Scrabble In The New Century

Since the beginning of it's gaming history, Scrabble game play has remained unchanged. Perhaps the most endearing characteristic of Scrabble has perhaps been it's resistance to change. There have been no changes in Scrabble rules or the game board what so ever since it's inception. Scrabble has long since proven itself to be an immensely popular board game and is positioned to live on for years to come.

As the years have passed since it's inception, Scrabble has spawned other crossword games. The variations such as 'UpWords', and 'Boggle', as well as others rely on the same premise as Scrabble. Points are awarded per letter, and proper spelling are a must. The significant difference between Scrabble and 'UpWords' would be a players ability to change a played letter to form a new word by stacking a tile on top of the original tile. As 'UpWords' varied it's format, so did 'Boggle'. In 'Boggle' the tiles are already in place and the player is required to form a word through the connected letters.

Today, Scrabble enthusiasts find themselves with many options. The typical player may now may try their hand on Personal Computer (PC) based versions, online (live), through Electronic Mail (Email) or in it's original form using the game board.

Entire organizations, social clubs, and networks have been formed by Scrabble enthusiasts worldwide. One hasn't far to look to find someone somewhere playing Scrabble. Numerous tournaments are played year round across the globe. The National Scrabble Association (NSA) is a longtime sponsor of Scrabble tournaments. Annually, a Scrabble tournament is held in a major city. This tournament culminates in an ESPN broadcast 'best of five series'.

Websites have been founded and exist for the sole purpose of allowing people to connect and play a game of Scrabble. These websites are numerous, too numerous to mention and give each their just due. Suffice to say that Scrabble enthusiasts have their own places to meet on the net.

An atypical Scrabble club is the Internet Scrabble Club. This club requires members to connect to a server to play. This allows the more serious players to play Scrabble and chat with each other without interruption from the less serious players. In order to participate, users are required to download their interface program. Registration is also required. Clubs such as these have posted their own 'rules of conduct' for players, to ensure smooth operation.

One need only do a search through their internet search engine, such as Google, to find many avenues to ply their game playing skills. A typical search result returns over one thousand results. Among these are online forums, opportunities to test run the PC Version, and links to Scrabble communities worldwide.

With all of the possibilities for playing Scrabble, one would wonder "What if" in regards to Mr. Butts decision to invent a board game. It would seem that all of the studying he did in preparation for the game proved worthwhile. Moreover, his initial observations that the most popular games of the day all involved letters, numbers, and moves. What if?