Aphonic over Words with Friends
In another era, WWF stood for the World Wrestling Federation. Still does, I suppose, although today those initials are more commonly known by online gamers as Word with Friends.
Somewhere around Thanksgiving I got hooked into this addictive game which, along with other games like Hanging with Friends and the (non-interactive) Angry Birds are taking up a lot of people’s times these days.
Words with Friends, an interactive online game that looks a lot like Scrabble, comes from the company Zynga and is becoming a ubiquitous pasttime for many people these days. (Screenshot from the Zynga web site).
Popularity rising
With its ubiquitous accessibility, via terminal, laptop, notebook, or smart phone, Word with Friends seems, indeed, to be everywhere. And with its links to Facebook, many of the moves you make show up on your wall, thereby advertising its presence to many others and the many others who have befriended those many others.
Who wouldn’t want it known that their best achievement of the day was scoring 131 points by their adroit playing of the word “djebel?”
A domino effect
It’s the well-known domino effect, and it now has more than 3 million Facebook users “liking” this game, and probably wasting a lot of otherwise productive hours playing it.
Those prone to finding their glasses to be half-full as opposed to seriously leaking, would point out that you can increase your vocabulary with such word games as this thinly-veiled version of the classic game of Scrabble.
Hmmm…
I suppose my reaction would be, True if you think any of the following kinds of words will be useful for you in the conversations of life:
Qi, qat, xi, vodoun, oedemas, yegg (egg with an extra-large yoke?), quin, jeux, nixe, nae, qua, tael, ratel, eclat, recta (2 rectums?) and quean.
Or how about rec, rem, urd, mae, ecu, kex, kae, and jauk?
All these and many other wonderful words are legitimate parts of the King’s speech, according to your friends at Words with Friends. And of course we use these gems all the time in our everyday chats. These are the words that come tripping off our tongue when we are confronted with six consonants and a vowel (or, worse yet, the opposite). Right?
Too scrambled?
Well, only right if we are using a handy-dandy word unscrambler. Or is that descrambler? Neither seems to find favor with the text program I’m using now.
These descramblers bring up a serious ethical issue, of course, to players of WWF: Is it cheating to
What drives so many to playing interactive games late at night? The answers are many, but the results can vary. (AP Photo).
use a crutch like that? Or is a descrambler really a crutch? Might it merely help you to unclutter all the knowledge of universe you already possess so that you can get right to these words that you already knew so well?
The tree and the thud
And, like the tree no one ever saw or heard falling in the wilderness, does it matter if no one hears it? Would Aristotle or Immanuel Kant insist that you come clean and tell your opponent you’re using a descrambler before starting the match? And if BOTH of you use that aid, does that negate the ethical quandary and create an even and virtuous playing field? Or is it that you are both now cheating?
But if you’re both cheating, why play the game at all?
The game of life
The backers of WWF would say that playing this game allows each of us to come face to face with deep and important ethical principles which can only help us out in the rest of the game of life.
This all, of course, presumes that people are actually playing WWF and not just logging on to use the chat box, which is one great way of getting around paying for a text package on your cell phone, especially since you can access WWF on that very phone and text until your heart’s content — or until you run out of words — for free.
A serious side
Proving once again, however, that there is an upside to everyone wasting time on the Web, consider the following story posted just today by CBS News:
“Beth Legler, of Blue Springs, Missouri, began playing Words with Friends more than two years ago on her cell phone, reports KCTV CBS 5 in Kansas City. That’s when she met an Australian couple named Georgie and Simon Fletcher of Queensland, Australia.
“One day during a game, Georgie told Beth that Simon was feeling under the weather, so Beth asked her to describe his symptoms, since Beth’s own husband, Larry, was a doctor.
“When hearing that Simon was experiencing fatigue so severe that he couldn’t walk to his mailbox and burning in the back of his throat, reports MSNBC, Dr. Legler had some words of advice for his wife’s online friends: get to a doctor immediately.
“Legler thought Simon was experiencing angina, a condition that occurs when your heart doesn’t get enough oxygen-rich blood. That causes pressure or squeezing in the chest, but could cause pain elsewhere in the body like in the shoulders, arms, neck, or back. What usually causes angina? Heart disease.
“Simon was reluctant but went to the doctor, and as it turns out, Dr. Legler was right: Simon had a 99 percent blockage in his artery and was on death’s door.
“Simon had two stents implanted through emergency surgery, and has recovered. ‘I owe Larry everything,’ Simon told KCTV. “I’m really lucky to be here.”
“Said Beth, ‘It’s been a wonderful experience to have had made some great friends and know that Simon is well because of a word game.’”
