The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

So, a friend of mine just introduced me to the game Word Domination , and while I normally don't feel prompted to write reviews on game apps, I felt the need to do so in this case. Word Domination is similar to Scrabble (Words With Friends), where players see a board with colored squares which read TW (triple word), TL (triple letter), DW (double word), DL (double letter), etc., and the two players are provided 7 tiles a piece. That's where the similarities begin to end, however. Unlike in Words With Friends, you only have 5 turns to rack up as many points as possible in Word Domination , and not only that, but for each of those 5 turns, you only have 75 seconds to make your move. The board is also smaller. Then there are the boosters. This is where I'll split my reviews into two. 5-star review (out of 5 stars) - initial boosters only If you're just starting out, chances are both you and your newbie opponent will both possess the same three boosters: 1) Time-freeze: Yo...

As regular, long-time readers of this blog will know, I've had some issues with regard to playing Zynga word games on my Android phone through Facebook over the past month or two - most notably, Words With Friends (Scrabble) and Scramble With Friends (Boggle). Well, it appears as if the games are working again, for now anyway. Words With Friends was going pretty slowly, though, so slowly, I decided to delete it and just play it from my computer until the problems are fully fixed. Scramble With Friends, meanwhile, appears to be going slightly more slowly than when I was playing through my Google account, but to this point anyway, it's playable.  Anyway, I just thought I'd update Zynga word-game players out there whom were having similar problems as I was. It appears as if the games are not in ideal playing shape yet, but things are heading in the right direction again. Hopefully that trend will continue and the games will run smoothly again before too terribly long.

I shouldn't be surprised by recent headlines concerning Zynga's mounting problems. Between layoffs, a lawsuit, and unsatisfied customers, the online games provider seems to facing an increasingly steeper hill by the day. As a Zynga customer myself, I've about had it with them and am seriously contemplating taking my services elsewhere, at least until (if) things get straightened out there. There are only two Zynga games I play anymore - Words With Friends (Scrabble) and Scramble With Friends (Boggle). When first playing these games, I would have graded them both with a perfect five out of five stars. However, the more I have played these games, the more flaws I have observed, particularly in Scramble With Friends. Unlike in Words With Friends, in Scramble With Friends every player is provided 15 tokens. Each game costs 1 token. A person may use that token for one power-up, a second token for another power-up, and three more tokens for a third power-up (in each and eve...

I am unashamed to admit that I'm a nerd. My idea of a good time is playing a word game like Boggle or Scrabble. Thankfully, I (and many others) can play such games via Facebook and/or my (our) cell phone(s). While it seems that cheating has become more commonplace in these games (Words With Friends in particular) than San Diego has had nice weather, I've yet to give in to that craze. One element present with the game Scramble With Friends (Boggle) not present in Words With Friends (Scrabble) are legal boosts called "power-ups," which cost a number of tokens from the 15 available. I've now tried all five power-ups, including the latest one which costs money. So, in case anyone's curious about playing the game or giving these power-ups a gander, here's a rundown of them all: Freeze - I think this is probably my favorite of all the power-ups. With the freeze, time stands still for a matter of seconds, which allows you more time to find words and improve...

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...

I started playing Facebook's version of Scrabble about 3 months ago and must admit that I'm addicted. I figured there were probably online sites to aid players in cheating. This seems to be the case in just about every game, unfortunately. There were a couple opponents I had who I'd regularly beat by 150-200 points at least. I commended them for trying but was a combined 31-0 against these two individuals. Then, all of a sudden, they finally learned how to play and went from consistently losing by 200 points to coming within a few, if not winning. Due to the sudden drastic improvement and also the strange words they were playing, I started to get a little suspicious. When I confronted them both, they both admitted they started using a scrabble dictionary along with an online site known as word cheats, where you can give the program all of your letters and it will relay to you all of the possible words you can form with said letters. Naturally, this kind of bugged me. I ca...