Live data from Hacker News

On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

lithub.com

1–10 of 92 posts

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#2
I thought I was good at scrabble but then I realized that playing against my parents does not count. Experts just memorize dictionaries. Just anther example of a game that has been optimized. Would not surprise me if we see a cheating scandal similar to professional chess.

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#4
post #3

It would be interesting to have a "simple english" Scrabble dictionary, without QI and similar words. One reason Wordle is awesome is because they manually filtered down the possible 5 letter words.

There have been a few that aren't exactly vernacular. I'm still angry about "parer"

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#5

I thought I was good at scrabble but then I realized that playing against my parents does not count. Experts just memorize dictionaries. Just anther example of a game that has been optimized. Would not surprise me if we see a cheating scandal similar to professional chess.

At one point the top S rabble player in, iirc French or German was an American who didn’t speak the language. Just pure memorization

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#6
post #3

It would be interesting to have a "simple english" Scrabble dictionary, without QI and similar words. One reason Wordle is awesome is because they manually filtered down the possible 5 letter words.

It’s an interesting idea but how would you define simple. Would be pretty sad to lay down your tiles but find out your word wasn’t “simple” enough.

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#8
post #5

I thought I was good at scrabble but then I realized that playing against my parents does not count. Experts just memorize dictionaries. Just anther example of a game that has been optimized. Would not surprise me if we see a cheating scandal similar to professional chess.

At one point the top S rabble player in, iirc French or German was an American who didn’t speak the language. Just pure memorization

It was French, and Nigel Richards is not American but from New Zealand.

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#9
I wonder if dominos on a scrabble board, or something like that, could be fun. Anything to replace the spelling. The game described in the article:

> There is something magical, however, about realizing how to play Scrabble even one step above beginner: using the bonus spaces, creating overlapping words, hitting your first bingo. You also learn how to play defense.

> The first time you realize that your opponent is stuck with the Q and you make a crucial play to deny her the legal two- word layup QI, securing yourself the victory, well— that’s magic.

almost sounds like a fun game about territory control or something, but I’m not about to memorize a bunch of random letter combinations to play it.

Re: On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast

#10
post #3

It would be interesting to have a "simple english" Scrabble dictionary, without QI and similar words. One reason Wordle is awesome is because they manually filtered down the possible 5 letter words.

There have been a few that aren't exactly vernacular. I'm still angry about "parer"

Not venacular in which countries though?

Eg: I'm Australian and instantly thought "that'd be a paring knife ..", and yes, that appears to be what it is.

Post reply on HN