Online Scrabble vs. Literati
There’s no doubt that Scrabble’s the better game ‘ having the same hundred tiles in the bag at the beginning of the game instills and enforces a bit of discipline. Literati, a Scrabble knockoff at Yahoo Games, has a letter randomizer that might throw three Q’s or Z’s ‘ or even crazier, eight or nine S’s ‘ into a single game. The changes in letter values (from one point to five) and placement of premium squares is not a problem, but the possibility that you might spend most of the game with a rack full of CCIUUXY is infuriating.
Still, the Internet Scrabble Club has a wretched user interface (which might be easier for Windows users, but I wouldn’t know), so I mostly play Literati, marking my 2nd anniversary and 1287th game this week. The first thousand games were a process of absorbing words into my vocabulary, but the last few months I’ve been able to develop defenses and strategies. Some of them even work. When I go to my office to play a few games, I tell my wife “I’m off to crush my enemies.”