4 ms·

IMO this is because Scrabble is a terrible game. Knowledge of the breadth of your language will only get you so far in the game: the winner will be the person w

IMO this is because Scrabble is a terrible game. Knowledge of the breadth of your language will only get you so far in the game: the winner will be the person who can put the greatest amount of short words with 'X' and 'Z' in triple-word panels. If I were to re-invent the game I would remove the triple tiles and half the point value from most letters. This way you can give advantage to people who put longer and nicer words instead of that guy who knows that "qi" and "hext" are words in modern English dictionaries.

izzydata 7y ago
Does the game in other languages assign the same point values to letters? Is the distribution of letters the same? It seems like a different language would have more or less frequencies of any particular letter which should influence the amount of available tiles and what they are worth.
- mFixman 7y ago
  The board and (letter distribution × score) distribution are almost identical between languages. There are always a couple of letters with extremely high scores, and the winning tactic is to play ugly short words with those letters by the multipliers.
- gambiting 7y ago
  Yes, the Polish version of scrabble doesn't have the letter X at all(since there are no Polish words which use it), and it has all of the Polish-specific letters added, with the rarity based score recalculated for Polish - for example Z is worth 1, since it's an extremely common letter in Polish: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble#/media/Plik:Polskie_scrabble_-_paths_-_ready.svg https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble#/media/Plik:Polskie_s...
ImpressiveWebs 7y ago
No, this is not true. All professional scrabble players know the short words. None of them has an advantage because of that. The advantage is knowing the “bingos” (ie the 7 and 8 letter words). Players like Nigel Richards will also know the 6-letter words, which are much less useful, but which not all pros will know. There’s a lot to pro scrabble (I know because I’ve played many of the best players in the world online), but knowing the small words is not what puts people over the top. Now, if you’re just talking about casual games, then yeah, knowing the short X, Z, and Q words is going to give you a huge edge. But that has nothing to do with why a non French player won using the French dictionary.
- notacoward 7y ago
  AIUI you need to know both. You need to know the short high-letter-value words so you can dump those letters semi-productively while you build up a rack that's good for bingos. Have I been misinformed?
  - ImpressiveWebs 7y ago
    Yes, that’s correct. But I was pointing out that the reason Nigel Richards won in French is not because he knew the short words; all the players he played against knew all the short words. They just didn’t know all the words like he does.
cdelsolar 7y ago
that's a ridiculous take; Scrabble is one of the best games ever invented.
furyofantares 7y ago
Scrabble is a really wonderful competitive game that has very little to do with language. As a competitive game it has the novelty of randomization combined with an incredible skill depth and ability to sort competitors accurately. What sucks is that this doesn't match expectations for a word game at all. If you're playing for light wordplay, or for competitive wordplay, your goals don't align with the game's scoring system at all. This can be OK if you're playing with another person with the same values as you, but it sucks to whatever degree there's a mismatch. This means it can still be great for at-home play but it can also be quite unexpectedly poor.
andrepd 7y ago
Your last paragraph establishes beyond reasonable doubt that you've never played a game of high-level Scrabble, nor sat at one or watched one online. If that's true, then why would you feel the need to knock it down, something which you're not knowledgeable about?
GCA10 7y ago
Even at my level of play, being able to stick XI (or its equivalents) onto a triple-slot with a second X??? word on the other axis is maybe 3% of the game. Success comes from astute tile-balancing and relentless pursuit of bingos. Which means that people already are using the strategy you want, and are getting compensated appropriately for it under the current rules.

izzydata 7y ago

Does the game in other languages assign the same point values to letters? Is the distribution of letters the same? It seems like a different language would have more or less frequencies of any particular letter which should influence the amount of available tiles and what they are worth.

mFixman 7y ago
The board and (letter distribution × score) distribution are almost identical between languages. There are always a couple of letters with extremely high scores, and the winning tactic is to play ugly short words with those letters by the multipliers.
gambiting 7y ago
Yes, the Polish version of scrabble doesn't have the letter X at all(since there are no Polish words which use it), and it has all of the Polish-specific letters added, with the rarity based score recalculated for Polish - for example Z is worth 1, since it's an extremely common letter in Polish: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble#/media/Plik:Polskie_scrabble_-_paths_-_ready.svg https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble#/media/Plik:Polskie_s...

ImpressiveWebs 7y ago

No, this is not true. All professional scrabble players know the short words. None of them has an advantage because of that. The advantage is knowing the “bingos” (ie the 7 and 8 letter words). Players like Nigel Richards will also know the 6-letter words, which are much less useful, but which not all pros will know. There’s a lot to pro scrabble (I know because I’ve played many of the best players in the world online), but knowing the small words is not what puts people over the top. Now, if you’re just talking about casual games, then yeah, knowing the short X, Z, and Q words is going to give you a huge edge. But that has nothing to do with why a non French player won using the French dictionary.

notacoward 7y ago
AIUI you need to know both. You need to know the short high-letter-value words so you can dump those letters semi-productively while you build up a rack that's good for bingos. Have I been misinformed?
- ImpressiveWebs 7y ago
  Yes, that’s correct. But I was pointing out that the reason Nigel Richards won in French is not because he knew the short words; all the players he played against knew all the short words. They just didn’t know all the words like he does.

cdelsolar 7y ago

that's a ridiculous take; Scrabble is one of the best games ever invented.

furyofantares 7y ago

Scrabble is a really wonderful competitive game that has very little to do with language. As a competitive game it has the novelty of randomization combined with an incredible skill depth and ability to sort competitors accurately. What sucks is that this doesn't match expectations for a word game at all. If you're playing for light wordplay, or for competitive wordplay, your goals don't align with the game's scoring system at all. This can be OK if you're playing with another person with the same values as you, but it sucks to whatever degree there's a mismatch. This means it can still be great for at-home play but it can also be quite unexpectedly poor.

andrepd 7y ago

Your last paragraph establishes beyond reasonable doubt that you've never played a game of high-level Scrabble, nor sat at one or watched one online. If that's true, then why would you feel the need to knock it down, something which you're not knowledgeable about?

GCA10 7y ago

Even at my level of play, being able to stick XI (or its equivalents) onto a triple-slot with a second X??? word on the other axis is maybe 3% of the game. Success comes from astute tile-balancing and relentless pursuit of bingos. Which means that people already are using the strategy you want, and are getting compensated appropriately for it under the current rules.