. Scrabble has worked for people of all ages (who can read) for 60 years. My criticism about the dumbing down of games for the sake of sales stands. Hasbro owns the US rights to the game. Scrabble: Trickster will be released by Mattel in England.
Original Story – Scrabble: Now for Stupid People
In our family game rules are ad-hoc. Monopoly, Chess (we let the kids take moves back if they want), Life – they all get new rules that make them more fun for everyone, especially the kids. Scrabble isn’t immune to the tinkering either. I’ve allowed the boys to spell their own names and the names of family members even though proper nouns are forbidden by rule. Now, in a recent announcement, Mattel has decided to relax its standards on what constitutes a word. Proper nouns will be permitted. So will spelling words diagonally and backwards. They’re even considering allowing words to be placed on the board unconnected to other words. I really don’t care how people want to play their Scrabble games. But for Mattel to print new rules smacks of lowered expectations. It’s one thing to make up the rules in a friendly game between friends and family. It’s an entirely different thing to concede that people have become so dumb that the traditional rules for the game are now obsolete.
Beyonce is not a Word:
Having Beyonce written on a government document does not legitimize the combination of syllables you’ve invented. Lady Gaga is nothing more than baby talk, folks. Just because you have the capacity to babble does not legitimize what you’re saying. The rules of Scrabble were intended to eliminate our frivolous human nature of “totally making shit up so we can win.” There’s a great book about the making of the English Oxford Dictionary. It’s called The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary was created by requesting submissions over the course of decades. Those submissions, by common people, were pigeon holed and reviewed by scholars for finally entry to the lexicon. It’s still the most complete dictionary of any language that’s ever been compiled. One guy sitting in a basement didn’t do it; it was a national effort. Why are we suddenly allowing words like Beyonce when there are literally 200,000 other acceptable words to chose from?
Accepted Scrabble Words: (as copied from the official scrabble rules)
Players may place any word which can be found in a standard English language dictionary. Official Scrabble dictionaries also can be found in bookstores and online.
Types of words which cannot be used are abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes. Words that require a hyphen or an apostrophe cannot be played. Words that are spelled with a capital letter cannot be used.
Generally speaking in an English-language game of Scrabble, foreign words cannot be placed on the Scrabble board. If those words appear in a standard English dictionary, then the word is allowable. This is because the word is spoken often enough by native English-speakers that it has become a part of the English language.
See how easy that is? Anybody can understand those rules. It’s obvious that the rule change by Mattel is intended to draw in a more illiterate crowd. What will be next? Texting communications (or whatever it’s called)? Why not leave the officials rules alone? Mattel can always insert a disclaimer into the rules pamphlet that says people are free to make up whatever rules suit them when playing an informal game. The people who seriously play scrabble don’t need the dumbed down assist anyway.
Related posts:
That is very sad. Kind of takes the spirit of the game and the challenge of developing a vocabulary. I’m all for “home” rules in games like Monopoly. Hell, I even allow mortgages and loans on property holdings to make the game more interesting. However, we will not be playing by these new relaxed rules when it comes to Scrabble.
.-= PJ Mullen´s last blog ..The monster at the end of this post =-.
Guess this will make the Scrabble Dictionary a collectors item? I hate that they’re dumbing down Scrabble, and glad I have the version with the current rules on my phone. Have you tried Scrabble Apple? My boys like that version also, but prefer Bananagrams. Those versions are great ways to occupy kids when having to sit and wait somewhere, like in a restaurant. We’ve also been known to play one of those versus doing spelling for that day.
your last two sentences are key.
Now I can pull out my Ebonics words to play!
I always lose. So any rules that will help me use the SEVEN vowels I always seem to get.
Honestly, the changes are only for the money. Every home has their own house rules like you said.
I like using proper nouns as verbs. Like Google. It’s a noun and a verb.
.-= Eric´s last blog ..Randomness and Cynicism – VI =-.
Good news, let’s hope, they will never introduce this rule here…
.-= Daniel´s last blog ..ODS4/ODS5 now working on the Scrabble Solver =-.
I wonder how this thought process works on the current allowable Scrabble word list. I, for one, have an Oxford Dictionary on hand for challenges but many people now play online or on their phones which use online scrabble word lists.
“If those words appear in a standard English dictionary, then the word is allowable.”
There are quite a few words on these lists that definitely are not in any dictionaries. There are also many words that are obsolete English words. I don’t advocate the removal of those as they are still good for obscure trivia, but the words that have popularity in the English lexicon due to visibility in online scrabble lists should be removed… (Dsomo?)
They are kind of self-fulfilling in presence, maybe they were obscure words or words that were used for a year or two that someone thought would be neat to have around, but all in all they are just hindrance to a game that values intelligence.
As one who came dux at high school and scores well on IQ tests I certainly don’t *need* the game “dumbed down” , however playing with my overly-zealous mother and discovering how bizarre are the entries in the official scrabble words list has made me realize why I stopped plaiyng many years ago.
It’s not because I “txt speak”, or don’t know an apostrophe’s proper place – it’s because frankly the official scrabble words list includes words that ARE foreign, and ARE proper names. On top of that, abbreviations ABOUND not just in online versions, but sadly in dictionaries ! Since when is “chemo” a word ? It’s not – it’s a common-use abbreviation of “chemotherapy” !
So if you accept that a dictionary should list those things that are in “common use” – that it documents the language *as used* – then “lol” is a word too.
Let’s face it, a dictionary that documents current usage, listing such words in an identical way as words of long-standing is actually doing us all a disservice. THAT practice is what “dumbs down” the language in my opinion.
So while Scrabble Trixter allowed us to have some relaxed fun over Christmas and for me to beat my I-have-to-win-scrabble-at-all-costs mother, I can confidently say that it won’t be getting too much usage from here on.
Not because it “dumbs down” the game / language – but because scrabble zealots lost the plot many moons ago by accepting thousands of words that contradict the basic rules of the game – no foreign words, no abbreviations.
Games are for fun after all !
Warren