Words with Friends

It started casually one day when a friend of mine was talking to me and then his phone beeped.  It wasn't a call or a text message, but a notification from Words with Friends telling him that one of his friends had played a word and now it was his turn.

"What's Words with Friends?" I naively asked.

He explained that it is an online game played by folks with iPhones and Android phones.  It's pretty much Scrabble.  You can play against a friend you know or you can let the game pick a random opponent for you.

Hmm, I thought.  This could be interesting.

I downloaded the app to my iphone and he was my first opponent.  It was easy to figure out and fun.

I linked to my Facebook contacts and started playing with a couple of my Facebook friends.

I tried playing against a few random opponents.

Then I went to a family reunion and discovered that several of my cousins also played.  Great!

Finally, I got my husband to play.

Now I have 11 games going at once, down from a high of 20 games at once.  Yes, I still have a life, but Words is slowly taking it over.

One of the features I like best is that you can chat with your opponent as you play.  The interface is something like a text message format, but it functions within the app, so you can share scintillating  thoughts such as, "Wow! Great word!" and  "Gobo?  Really?"  I particularly like using the chat feature for a little intellectual trash talking and intimidation - "Are you ready to give up yet? You can click that 'resign' button at any time and end your suffering."  Or you can start chatting up a new friend that you met through selecting a random opponent, just to distract them (this is really fun with Chess with Friends...LOL).

There is an unofficial fan site that has news, word lists, a score calculator, and a link to the Words with Friends Facebook wall. You can even track your own Words statistics, and sign up for tournament notifications.

As you might expect, there are also apps and websites to help you cheat. You just enter the letters that you have and the app spits out all of the possible words.  You can then enter tile positions, spaces, and linking letters to come up with even more options.  Wow.  But you would never cheat, would you?

So, why am I writing about this?  Because writing is about words, silly.

If you are a Words with Friends player, look me up and start a game with me.  I'm veronicarobbins on Words.

Then, if you really like to play, you can look me up on Hanging with Friends (a version of hangman) and Chess with Friends.

****************

Read more A Writer's Journey.