"Easier Scrabble for Gen-Z" Topic

…The updated version, to be released in Europe, will include two sides, one side with the original game for players who want to stick to the traditional version and a second, "less competitive" version to appeal to Gen Z players, BBC first reported. The second side, called Scrabble Together, will include helper cards, using a simpler scoring system that will be quicker to play and allow people to play in teams…

Fox News: link

I'm willing to try it, but it does sound funny and scary. If we need to dumb down Scrabble we may be in real trouble. On the other hand, for a lot of people Scrabble was getting pretty cutthroat.

For those who like Scrabble, be sure to try Bananagrams. It's cheaper, quick, loads of fun, no waiting for your turn.

I am not sure what about original Scrabble prohibits playing in teams. That's a meta-game element, not a game rules element.

It would be interesting to see what a "helper" is that doesn't know your current tiles. … maybe a "cheat" that lets you swap some tiles or play a word missing a letter?

If you're playing with cutthroat people, I'm not sure that playing a game with different rules will help that. In fact, people with that attitude toward play generally thrive on the challenge and make things worse when "rules" try to limit their behaviour.

Bananagrams is great ,,, and I am not a speed game person. Appletters and Pears in Pairs (or is it Pairs in Pears?) are both good too. They are geared at a younger audience, but a well designed game for a young audience will still play well with more advanced players.

I think the "Gen Z thinks Scrabble is too hard" angle is nonsense. It's really saying that people are attracted to more cooperative game structures which promote social interaction, and might be interested in a team version of Scrabble, or one with less emphasis on competitive scoring. So Scrabble has simply produced options which allow such, potentially expanding their market. I note that the original game is still there; it just now has a flip side.

I think that team Scrabble might be a fun change— but I still like the original "cutthroat" game, too.

I still don't know what about original Scrabble – or any game – that makes it competitive. It's not the game; it's the players. We're wargamers. We should know that.

Also, Scrabble is an extremely symmetric and open form game (by game theory standards – game = activity where players make decisions that are evaluated by a performance system). You can pretty much change any rule in the common ways that people have been doing for centuries and not somehow "break" the game. And people have been doing that for the last 75 years or so with Scrabble.

If you want to play team Scrabble, do that. If you want to play cutthroat, find players and do that. I play a couple times a month. The last time I played a cutthroat game would have been with either my father-in-law or my two brothers-in-law … maybe 20 years ago.

Quick game? Play to 50 points. Play sic rounds. Play for one hour and stop. Bot hard to figure out.

But what if you have a rules lawyer? Well, you have to get them to consent to the optional rules in the first place. They will or they won't. Optional rules written in a book don't really change that. In fact, most rules lawyers thrive on their ability to pervert the intent of the rules. When you write it down, you make it that much more satisfying for them.

Even this ad hoc is sooooooo simple

"Dude, I've had the Q, K, Z, J, and X for three turn, and no vowels. Can I just swap three out?"
"No … well, spot me 10 points?"
"OK"
"OK"

I think the rules allow you to swap out any number of tiles for face down tiles at the sacrifice of a turn. You get new letters, but you score 0 points in the round you do so.

You can, if there are seven or more tiles left.

My point was that Scrabble is such an easy game to mod on your own, even for that weird, ad hoc example. An outlier stochastic event happened. The player asks for a mod to compensate (an "ace no face" rule). A counter offer is made. Both players are happy. The game goes on.

You don't have to get to the complexity of WH40K for such a modification on the fly to risk an unforeseen catastrophic event for either (or possibly both!) side.