Wow. I’m speechless. Or is that aphonic?
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Comments
Wow this article really shows how addicted people are to internet games. I have actually never heard of this particular game, and by the way you described it, I definitely see why people are addicted to it. It seems that people do not want to talk or acutally communicate. They would rather play a game, and seriously believe that they are making friends. Now that this story got posted on CBS, it is probably going to make this game even more successful, which will further cause people to waste even more time.
I must admit I am an avid Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends player. With regards to the word descrambler I must say that it is 100% cheating and if you are going to bother to use it why even play. Also, it is pretty noticeable to your opponent when you do use it. Its funny how out of the blue one of your opponents who has never beaten you before starts putting together words worth tons of points. Words that they would not know the meaning of in a million years. I just do not understand how you can claim victory if someone or something else is doing all the work for you.
I take great pride in my fair playing of WWF. I mostly play only against my family members, and there is a great sense of indecency if one stoops as low as cheating against them. I did, however, try one of these applications early in my playing of WWF. It was great! My friends thought I was brilliantly well educated and spent a lot of time trying to win, but as easy as it was to cheat, it was just as easy to see through the incredible words I was placing and know that something was not right. My argument is that the possibilities of playing a world class Scrabble player is slim to none, and these cheating applications are transparent in their effect on games in which they are used.
One last thing: please don’t let my mom see this. She may or may not been the victim of one of these apps from me.
Wow! Reading this article leaves me speechless. It is shocking to see what this generation has come to be and how quickly a simple game such as Words With Friends, can become so ridiculously popular, so quickly. I have noticed a definite trend on my college campus. Instead of people’s conversations consisting of “hey how are you?” they include “words with friends me!” This hype has quickly taken over the phone app gaming world. I think the story from CBS news is comedic yet so neat! I can’t believe that a virtual friendship saved someones life! Stories like that have the tendency to leave you with mixed feelings about a game such as Words With Friends.
I myself use to be an avid words with friends player. I’ve enjoyed the game of scramble ever since I was a little kid and this felt like the modern-day version of the very game. I find it very interesting how games such as WWF can become such a great phenomena over night through sites like Facebook. It only takes that much publicity for people to start wondering what all the buzz is about. That is what got me hooked and now I play whenever I can!
I have personally never played Words With Friends, however I have seen its effect on friends around me. Especially last year, when WWF was at its peak popularity, people would huddle together and pull out their iPods for an exhilarating game. I do not understand why an electronic version of scrabble would be so exciting. Or maybe I was just jealous because I did not own an iPod Touch thus left out of the WWF revolution.
I can totally relate to this post, seeing as I am a self-diagnosed Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, and, here’s a new one, Scrambled with Friends addict. In my opinion, using an online word generator is definitely cheating and takes away from the fun of the game. Just because someone uses words like qi and qat, though, doesn’t mean they’re using a generator. Practice makes perfect, and once you’ve played the game enough times you start to try out various combinations and remember what works and what doesn’t. Some might argue trying different combinations of letters out to see what WWF accepts is cheating… I just call it strategy. It’s amazing to me though that someone was able to save the life of another through the chat feature on a phone application. It just goes to show how much technology has advanced and how it is possible to befriend total strangers simply by pressing a “Random Opponent” button on a cell phone game. A little beside the point… but I remember when having “Snake” on your phone was cool. Anyway, overall I thought it was an interesting and relatable post. Oh, and I definitely plan on using “djebel” if I ever get the letters. Thanks for the idea.
I tried to play Words with Friends before and it was a fun game, but at times I would score on words I didn’t even knew existed. Sometimes I think this game has potential to be educational, but because it doesn’t give the meaning, I find myself forgetting the words I just made for the game. It can and is addicting; I always see my younger cousins playing it at gatherings.
I find this trend very interesting! I think this interaction follows Aristotle’s vision that human happiness is connected social, communal, and political interactions. I have played several other people in online games on my phone and I have found it very enjoyable to play and chat with somebody random! I especially enjoyed talking with people from other countries.
That last story was really unexpected, and I’m sure very rare. I used to play WWF and I found it very entertaining but upon learning that there is another app called Cheats With Friends, I immediately stopped playing. What was the point of playing a game where someone could easily easily cheat on. My friend who showed it to me was scoring like 49 points each time. You take a picture of your screen and then upload it to the cheating app and it calculates the highest score you can get with the letters you have been given. Very unfair. I was sad because it took away the innocence. I felt violated. I know its just a game but I mean cheating like that is just wrong and you would never know if you’re opponent is cheating. I don’t see the game as a learning experience, just as a fun thing to do to…waste time, basically.
