You only have to look at history to see that word games have a longevity that can’t be questioned. The first example of a crossword appeared in 1890 and 121 years later they are still going strong. Scrabble was invented in 1938 and is now sold in 121 countries in 29 languages. When Zynga’s Words With Friends became available on Facebook, it gained over 12,000,000 MAUs in just 2 months – a clear indication that good word games are as popular as ever.

So why are so many popular word games on Facebook closing?

Amongst the developers closing word games are the big players Zynga, who closed Word Twist, Scramble and Pathwords, and Playfish, who closed Word Challenge. It seems likely that, when faced with the prospect of investing time and money making their games support https, Zynga and Playfish decided that it would be tough to build on their current audience, monetise them successfully, and after the game being free for so long, their players wouldn’t take kindly to suddenly being asked to pay.

We disagree. 10 years running word games on Virgin Media TV, and now Facebook, have taught us a few things.

Players of word games are extremely loyal. When Zynga and Playfish announced last month that they were closing the aforementioned word games, many devoted fans of the games expressed their unhappiness at losing their favourite games. We decided to revamp our word game String ‘em In recently and Gem Words was born. As it’s an expansion of String ‘em In, we closed the original game, but before players realised that Gem Words is essentially the same game as String ‘em In but better, they complained in their droves. People don’t like change generally, and if word game lovers find a game they can play regularly which they enjoy and doesn’t intrude on the time they want to spend on ‘real’ life, they stick with it.

Unlike many games on Facebook and elsewhere, word games don’t grow to be overwhelming to the point where you have to spend an hour a day playing them just to keep up. You can play when you like, for as long as you like, and someone who plays once a week can get as much enjoyment out of them as someone who plays daily.

Word games provide an intellectual challenge and a measurable sense of achievement. The points of satisfaction they offer are many and often and can be personally tailored by each player. Players of Gem Words may decide to concentrate firstly on clearing the grid using 5 powers, then 4 powers, all the way to clearing it using no powers. They may then decide that their next goal is to improve their overall score a little bit each day. Players of Words With Friends may decide that, as well as beating their opponent, they want to make a 7 letter word, or use a letter worth 10 points on a triple letter square. You can set your own reachable challenges, and get a little bit better at your chosen word game every day, safe in the knowledge that the sense of satisfaction you feel every time you achieve one of your goals will be greater than if you’d just collected a virtual pink cow.

New content is constantly on offer. A new set of crossword clues, a new selection of letters in Scrabble, a new grid in Gem Words. You never have to play the same game twice and the cost of new content to developers is relatively low or zero.

A strength specific to Gem Words, unlike word games like Words With Friends or Writer’s Blox, is that it is essentially a searching game rather than a creating game. All the letters are there and you can choose to clear the grid by finding long, obscure words, or by making lots of short, common words. You can clear the grid using either method, so players of different abilities can play equally well and people at the lower end of the ability scale aren’t made to feel less able than those at the top.

It’s very early days but with small, timely ad campaigns and ever-increasing virality our Gem Words audience is growing. We think all it takes to succeed in the word game market is a compelling format and a good community spirit on the fan page. We’ve just launched the game store, so we’ll put our money where our mouth is and see if we’ve got it right…

Caroline.

I am having a battle of words playing Scrabble (the 2007 edition – yes I am a bit behind) on the Nintendo DS.

Having given up playing in Career mode because the 5 minute time limit makes it almost impossible to play against the level of opponents I’ve reached, I have become addicted to the Quick Game, where there’s no time limit and you can choose your opponent from a range of 7 levels of difficulties.

I've worked my way up to level 5 (the studious Emily, who apparently plays Scrabble to relax), without problem, but now I am locked in a battle with her. I win some, she wins more. I think I’m definitely going to beat her as my lead is huge and we’re near the end, and she puts a 7 letter word down on a triple word score.

Aaaaargh the frustration!

I cannot get to the point where I can beat her with ease, forget her and move on to the next level. No matter how many new words I learn and how sneaky I become, nine times out of ten she gets the better of me (to the point that I punch the air and screech ‘YES!’ like an over-excited teenager when I do beat her). Someone help me please – how do I beat her?!

The only consolation is that I’ve played a couple of games with the lovely Camilla (the next level up, who apparently all the boys want to play with), and I don’t recognise a single word she puts down, so I haven’t got a hope in hell of beating her in this lifetime. What do MIHA, EUGE, GRICED, COTTA, SOUARI and AVITAL mean when they’re at home? The board ends up looking like I’ve played the 2011 UK Scrabble champion Wayne Kelly in the final, which I imagine is a bit beyond most people.

