Advanced Scrabble Isn't About Words

The words used here are "easy."

I recently found a free version of Scrabble--I play against the computer. I enjoyed Level 1. However, after I started winning most games--and I noted that Level 1 deliberately left me openings--I tried Level 2.

It's a different game.

I don't say that because I can't win. Or even because the game isn't interesting in its own right. But the game changed from being a clever deployment of language/vocabulary to memorizing the best letter combinations that enable a person to win. 

In other words, the game just at Level 2 (there were 3 more levels) is more about math than vocabulary. I find myself focusing on sliding X or Q or B or F into the right place on the board to either block my opponent or gain more points. (Hint: Using "C" in a way that leaves only one other space is a great strategy. Also, the word you use to begin should be short and boring without the possibility of a plural.)

Figuring out where to slide letters is interesting--and there's satisfaction in winning--but is the result really a vocabulary or word game?

I feel the same way I did several years ago when I started playing crosswords. The more I played, the better I got, not because my knowledge of the world increased but because I rapidly learned all the two and three-letter words that are customarily used to fill in blanks. I reached the point where I didn't even need to know the answer to a question--I simply knew what had to go in the blanks. 

Likewise, with the online Scrabble game, my familiarity with certain endings and beginnings and combinations has come in handy--I throw XXX-MENT on the board and what do you know?! It's a word! 

But the letters could be anything, such as numbers or the black and white pebbles from Go. All that matters is the combination. In fact, one of the smartest ways to win at Scrabble is to create words alongside another word: QI, EN, OR, PI. It keeps you from setting up openings for the opponent and you can collect a tremendous number of points. 

But it isn't the same as the fun and cleverness of rearranging one's tiles until they form a long word. In fact, I often lose just because I can't help myself: I know I'm creating openings but I put down a cleverly unscrambled word anyway.

It reminded me when I was a kid and played Scrabble with a friend who was always playing words not in the dictionary, which meant we spent more time looking up words and arguing than putting words on the board. Honestly, what is the fun in PHFIQ being a word if it simply allows one to toss away letters? (It isn't.)

The entire experience has made me wonder: Is there a version of Scrabble out there that uses "common language"? Granted, what constitutes "common language" varies between people but since I have rarely heard or seen or spoken the word, "FOEHNS" or "CRWTHS" (and, seriously, if the latter isn't cheating, I don't know what is--even if it is an instrument), I'm sure that a list could be compiled.  

Maybe the best approach would be a specialized game: Scrabble for readers of nineteenth-century literature...