May 18, 2011

iPad Scrabble kicked me in the vowels...


My obsessive iPad love is well known. And while I am not much of a gamer, at least since the days of Asteroids and Pac Man, I do have a few on the iPad I enjoy, and yes they are of the Solitaire and Battleship variety.

In the non-Tron world, I love and collect board games. And now the iPad and one of my fave board games have come together, and I have a new obsession... drumroll please... iPad Scrabble!

The only little taint on this new and perfect love? Damn game kicks my ass every time.

In my first game I played words like SWIPE, BIND and FANG. The iPad brain played words like VASA, ADZ, GRAVID, and LABILE... wait a sec, those are real words? Never heard of them, and that last one sounds more than a little vulgar, by the way. And yep I lost that first game.

Over the first five games, I didn't get any real major points words, the Xylophone's, or the triple word, or 7-letter bonus words. The damn computer did. Cheater.

Maybe I enabled it? I played JUG, it played CIRRUS, then I did SLOT, and it did JUG. Damn computer is following my lead! I know, I know, that's how Scrabble works, but still that effing computer would be nothing without me. Lost again.

As I was getting a bit intimidated, I decided to name the computer player Elmo, as the "board" is red, and it seems less smart this way. And cuddlier. Elmo played LOSE. And... I lost.

During a game, when it's Elmo's turn, and it's preparing a word play, little steel wheels appear to let you know its thinking, and to wait. I like when the steel wheels come up, it makes me feel like I am at least challenging the damn thing.

I keep losing. And yet I keep playing. Literary masochism?

And yes, after going down for the count five times, I did win game six, finally, with words like BLAT and HARKEN. Take that, Elmo!

And don't ask about game seven. I'm not talking...

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