If anyone can tell me the meaning of those words without needing to look them up I’ll give you a medal. And introduce Wayne Kelly to Camilla.

And perhaps give up Scrabble and try something else instead.

Caroline.

My cryptic crossword quest is well underway. I tackled the Evening Standard crossword on Tuesday last week with my other half, who has decided to embrace the challenge with me. We got all but 3 clues between us, which was a very good start!

Flicking through the Radio Times at home the same evening I discovered they published one, so we set to work on it with great hope. Three hours later we’d completed about a third of it and my OH had thrown it across the room in disgust. I’ve put it in a drawer for now in the hope that we can go back and finish it at a later date when we’ve got a few easier ones under our belt.

On Wednesday morning Adam decided we could all attempt the Guardian crossword in the office and see who did best, so presented everyone with a print out. I expected to get two or three before my brain exploded, but over the course of the day I managed about half of it (plus one clue that Adam blurted out the answer to before anyone could stop him). Given the reputation of the Guardian crossword I was very pleased with that, until Liz announced that everyone who commented on the Guardian website thought it was very easy. Hmph.

Armed with the rules, expecting Trinny and Susannah to pop up at any moment and present me with a cheque for £2000 that I could spend on more brain cells, I attempted the Wednesday Evening Standard crossword on my own. I managed about a third of the clues before the OH had to step in and assist.

I’m not doing as badly as I thought, but I still have a long way to go before I can get close to completing one, and can stop complaining that, even with the answers, the clues are complete nonsense.

Caroline.

I’ve only ever won a single game of Words With Friends, much to the delight of others in the office. For some horrible reason they love to spam me with challenges in the hope that they can get a new record win, if I foolishly accept.

I blame my abysmal memory. I just don’t remember words I’m never going to use in an actual conversation. There’s much more valuable information I need to be able to store anyway, such as the release date of a blockbuster game I want, or how many weeks it is until my birthday (36). I have very little patience so spending an age moving letter tiles around, only to be told again and again that I’ve made something that doesn’t even remotely resemble a real word, is soul-destroyingly boring.

Then I discovered Typing Maniac on Facebook. It’s a game which puts your ability to touch type to the test, with you frantically typing words which cascade down the screen at an ever increasing pace, trying to get rid of them before they hit the floor. It’s a simple premise, and it’s incredibly addictive.

What’s more, I’m actually good at it! There’s debate to be had about whether it’s a ‘true’ word game, though. Liz gave me a funny look when I asked for her opinion, and I’m sure others would lambast it for lacking a mechanic where you move around letter tiles to make something meaningful. I disagree. It has words in, a lot of them in fact.

What’s more, you feel like you’re gaining something from playing it. The most obvious benefit is the brilliant opportunity it gives to improve your typing prowess. A secondary benefit, at least for me, would be the hope that some of the bizarre words I’m forced to type are actually being stored in my memory. They will lurk there, quietly waiting for that moment in GemWords when I’ll spot a move that would shift a Q next to a U, setting up an epic word which propels me into the Top 200.

That'll show 'em.

Hugh

I have a special place in my heart for the original Scrabble board game. Playing it without at least one argument on the validity of a word or a previous score would take all the joy out of it. Having said that, the way we play has changed a little since my childhood days around the family dining room table:

We’ve gone all modern and now use www.dictionary.com as the word checker, so the amount of arguments about valid words per game have been reduced somewhat.

My other half takes so long taking his turn that I quite often load up Words With Friends and have a few turns in the various games I’m playing while waiting so I resist the urge to throw something at him after 3 weeks of indecision. I haven’t introduced a timer yet, but I am tempted to download the Countdown music and use that. Much huffing and puffing would ensue I’m sure.

We still end up arguing about the scoring at some point as I’ve not worked out a way to get around that (unless of course I am in charge of the scoring and then it is faultless and no questioning of it will be tolerated).

And the huffiness at the end of the game by at least one of the losing players is, of course, to be expected, but may now be posted about on Facebook or Twitter so the injustice of it all can be expressed to people not in the room.

I like Scrabble because it’s a lengthy playing process. I like Monopoly for the same reason – maybe I’m a board games sadist? I also find the arguing amusing (unless it’s me that’s doing it and then of course it’s to be treated with deadly seriousness).

I like Words With Friends because I can play it in 2 minutes and you can try a myriad of non-words before finding one that works, and there’s no-one to argue with you.

So, in conclusion, after some meandering waffling, I think the two games can happily exist side by side. If the police get involved however, maybe it’s best to put Scrabble back in the cupboard and retreat to the solitary joys of Words With Friends.

Caroline

This week I played a game of Scrabble for the first time in years; an actual, real life game of scrabble. Three players sat around a table with the wobbly board, the plastic tile holders, the green bag, and just pencil and paper and rusty mental arithmetic to work out the scores.

