SCRABBLE Premium Reviews – Page 8
4/5 rating based on 277 reviews. Read all reviews for SCRABBLE Premium for iPhone.
SCRABBLE Premium is paid iOS app published by Electronic Arts Inc.
Love my Scrabble, but...
VTWOODS
I use the chat a lot and you definitely need many more emoji!!! Please...
?? What????
evergreen beach
It seems that often words used, when playing the computer, are not in the dictionary
Bring Back Philology!
9robins
In centuries past, this lovely allegorical lady represented the best of word study—learning language and vocabulary was the gateway to wisdom. The wisest students of language have long praised English for its capacity to absorb the words representing key concepts and major preoccupations of other cultures, thus both enriching our language and adding a familiar note for those who find an echo of their native language already present in the new tongue they are struggling to master. The words accepted and rejected by the dictionary built into Scrabble online do no honor to this ancient scholarly tradition. I wonder if behind the Scrabble dictionary is a cabal of geeks trying to create an artificial intelligence device—and succeeding only in giving users a Frankenstinian monster, devoid of familiarity with the way that language lives and grows, locked in a rigid universe, unable to behave in a way other than mechanical and unyielding, and lacking any capacity for true thought. As a result, in the world of Scrabble language, Anglo-Saxon or Old French root words are accepted without change. The other day, “boeuf” was accepted without cavil. But in the Scrabble world, such a lovely root word might also be awkwardly grafted onto a suffix or distorted into an adjective regardless of whether the resulting monstrosity makes sense. I recently played a game in which “cunit” was offered as a “best word.” But my online dictionary said there’s no definition for that word. Meanwhile, whether they be new or quite antique, additions from other languages (especially non-Indo-European) to the English word-hoard are unrecognized in Scrabblese, or are rejected as “non-English,” despite regularly turning up in native English speakers’ usage for months or years. I haven’t yet tested the online board for words from Arabic, like “niqab,” “fatwah,” or “hijab.” I’m not feeling sanguine about the prospects that all three of these recent arrivals will soon be accepted. The ancient Egyptians had a word, “maat,” that denoted the universal harmony enshrined in the afterlife of the Pharoah and his virtuous subjects. In our parlous times, I can imagine people who might chance to learn the word and the concepts behind it introducing it to their friends and acquaintances, and thus starting a conversation of the sort that helps our language grow through time. But, alas, the alternative strings of letters that pass for feedback in the Scrabble “Dictionary” will do nothing to nurture such growth. Instead, the “di BCurrent feedback blocks player learning and improvement. I’m back again to gripe about the narrowminded, capricious, obsolescent dictionary. I thought I saw in some recent literature regarding the online game that a choice of dictionaries would be allowed. But no such choice has emerged in the gaming system. And there’s no way to override the computer’s capriciousness. The reincarnation in the digital world of this great old game hasn’t benefited its players as it might. One gets better at scrabble and at using language by learning new words along with their meanings. But the digital tutor in the game is useless in that regard. It’s no help at all when the tutor smugly says, “Not bad! But here’s how you could have made the best use of your rack,” and then deposits a string of gibberish on the board, with no definition. I’ve got a pretty good vocabulary from my training in English literature and medicine, and I have too much respect for this language to accept as a word a string of letters with no discernible etymological pattern—a string that could have been typed by a chimpanzee for all I know. If the “tutor” function is to be useful for players to improve their skills, then any words in the tutor’s database have to include at least simple definitions, which the player can access with a command button. Perhaps the whole dictionary issue needs to be reviewed. Our language has been open to the incorporation of new words from before the Norman Conquest. Not to accept a word such as “squaw”—used in English for centuries—is to erase a time in our history when English speakers were trying to make connections with whole civilizations of which they had not previously even dreamed. And It is infuriating when, say, a medical word of Latin or French origin, which has for years been used and continues in common usage among English and American medical speakers, is rejected as “not English.” I wonder what the tutor would do with “roux-en-y.” A lucky player with 2 blank tiles to use as hyphens should be allowed to play the word. I’ve not seen any sign of a choice of dictionaries being listed as yet in the game’s introductory material. The “official Scrabble Dictionary” is probably stuck in the era of the game’s invention, in which case it stand now as a monument to a dead language, which now exists only within the borders of a dying game. If Scrabble is to survive, its dictionary of record should be the Oxford English Dictionary, which is constantly being updated. But the software should also contain a mechanism that allows the players to use their consensus to override the game from time to time. Only that way will the game grow and adapt along with its language. ERHmd ———————————— ———————————— The following unsigned review was present on my screen when I went to “Scrabble” in the App Store to write my own review. I didn’t write the following review, and no one but I has access to this device. But I certainly endorse the writer’s complaint about the rejection of “squaw.” ERHmd “Revise the dictionary” The PCU, vs. which I usually have been playing, has a weird idea of the English language. I laid down the letters for the word "squaw," which certainly entered our language early in the colonial period, only to have the word disqualified. Meanwhile the CPU put down the word "Flotel," which the keyboard resists and of whose meaning I'm ignorant--I'm imagining a smelly student hostel on a back street.
So frustrating
Mstove
Scrabble is a great game but the app is a pain (I have the ad free version on my phone and free version on my iPad). Regularly finds new ways to annoy - sometimes just doesn’t work at all. The current PITA is insisting on logging in over and over. I’m sure it will get fixed but the bugs are tiresome.
Playing with more than one friend
scrabble-RP
I can no longer set up games with multiple FB friends. This hasn’t worked for months. It’s very annoying.
Convenient but that’s it
chocolateeclairlover
I like playing online Scrabble with distant friends; it’s our day to day communication and ongoing competition. The app is convenient for this except for the many times it’s on the fritz or doesn’t notify us of our turns. Very glitchy. I also wish that the dictionary could be turned off so we can go back to old-fashioned play where suspicious words can be challenged. The Scrabble dictionary is full of nonsense words that we ignore by common consent, but some every day words or new pop culture words are blocked automatically. A challenge option where loser removes word and loses turn would be preferred. The chat option is nice (when working) but the censorship of “naughty” words is ridiculous. These comments are not public so why worry? If a better product is produced elsewhere as an app or website I will gladly delete this app!