This week I've escaped the stress of the real world around me by diving into an alternative overnight existence of online Scrabble.
As you might guess, I'm sort of a word geek. It's that writer thing, I guess. I've always loved Scrabble but finding people to play with has always a bit of a challenge.
One of the first CDs I picked up years and years ago was a Scrabble game. When I couldn't sleep I'd meet my computer and spell away. It felt like good practice and it sure beat counting sheep, but it still left something to desired.
I somehow misplaced that CD in the chaos around this week's "Cape Gypsy" move. And so in the wee hours of the night, I went seeking alternatives. And found, not surprisingly, a whole vibrant community.
That's right, as you read these very works many thousands of people are online playing Scrabble.
At Scrabulous.com, the word for the day is purlieu - which is a plural noun meaning an outlying area. Of course, I don't know how to use it in a sentence, but it would be a seven-letter bingo bonus word. Every day brings you a potentially useful Scrabble word at Scrabulous.com. And there are dozens of game rooms, each with up to 100 players, all playing Scrabble with each other in real time.
This is also a fully online interface, that includes not only draggable Scrabble tiles and a game board, but private and public chat abilities and "soothing music" in case you start getting a little too competitive.
At the Internet Scrabble Club, you have to download a Java application in order to play. But once you're done that the drill is similar. You have the familiar board. You seek a player, typically someone at about the same skill level as yourself. And you connect and play.
Over at Games.com you can play the Atari version of Scrabble (some 700 people were when I checked in last) In the World Winner competitions you can make words for cash.
Scrabble was invented during the Great Depression by an out of work architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. In 1948 after failing to sell "Criss Cross," he and his partner renamed the concept Scrabble, trademarked the name, and began manufacturing themselves. In 1949 they made 2,400 sets and lost $450. Legend says than in 1952 the president of Macy's stumbled across the game while on vacation, ordered some for the stores, and a hit was born. Today more than 100 million sets of the game have been sold in 29 different languages ... and the concept has translated from board to bits.
Scrabble online is yet another example of how universally appealing interactions can take form in both the 'real' and the 'virtual' world. And how the beauty of the virtual world is that there's always someone else out there who wants to share the interaction.
Like I said, it's always been a challenge to find someone who wants to play Scrabble. It was something relegated to snow storms or rainy days. But now, thanks to the universal connecting power of the web, there are thousands of players out there, all the time.
Once again, we see that the web isn't dehumanizing. To the contrary, it is a very human way to find shared interests and connect in a non-threatening way with others.
Communities of interest have always existed, but in the past decade they have grown to a whole new level, largely because of the online glue. The web removed the barriers of time and place and created gathering spots where a relatively small and spread out group can find each other in cyberspace.
So if you're a word geek and you're up at 2 am, take heart! You've got a lot more company than you know and they are just waiting for the chance to find the right E to spell purlieu.
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