De wordz iz hard, innit?
Mark was later surprised to find he'd misread the rules
Every so often, something so completely revolutionary, so paradigm-shifting comes along that you really just cannot imagine how society will continue to function in future. And today, today of all days, such a revolution has occurred.
The rules of word game Scrabble are being changed for the first time in its history to allow the use of proper nouns, games company Mattel has said.
Place names, people’s names and company names or brands will now count.
So, presuming that you have now cleaned up the shambles created by your involuntary spluttering of tea all over the table, tidied up all the things your involuntary spasm rearranged so vigorously, perhaps we can delve into the reasons for changing something that has remained largely unchanged since before World War 2:
Mattel, which brings out a new version of the game containing amended rules in July, hopes the change will encourage younger people to play.
It seems, therefore, that the apparent “dumbing down” of children is not restricted to the United Kingdom. It truly is an appalling state of affairs. And as final kick in the teeth to traditionalists, Mattel have decided that perhaps there need be no rules at all:
Mattel said there would be no hard and fast rule over whether a proper noun was correct or not.
Give me strength. Coming to a Scrabble board near you: jalambi.
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1
April 6, 2010 at 20:53 -
They got a lot of free advertising out of it – it was high on the agenda of R4’s Today this morning.
Scrabble rebels will be unimpressed – they’ve been amending the rules to suit their tastes anyway. -
2
April 6, 2010 at 21:09 -
Calm down dear
)Agree with you as I do, I think I see a moreobjective way to slice up this new fangled use of nonsense words.
Here’s my take: Off Piste: New Scrabble Rules
AJ
p.s. Many thanks for your links recently
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3
April 6, 2010 at 22:50 -
Its only a cheap trick to allow On-Board advertising.
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4
April 7, 2010 at 07:31 -
Perhaps all old board games should be updated to reflect modern times?
Monopoly – a 200% increase in ‘get out of jail free’ cards and the abolition of the ‘go straight to jail’ square
Cluedo – new options; MAC-10, Mr Stabby the recently released mental patient, the home cinema room
Mouse Trap – your cunningly-constructed trap has a 20% chance of being sabotaged by raving animal rights butters
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5
April 7, 2010 at 07:32 -
D’oh! *nutters
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6
April 7, 2010 at 08:27 -
In the 60’s we used to play “dirty words only”, which is not as easy as you would think …
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7
April 7, 2010 at 09:11 -
Rejoice! I look forward to putting ‘Wii’ across ‘Nike’ sometime soon. I also look forward to putting ‘haitch’ down just for badness ….
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April 7, 2010 at 09:30 -
9
April 7, 2010 at 11:45 -
As I said elsewhere this will be great news for my mate “QWOXZY”
who if needs be will have a wikipedia page in case the name is ever challenged -
10
April 7, 2010 at 14:28 -
Reminds me of the old Bob Newhart sketch about the infinite number of monkeys using the infinite number of typewriters…. “To be or not to be, that is the gzornunplackk”….
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11
April 7, 2010 at 18:45 -
Not a scrabble fan myself so I can’t get excited. My sister, a scrabble addict and very picky about allowable words, will be furious. This is just another demonstration of the NWO’s big plan to deconsctruct our cultural base so that all the things that once bound tribes, communities, nations no longer exist.
They’ll be trying to ensure nobody under 40 reads 1984 or Brave New World next. Oh, erm I think they already have with that idea that nobody should read a book written before they were born.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”
– George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3
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