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I love scrabble and boggle, but to me there is tension between just playing for points according to a certain set of rules, and playing to form nice satisfying

I love scrabble and boggle, but to me there is tension between just playing for points according to a certain set of rules, and playing to form nice satisfying words.. eg. in scrabble you could use all sorts of bullshit scrabble words that are in SOWPODS like "za" and "qi", but imo its sort of undignified and cheesy to do so.

pretzellogician 1y ago
I used to agree with you. But there's a slippery slope. At what point is a word "bullshit"? What if you simply have a better vocabulary than other players? Our family compromise has always been, if it's valid and you know its definition (like "qi" and "za"), you can play it.
- aabhay 1y ago
  Easier rule is just to exclude two letter words, or make two letter words zero points (so you can get rid of your Qs and Zs if you wish
  - Sesse__ 1y ago
    If you exclude two-letter words, you are also excluding nearly all overlaps and parallel plays.
throwaway81523 1y ago
Like this person, I also remembered the Notre Dame Scrabble Team fight song. I found this post by web search on the words. https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=45390#671943 https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=45390#671943 Added: I think s/he got some of the words slightly wrong!
npteljes 1y ago
This is the same thing I realized when being a "game master" of the shooter matches we used to hold on my previous project. The end goal of that play was fun, not to determine who has the most technical skill. After realizing this in my head, and also implementing it as additional rules for the game, the game sessions became much more enjoyable for everyone, participation, enjoyment, and desire to return for another session was through the roof. That said, both kinds of play has its place, in my life at least. Staying on the topic of shooters, when I play online in ranked, it's all out for me, and I enjoy that as well, in a different way. But when playing with my wife, it's never all out, always friendly.
globular-toast 1y ago
I really didn't enjoy playing Scrabble with someone who knew a bunch of the two letter words. It was similar to playing Team Fortress 2 in a "pro" match rather than public. In pro matches they won't even use certain character classes at all because they're not optimal. It's a completely different game. You just have to find people to play with who are like you. Then you'll have fun. Our family rules didn't even allow 2 letter words, for example.

pretzellogician 1y ago

I used to agree with you. But there's a slippery slope. At what point is a word "bullshit"? What if you simply have a better vocabulary than other players? Our family compromise has always been, if it's valid and you know its definition (like "qi" and "za"), you can play it.

aabhay 1y ago
Easier rule is just to exclude two letter words, or make two letter words zero points (so you can get rid of your Qs and Zs if you wish
- Sesse__ 1y ago
  If you exclude two-letter words, you are also excluding nearly all overlaps and parallel plays.

throwaway81523 1y ago

Like this person, I also remembered the Notre Dame Scrabble Team fight song. I found this post by web search on the words. https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=45390#671943 https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=45390#671943 Added: I think s/he got some of the words slightly wrong!

npteljes 1y ago

This is the same thing I realized when being a "game master" of the shooter matches we used to hold on my previous project. The end goal of that play was fun, not to determine who has the most technical skill. After realizing this in my head, and also implementing it as additional rules for the game, the game sessions became much more enjoyable for everyone, participation, enjoyment, and desire to return for another session was through the roof. That said, both kinds of play has its place, in my life at least. Staying on the topic of shooters, when I play online in ranked, it's all out for me, and I enjoy that as well, in a different way. But when playing with my wife, it's never all out, always friendly.

globular-toast 1y ago

I really didn't enjoy playing Scrabble with someone who knew a bunch of the two letter words. It was similar to playing Team Fortress 2 in a "pro" match rather than public. In pro matches they won't even use certain character classes at all because they're not optimal. It's a completely different game. You just have to find people to play with who are like you. Then you'll have fun. Our family rules didn't even allow 2 letter words, for example.