When your opponent starts with the word “omasa” on the very first play in the app, “Words With Friends,” you know it’s time to resign immediately. This happened to me last week. Instead of resigning, I labored on, getting demolished by the usual 200+ points that is my fate against this titan of the game.
For those unfamiliar with “Words,” I thought for a long-time it was an electronic version of Scrabble. It’s not.
I’m good at Scrabble, typically coming out on the winning end most times I play, depending on the opponent and how many people are playing. I feel comfortable, know how to effectively hit the Double Word and Triple Word scores and put high-count letters on Triple Letter and Double Letter scores.
That’s not the case with “Words With Friends.” Instead, the app is designed to box you in, make you play three 2-letter words to make points like qi, id and da. Fit them appropriately together and you pull off 27 points. There’s no joy in this. You tinker around, arranging the letters over and over until finally you give up and submit to the software program.
That’s the pain of it. Rather than rummaging in the bag for tiles and placing them in your tile holder to make something that closely resembles a word, when you play in “Words,” what you get back is what the software program chooses to send you based on making the game so difficult that a Word Jumble champion would stumble repeatedly.
“What can I do with this k, l, e, e, e, w, m, t? Uh, make ‘meet?’ Sure, that gets you seven points.” Then my opponent figures out some 6-letter response with major consonants, hitting two of the Triple Words scores and gets back at me with 97 points.
After playing the m, e, e, and t, the torture technology sends me an a, u, o and s. Yipppeee, now I can dominate.
It took me awhile to figure out why I lost by so many times. My opponent is a star, no question. She knows how the technology operates and uses it to her advantage. She’s smart and savvy, taking what is given and makes the most of it.
I continue like a dinosaur, hoping to make big words, utilizing all my letters, so I feel like I’ve created something. Instead the program beats down your word intuition and knowledge.
There is a saving grace, which I guess is why I continue to play and punish myself. Maybe “punish” is the wrong word, cuz I keep thinking I’ll get some letters that allow me to bust loose and make something wonderful, like “cylinder” feeding into the open “r” on the screen. Or “psychopath,” putting “psycho” onto the “path” already played on the board and hitting the Triple Letter with the “y.”
Sigh. But it’s not happening. I keep hoping and continue to get beaten down by whoever put together the coding to keep most humans baffled and wondering why it’s so hard to put four e’s and two u’s into one word with a “q.”
Wait, I got it. That’s “queue.”
Seriously, it happened a few months back. There was a slight lifting of my spirits, then I drew two more “e’s,” a “k,” and a “z.” I created a new curse word with that.
For those unfamiliar with “Words,” I thought for a long-time it was an electronic version of Scrabble. It’s not.
I’m good at Scrabble, typically coming out on the winning end most times I play, depending on the opponent and how many people are playing. I feel comfortable, know how to effectively hit the Double Word and Triple Word scores and put high-count letters on Triple Letter and Double Letter scores.
That’s not the case with “Words With Friends.” Instead, the app is designed to box you in, make you play three 2-letter words to make points like qi, id and da. Fit them appropriately together and you pull off 27 points. There’s no joy in this. You tinker around, arranging the letters over and over until finally you give up and submit to the software program.
That’s the pain of it. Rather than rummaging in the bag for tiles and placing them in your tile holder to make something that closely resembles a word, when you play in “Words,” what you get back is what the software program chooses to send you based on making the game so difficult that a Word Jumble champion would stumble repeatedly.
“What can I do with this k, l, e, e, e, w, m, t? Uh, make ‘meet?’ Sure, that gets you seven points.” Then my opponent figures out some 6-letter response with major consonants, hitting two of the Triple Words scores and gets back at me with 97 points.
After playing the m, e, e, and t, the torture technology sends me an a, u, o and s. Yipppeee, now I can dominate.
It took me awhile to figure out why I lost by so many times. My opponent is a star, no question. She knows how the technology operates and uses it to her advantage. She’s smart and savvy, taking what is given and makes the most of it.
I continue like a dinosaur, hoping to make big words, utilizing all my letters, so I feel like I’ve created something. Instead the program beats down your word intuition and knowledge.
There is a saving grace, which I guess is why I continue to play and punish myself. Maybe “punish” is the wrong word, cuz I keep thinking I’ll get some letters that allow me to bust loose and make something wonderful, like “cylinder” feeding into the open “r” on the screen. Or “psychopath,” putting “psycho” onto the “path” already played on the board and hitting the Triple Letter with the “y.”
Sigh. But it’s not happening. I keep hoping and continue to get beaten down by whoever put together the coding to keep most humans baffled and wondering why it’s so hard to put four e’s and two u’s into one word with a “q.”
Wait, I got it. That’s “queue.”
Seriously, it happened a few months back. There was a slight lifting of my spirits, then I drew two more “e’s,” a “k,” and a “z.” I created a new curse word with that.