I love Scrabble. I play Words With Friends on Facebook quite frequently and am quite good - I'd say that I win about 8 of every 10 games I play. However, while I think a person may need some intelligence to play the game well, I don't think as some seem to that those whom are good at this game are the brightest of the bright.
To consistently win at Scrabble, one needs the following: A decent vocabulary, a fairly good memory, the ability to strategize and luck.
The more one plays Scrabble, the more "Scrabble words" they're going to learn - you know, those words you see in the game of Scrabble that you don't see anywhere else, such as: Xi, xu, za, jo, qi, qat, zoea, etc. One may hold a significant advantage over their opponent initially when it comes to overall vocabulary, however, the more they play - so long as the opponent has a decent memory, the more that vocabulary gap will lessen. At this point, vocabulary plays a smaller factor in the outcomes of the games and the factors which increase in significance are strategy and luck. A good deal of strategy needs to be used in Scrabble - so that one person can maximize their use of colored squares while minimizing their opponents use for them. Then there are some games where it doesn't matter how well one strategizes, he/she is consistently stuck with crummy letters, it feels as if the letter-tile gods are against them and there's little to no chance they'll win. It's difficult to do a whole lot with 6-7 consonants, 6-7 vowels or a combination where a maximum of three words can be formed (and they're all 2- or 3-letters in length).
This is one reason why I prefer Boggle over Scrabble and why I think it can be a better measure of a person's being "the brightest of the bright". In Boggle, both players are given the same grid of letters from which to work and they must showcase a certain amount of speed with the timer running. This isn't the case in Scrabble. The two players are stuck with different tiles from which to work. There may be some games when the two players have roughly equal tiles, but for the most part, one is stuck with an inferior line-up of letters to the other.
I compare it to baseball. In Boggle, the two teams have an equal number of players, equal number of balls, strikes and outs to work with. Everything is equal in terms of quantity, so at the end of the game, (most times) the team whom played better will come out as the victor. In Scrabble, there would be times when one team was afforded metal bats while the other was stuck with wooden ones. While, mathematically-speaking, there is a chance the team with the wooden bats could come out with the victory, the odds are definitely not in their favor.
To consistently win at Scrabble, one needs the following: A decent vocabulary, a fairly good memory, the ability to strategize and luck.
The more one plays Scrabble, the more "Scrabble words" they're going to learn - you know, those words you see in the game of Scrabble that you don't see anywhere else, such as: Xi, xu, za, jo, qi, qat, zoea, etc. One may hold a significant advantage over their opponent initially when it comes to overall vocabulary, however, the more they play - so long as the opponent has a decent memory, the more that vocabulary gap will lessen. At this point, vocabulary plays a smaller factor in the outcomes of the games and the factors which increase in significance are strategy and luck. A good deal of strategy needs to be used in Scrabble - so that one person can maximize their use of colored squares while minimizing their opponents use for them. Then there are some games where it doesn't matter how well one strategizes, he/she is consistently stuck with crummy letters, it feels as if the letter-tile gods are against them and there's little to no chance they'll win. It's difficult to do a whole lot with 6-7 consonants, 6-7 vowels or a combination where a maximum of three words can be formed (and they're all 2- or 3-letters in length).
This is one reason why I prefer Boggle over Scrabble and why I think it can be a better measure of a person's being "the brightest of the bright". In Boggle, both players are given the same grid of letters from which to work and they must showcase a certain amount of speed with the timer running. This isn't the case in Scrabble. The two players are stuck with different tiles from which to work. There may be some games when the two players have roughly equal tiles, but for the most part, one is stuck with an inferior line-up of letters to the other.
I compare it to baseball. In Boggle, the two teams have an equal number of players, equal number of balls, strikes and outs to work with. Everything is equal in terms of quantity, so at the end of the game, (most times) the team whom played better will come out as the victor. In Scrabble, there would be times when one team was afforded metal bats while the other was stuck with wooden ones. While, mathematically-speaking, there is a chance the team with the wooden bats could come out with the victory, the odds are definitely not in their favor.
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