I laughed when I first saw this post. Quite recently I have gotten addicted to WWF just this past week in fact. In response to ethical questions regarding using word descramblers I personally don’t mind them. I don’t use them but if others use them it wouldn’t bother me. I merely play for sheer enjoyment and discovery of words. If I had a descrambler I would probably use it. I don’t have problems to this because there are so many words in the world that finding an obscure one would eventually cause me to go to a dictionary and find the meaning of the word thus learning in the process.
For other people, I’m not so sure how they would respond to it. I guess it depends on their level of competitiveness in WWF. These games can be of great benefit with social interaction across a network and exercises to practice thinking and spelling for the brain. Moderation is important though and one can spend too much time on it and lose focus on what is needed to be done at times
It seems that current generations have created and are continuing to create new mediums to connect with each other. We have so many ways to “talk” to the people we know, sort of know, and don’t know. WWF is just one of those many devices. We can text, FB message, email, but God forbid we should pick up the phone to have a conversation. Of course there are other ways as well, chatrooms, a plethora of smartphone/iphone apps, and too many other ways to mention. All of these have something in common- not only are we shortening our sentences, disregarding grammar and spelling, we are coming up with a new language. It seems that our language is loosing much meaning and reading and vocabulary aren’t as admired as they once were.
Ironically, the two tabs that I currently have open on my laptop screen are this blog and Words With Friends on Facebook. My brother in law played “em” and “da”; two words I never knew existed. I was just introduced to Words With Friends this week and I can agree that it is addicting. My favorite game growing up was Scrabble which is why I have taken a liking to Words with Friends. I too agree with both sides of the argument, that this game can take up valuable time but ones vocabulary can be stretched. At least this game has some educational value. The points made about the descramblers and cheating really got me thinking. I have a friend who was beating me by more than 200 points (and I am good at this game)….I’m thinking she is using one of these descrambling tools! Either way, this game is fun in moderation and can help broaden ones vocabulary.
After reading your post on this words with friends I couldn’t believe that one person saved another person’s life because of this game. Then again in today’s world it’s possible. However, I believe that WWF is creating false vocabulary and mainly false victors. The game itself isn’t helping young people learn and expand their vocabulary. Really, all it is doing is wasting their time during class and life. Move on play a game with a person who is physically in front of you.
I found this article very interesting and particularly catching my interest due to the fact that i am also one of the many maybe not addicted but find myself playing quite often. I don’t think that I would necessarily say that it has lead to a regression in any means of communication of education, especially since I like to take advantage of the pass and play aspect which i would consider just as legit as a srabble board game, it also leads to conversations and interactions with family or friends that unfortunately otherwise would not be as often and it does make me realize and take action that maybe we should connect or communicate through a different form. I also believe game wise it is a good way to learn strategy and educationally new words. You dont always accumulate the most points just due to a long word. Being able to connect words, place in certain spots on the board, and able to hold out for letters that can give you better chances or word choices are all also apart of the game.
In terms of the word descramblers i do see it as 100 percent cheating. I must also admit that i have used them in the past when i was first getting into the game, but realizing they do not always work out the best, finding out my own strategies simply from learning from those i was playing, and me being competative it really kills the joy of winning if it is not due to my own efforts. I do enjoy the shuffler that is on the game which can open my eyes to words that i did not notice before, but i think it is obvious that this is not cheating due to the game installing the function itself.
This was an interesting article to read due to the fact that so many of my friends, peers, co-workers, etc, play the game Words With Friends. I myself do not play but I don’t have a fancy phone either so I can’t say that’s a big achievement because I can’t even play it in the first place. As I was reading through this I got to start thinking about fads. By fads I obviously mean trends, what is current for the time being, but will eventually FADe out (see what I did there?). I have thought about this before though and have always come to the conclusion that trends end because people just eventually get tired out and want to change it up. That could be anything from the style of clothes they prefer to wear at that time or in this case the game they are playing at that time (WWF or HWF). The more I begin to learn about Marketing and Mass Communication, I am beginning to realize it’s not just that people “tire” out of something, it’s that their attention is shifted to a new desire or when successfully marketed perceived to be a “need”. Believe it or not Angry Birds wont be around forever, and neither will Words With Friends. All things have their time, but that time eventually moves on. Advertising in a sense has a certain amount of control over fads within a society or even on a global level.
