Joe Lavin

This computer feature originally appeared in San Diego ComputorEdge.

I have never been in a chat room like this before, and I feel a little embarrassed watching all the weird games people play. Just think, there could be anyone here. The people you meet could be your next door neighbor, your boss, or your postman. And, oh the language. You wouldn't believe the language.

I am talking, of course, about the Internet Scrabble Club, which is what you get when you combine the classic board game of Scrabble, the Internet, and a chat interface. Until this year, I had never even played Scrabble before, but then I read Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis' excellent book about the strange world of tournament Scrabble. It was fascinating to discover the sheer obsession with which the world's top Scrabble players treat the game. At first, I wanted to laugh at them, but then I caught myself dwelling on all the weird words they talked about. Somehow, a small part of me wanted to join them, and soon I was a member of the Internet Scrabble Club.

Word Freaks Online

The ISC (http://www.isc.ro) is perhaps the best place to play Scrabble online. This is where many of the highest rated players hang out, but don't worry. You can still find novices like me to trounce.

It's easy to start playing. Just download a small program called WordBiz, and you can start challenging other players to games. As you play more, you are given a rating that is roughly comparable to the ratings used in real tournaments. When you challenge others, you can then limit your opponents by their ratings or just play anyone and see what happens. If you feel particularly friendly, you can even chat with your opponent while you play, though frankly I don't have enough of an attention span to do this.

The world here is not quite as odd as the one that Fatsis describes, but it is still a strange atmosphere. The high ranked players are practically idolized. Whenever a player ranked over 1,800 logs on, their presence is immediately announced. You can even observe games between the top-rated players, which is a great way to make yourself feel especially stupid. "Wow, I guess 'quaffing' is a much better move than 'in'."

Scrabble as a Spectator Sport?

Watching others play Scrabble online no doubt seems lame to some, and it will sound even lamer when I tell you that my friend Mark and I recently spent part of a Friday evening watching others play. Don’t worry. It wasn't our only activity that night. We had just returned from a night of pizza and beer, and we were gearing up to compete against someone. (There's nothing quite like getting tanked and playing Scrabble online.) Still, we sat there for several minutes transfixed while we watched people play words like "galatea" (a cotton fabric), "Hegira" (excess), "qoph" (a Hebrew letter) and "qat" (a tree in Africa).

We had just finished watching a basketball game, and really our responses to the Scrabble was not much different than our responses to the basketball. In a few more minutes, we probably would have started betting on Scrabble. When you're a guy, pretty much anything can be a sport, which is good because ESPN actually plans to televise parts of the National Championships this fall.

483 and Hopefully Rising

I don't know how much observing there really is in the ISC, but I don't think I have to worry about anyone observing my games. I am currently ranked at a lowly 483, and I trust that nobody is logging on to watch me play such winners as "cat," tire," and "and."

Seeing others play words like "qat" against me so many times (not to mention other familiar chestnuts like "xi" and "aa") has been frustrating, so lately I haven't been playing as many games against strangers. Mostly, I just play against my girlfriend, which would be incredibly romantic if, that is, she did not win just about every game we play. Well, okay, I did have one victory, due to the fact that I inexplicably managed to use all my tiles in one turn to play the word "eulogize." All that observing must have paid off.

I won another time as well, but that's mainly because she fell asleep for the last ten minutes of the game, but I'm still counting it as a victory.

Luckily, I am getting better, and with some practice I might just have a chance at defeating her some day. Of course, it could be awhile, as she just won by using the word "cor" ("an interjection used to express surprise, admiration, or irritation"). Coincidentally enough, I used a much stronger interjection than that when she won the game.

From San Diego ComputorEdge
April 18, 2003
The Traveling Book Show
I look left. Then, I look right. Luckily, no one in the mall is watching me, yet I still feel slightly paranoid. I grab a book from my backpack and leave it on a bench. Quickly, I walk away, hoping that nobody saw me. Don't worry. I'm not littering. Instead, I'm releasing a book into the wild for bookcrossing.com. ( More.... )