Not fun.

This was the high days and holidays of my childhood:

The family gather, Christmas, Easter, on the beach, Bonfire night. A lot of food is consumed. The Scrabble board comes out. Everyone is happy and having fun.

The game begins.

Player A puts down a word that is disputed. My grandmother, keeper of the sacred dictionary, looks it up. It is a very old dictionary, the word is not found. Player A maintains the word is fine; it’s the dictionary that is no bloody good - “Why don’t you get rid of that damn dictionary?” Player A withdraws, a bit angry.

Player B puts down a word that ‘chocks’ up the board, blocking off access to one corner and the precious triples by deploying a ‘J’ or the dreaded ‘C’ in an impossible to go off position. This is a sin, ruining it for everyone. “You’re ruining it for everyone!”

It’s my go. I have nothing. I don’t know any of the 1 million or so words in the English language. I have forgotten every one of the 35,000 or so most people use. Nothing. I move the tiles around on their plastic shelf. Hell. All the aunts are looking, my clever, younger cousin is, invisibly, rolling her eyes, my parents are disappointed. Eventually I put down something pathetic. I am thick; I have embarrassed my side of the family.

Days pass, the room gets hotter.

Player D is doing the scoring and has ‘forgotten’ to write down what player A got two rounds ago. Much discussion.

Player C puts a word worth 8 points in a place that player D, next to move, was about to use for a 7-letter stunner using the ‘X’ that they have been nurturing for three rounds. There is some bitterness.

Years later the game ends, the post match analysis begins, and this is where the trouble starts. All the losers blame each other for ruining their chance of winning. Husbands and wives argue, people storm out, one year the police got involved.

They were a competitive bunch and Scrabble was the field of battle.

So ‘Words with Friends’:

I have been playing ‘Words with Friends’ for a year and a half and the police have never got involved.

It is better than Scrabble because:

You have time, time to think, time to not be able to see anything then go back a day later and everything is clear. Time to shuffle around the letters without anyone looking at the clock, or, please god, trying to help you.

Time to try every possible combination of your letters on the triple score until you find one that is valid, “Vinylic – Use it in a sentence!”

Yes they should force the first player to play, not swap tiles and force the disadvantage on me – cheating.

Yes they should give you a double bonus for going first.

Yes they should understand a draw – it’s so unfair!

Yes the dictionary is impure.

But … you don’t play with your family and at 59p it’s the best value game I have ever bought.

Liz

I'm with Adam on the ZA debate, although I suspect that I will happily use it at some point while playing Words With Friends…perhaps to try and beat Adam, who regularly gives me a pasting!

I’ve always been a sucker for word games, but there is one that always completely and utterly defeats me – the cryptic crossword. As I can now complete the Evening Standard easy crossword with relative ease on the train home, I feel the need to tackle the cryptic clues for more of a challenge. Try as I might, I can’t get to grips with them. I don’t know where to start and it all sounds like nonsense to me. I need to go in search of help…

Almost immediately I discover (thanks to www.solving-cryptics.com) that all cryptic crosswords follow a broad set of rules that I need to learn if I stand any chance whatsoever of even understanding the clues, let alone solving them. I also discover that I should stay away from broadsheet cryptic crosswords until I’ve got the hang of solving more lightweight ones, so I’ll give The Guardian and The Times a wide berth for now!

Armed with this information I will try again, and if I solve three clues at my first attempt I will be happy. I’ll report back on my progress and if you have any tips or good sources for cryptic crosswords let me know!

Caroline

There was a lot of debate in the room today about the acceptability of the word ZA when one of the players of GemWords asked for it to be included in our word list.

“It’s NOT a real word it’s an abbreviation…” Adam is a stickler for these things, and heady with cold so not in the best mood for nonsense.
And Urban Dictionary agree , they say it’s a “Really obnoxious word for pizza, that no self-respecting person uses.”

Hard to argue with that really.

It is an acronym, the official abbreviation for South Africa, Zeitausgleich (german compensatory time off), Zero Adjusted and of course Zul'Aman, a city in World of Warcraft – who knew?

“No acronyms” .... Adam needs to go home.

But ZA is accepted by Scrabble, indeed has been since 2006 and it is accepted by the mighty Words with Friends, I know because just a few days ago I used it as the last move in a 398 to 396 nail biter with my arch WWF rival and won.

It is also one of the most commonly tried ‘incorrect’ words in our GemWords game.

So perhaps we should go with it – “Pepperoni Za?’

Liz

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za noun \ˈzä\

slang: pizza
za or 'za
First Known Use: circa 1970

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/za