Words With Friends

Another addiction. Fine. Leave less time for me to be involved with crack.

A friend got me started playing Words with Friends a few weeks ago. It is the online word game that looks as much like Scrabble as Lindsay Lohan looks like Lindsay Lohan!

Another addiction. Fine. Leave less time for me to be involved with crack.

Like chess-by-mail Words with Friends is played a move at a time when you have the time. Moves can take seconds, hours or days. The game is understanding.

This whole thing is reminiscent of my introduction to competitive Scrabble. It was the mid 70s. I was living in Center City Philadelphia. My neighbor, better educated and from a Scrabble playing family, challenged me to a game. This was like being asked to play HORSE by LeBron James.

It took 20 more games before I finally won.

Over time I’ve learned some Scrabble strategies and arcane words with Qs and Js. This skillset translates directly to Words with Friends. I’ve been mainly successful, though as with my Philadelphia experience when I lose I want a quick rematch.

Here’s the problem. Words with Friends is Zynga. Zynga is the Farmville, Mafia Wars company. In the dictionary next to the word annoying: Zynga.

As soon as I started to play I started getting requests. Zynga puts out the word and as far as I can tell I can’t stop them. On my smartphone’s Words with Friends app there’s a note which says I have 1078 friends waiting to play!

Last night a Facebook friend sent me this:

UnFriended u u snot;)!!

He was upset I’d turned him down for a match. He later said he was kidding, but I’m sure there’s a grain or two of truth there. He’s not the only person I’ve turned down.

At the moment I’m playing some relatives, old friends and TV colleagues. If I want to stay employed I don’t have time for any more!

I can’t stand to lose.