Words with friends is a really fun game, but it can be time-consuming. I do play this game often and I agree with the fact that occasionally it can be educational. However, just like anything else, I think that once it becomes addicting it is not great. If one can play this game without becoming addicted, I dont see anything wrong with it. Its a rather innocent game that seems much better than some zombie or violent video game. I have even heard of a couple who met on WWF and ended up getting married! However, I do think it is wrong if people are only playing it just so they can text for free. All in all, this is a game that has many pros and cons.
Words with Friends is definitely an extremely popular game especially among people in our age group. We are at the point in our lives where we are taking our vocabulary to a whole new level and that game is somewhere we can how our colorful vocabulary to an extent. It is outrageous how addicted people have become to this game, obviously along with plenty of other social interacting programs on the internet. THis one is different and unique compared to the others where we simply browse on each others web pages, on word with friends we actually challenge each other to think hard and within our vocabulary we have learned through all these years of education.
Anything that will help us build our vocabulary is good, Nick, as long as we don’t let it take over a big chunk of our daily lives.
Alisha, thanks for the thoughtful comment. WWF is pretty addictive, albeit enjoyable as a way to spend down time.
Brianna, I agree that WWF can help us broaden our vocabulary and that, if we keep the time spent on the game in balance, it’s great!
In my own experience, I find words with friends to be tedious. It has robbed me of more time than I can account for. I have deleted, re-added, and deleted again a few times, as I have with hanging with friends. Those games simply waste time. I no longer have a high opinion of the games; they have taken too much of a toll on my social and academic life.
That being said, this is a fascinating article. Especially the story about Beth and Georgie’s WWF game. And while that story makes me want to use WWF like I would use webMD, the likelihood of that being the one and only time something useful happening during that game is (by my best estimation) extremely high. Justifying WWF usage by that story is like justifying burning a city down because it keeps some people warm. The two are not necessarily relatable.
I think the WWF phase will pass pretty soon. It’s a waste of time, and as soon as people realize that balancing 10 games based on who can utilize (or guess at) the English language most effectively isn’t fun., they’ll get out of it as quickly as they jumped into it.
Haha, the WWF makes me confuse in the beginning, but it does make sense now. I have playing this game so many times because I like this game. The main reason makes me start played this game because I want to learn more vocabulary. I feel like I learn so many different words from this games, good words and bad words. It also forces me to learn the words because I do not like to lose the game. The other good thing about this game is that you can have communication with different people, so you can meet with different people and become friends. It can also help us develop my relationship with my friends.
Andrew,
I agree about WWF. I’m using it much less and find there is a natural inclination to back off after awhile when the newness has worn off. When I do use it now, it is more to stay connected with old friends.
I was not even aware one could cheat in this game, but of course they can. I feel as if any online game it is so simple to cheat. Scrabble is one of the few games I find myself being overly competitive. Perhaps because my senior English teacher let us play every Friday and we got bonus points for using the vocabulary words which made it much easier to rack up points and learn vocab. I suppose if scrabble can help with ones vocabulary, WWF must be able to as well. When a person cheats though that is when they are cheating themselves of learned words. I love learning new words and being able to play an obscure word is a great feeling!
I commented on this post at a time which seemed like the peak of Words with Friends. I was just curious as to how the game is doing now. Personally, I know myself along with many family members have completely stopped playing the game and moved on to new games such as Draw Something and Bubble Buster. This seems like a trend with the newest technology and its gadgets. They become popular, hit their peak, and then lose popularity.
I, too, play Words with Friends and love it. I know a lot of people that use the cheat app in order to play with people that they often lose to. That is something that always bothers me because if you can’t play without a computer telling you what your best move is, then why are you playing at all? I love it because it is challenging and competitive. However, it seems to me that the game is losing its popularity a little bit now as it is harder to find people that want to take the time to play. Although I am guilty of using some of the words that WWF accepts but don’t seem to really be words, it is a little annoying when someone plays something like “Qi” on a triple letter and gets a great score from it! I don’t know if I would say that it hugely impacts vocabulary (for me anyway) because I play words that I am already familiar with, or silly words that aren’t really words anywhere except on WWF. But I suppose if you were playing someone who played a word that you were unfamiliar with, you could look up that word and have grown your vocabulary!
I find the serious side section to be completely fascinating! That is amazing that a man was so close to death and was saved by communicating through words with friends. It is amazing what technology can help with sometimes! I do believe that in some cases, words with friends can help expand the populations vocabulary. My sister for instance plays words with friends and every time she finds a new word that works, she looks it up to find out what it means. Words with friends also excercises the mind because you have to think of using different letters and strategically place the words using the different boxes such as ‘double letter’, ‘double word’, ‘triple letter’ and ‘triple word’. It helps keep our mind active with thinking.