Remember when you were young(er) and cell phones were large, goofy, unnecessary, and unowned by you? No?
Me neither. Because as it turned out, they got smaller, faster, cheaper, and better.
This is kind of how I feel about the iPod touch. Basically it's a handheld computer that does a lot of things really well. After about an hour, it reached that cell-phone-status of "how have I existed without this?"
One of the things it does particularly well is
waste time play games like Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and
Scrabble Words With Friends.
I haven't beaten the bird one, mostly because I don't go to the next level until I get 3 stars on the current level (if you don't know what that means, it's because you don't play it, but don't worry, we don't care, you can still be here).
The zombie one? Well, I thought I was doing quite well until la muñeca owned not only the iPod touch (temporarily), but also the zombies, with her plants. She brought the vegetation and put me in my place.
Now she has her own iPod touch though and I'll get back to that game eventually...
And the last one, Words With Friends, a Scrabble clone (except for some of the bonus tile positions on the board) is a favorite of mine.
I was never particularly good at Scrabble, and I'm still not, but I do okay.
The appeal of the game comes from asynchronous network play: it's your turn, you're notified, you play when you want, your opponent is notified, they play when they want, etc.
You can have multiple games going at once with different people and for each game there is a messaging system that allows you to chat/IM with your opponent.
So when you slap down that 'X' making two 'EX''s, both taking advantage of the triple word bonus you can rub it in with, "You just got owned by one tile. Suck it, EX-leader."
I play with my buddy Case. He is well read, older, smarter, studied language (or a derivative of language) in college, and rights a hole lot more and gooder than I does.
But...that doesn't mean he's necessarily better at Words With Friends...
This current game, I am trying something new...
Forget points, forget placement strategy, and forget about bonus tiles...
go for symmetry!
Insufficient tiles meant I broke symmetry at the latest play...but let's just say
that part of the U.S.S. Enterprise got blown away by...Madhu-Romulans...or...something...
"But, dip shit!", you say, "Don't you put yourself at a disadvantage by sharing this image and the current tiles you hold?"
Yeah, maybe, but Case can use the confidence that comes from winning after the previous game:
I'm Tooly McDoosh saying:
Ewe don't half two no moor words then you're friend too win at this game.
