Creative Scrabble

826NYC "is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, develop their writing skills. We offer evening and weekend workshops and afterschool tutoring, and with the help of our talented team of volunteers, we're able to host class trips and offer teachers in-class support. We specialize in writing-based projects, including college essays, student publications, creative-writing assignments, and expository papers."

This aforementioned organization is organizing the world's first Scrabble for Cheaters Tournament.

I prefer thinking of it as "Creative Scrabble." Because, as you can see from the list of "official cheats," you really aren't cheating, as long as you pay for it.

Here's what you can buy:

1. Trade out a letter—$25
2. Wheel of Fortune: buy a vowel—$50
3. Flip a letter over and make it blank—$100
4. Add 10 to any letter’s value—$150
5. Add Q, Z, or X to any word, anywhere—$200
6. Passport: play a word in any language—$250
7. Consult the dictionary for one turn—$300
8. Consult the Scrabble word list for one turn—$400
9. Reject another team’s word—$450
10. Invent a word (must have a definition)—$500

So, OK, OK? It's a fund-raising thing as much as it is a fun-raising idea. But it's an innovative kind of fun, significantly innovative. Buying cheats. Some cheats, apparently more significantly game-affecting kinds of cheats, cost more. Use each once, and once only, but whenever you want. And though there's no reflection in the final score, one must wonder what happens to the player who wins the game without using any of her cheats? Is that cheating?

Here are some more details:

"Sign up on this website between now and January 19. Each team member pays a $50 entry fee. As soon as a team has signed up, anyone and everyone can come to this website and pledge their support for the team(s) of their choice. By donating money to the teams, the pledger buys the team certain cheats. It is therefore advantageous for team members to raise as much money as possible. During the tournament, teams will use their cheats against opposing teams."

Takes cheating to a whole new level, is what it does.




via Kottke.org


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith