Friendly-Types

I’ve been hooked.

Words with Friends.

It took several months and I stood strong against the craze for as long as I could, mocking my friends who would stare intently at their iPhones or iTouches and then groan with frustration.

“You’d love this game,” they’d tell me. “With how much you love words, there is no way you wouldn’t be addicted!”

I stood strong. I said no. I didn’t want to be tied to a game.

And then we moved, I had more time on my hands, and… well, I did it.

I downloaded Words with Friends and started to play.

And I liked it.

Except my first game was awful, awful, awful. I think I had 63 points at the end of it.

So Lizard took pity on me and told me there was a strategy to playing, that you pay attention to the triple word tiles and if you can play “quay” on a triple word tile, oh, the world is your oyster!

I got better, I requested games with random opponents, and slowly I admitted to people I know I play Words with Friends and now, on occasion, I am able to knock the socks off of my opponent.

{ahem, Lizard.}

{my true love, remember the day I played “zeal” with the “z” on a triple letter and the whole word on a triple word? For 102 points? Yeah. Me too. It was the happiest day of my life. Oh, except our wedding day. And the births of our children. OK, FINE! Maybe it wasn’t the best day of my life but I really liked to beat YOU! Happy now?!)

Excuse me, I need a moment to collect myself.

Competitive spirit aside, I’ve decided:

A) I need to thank random opponents susanfla7* and LMENS* for putting up with my learning curve,

B) this game may push me over the edge to switch from Blackberry to iPhone (cry, cry, I like buttons!) and

C) there is no way “vidalthn”, “eeSPINESpoctn”, and “vedihoan” are words you can come up with if you aren’t using the cheat app. (Thanks, Pam, for pointing this out!)

I could eat a can of alphabet soup and poop out better words than those.

(Sorry for being crude. It’s been a little while since I mentioned poop, though, so I was getting a little shaky.)

I’ve also decided there are two types of Words with Friends players:

The Competitor: This is the person who analyzes the game board, moans and groans, and adds up every single potential point before hitting the “play” button. Yes, they do well, but they’re also nasty – they’ve been known to use a triple word tile for a 6 point word, just so their opponent can’t use the tile for a grander purpose. They also play “Qi” and “Aa” a lot.

The Logophile: The lover of the words. This person plays the game for the sheer joy of manipulating the tiles and seeing how many words they can create by layering one word on top of another. This player can be seriously annoying because when it’s all said and done there aren’t any words just hanging out, waiting for a crossword – they’re all lumped together in blocks. This game may require a “pass” or, gasp!, a “swap” to complete.

Final thoughts about Words with Friends: it’s not a substitute for a conversation. Sitting on a sofa, playing Words with Friends with the person next to you is not adequate quality time.

Not that I’d know anything about that.

Do you play WWF? What’s your biggest score/word? Have I missed any of the player “types”?

(Cindy added a good one:

The Haphazard Junkie: This player has been playing for a while, so the euphoria is gone but they still love the game. They play sporadically in free moments which include sitting on the toilet and waiting in traffic. Their more lazy approach bugs the crud out of The Competitor because there may be a day or 3 between their plays. Haphazard Junkies go easy on new players or players they have beaten more than 4 times in a row because they know even though winning is fun, it’s not everything (and you can always beat them next time)!)