Scrabble Go

Not a rant not a rave. More just “video killed the radio star” or in this case Scopely killed the scrabble players.

At first the scrabble app was an absolute pleasure, playing a game against the computer at the appropriate level to tax you or when you got your confidence up joining other people around the world for a game. Very enjoyable.

Enter the world of app monetization and app development “progress” and all of a sudden we have a sparkly app, much more visually suited to children in my view with rewards and plastic treasure chests, and overnight the beautiful game of scrabble, high concentration, staring at letters, is transformed to a load of stops and starts, pop ups, being forced to download apps you don’t want, all in the hope you’ll just get fed up and pay.

I actually wouldn’t mind paying for things the way they were, before “progress” of course developers have to be paid and if the app is good and brings enjoyment that’s worth £5 or £8 per month.

Like many other people the app has put me off playing a bit, I haven’t loaded the app for a few months, compounded by reports on Mumsnet of women being harassed in Scrabble communities on here, I think good grief, I never saw sexual harassment and scrabble really in the same orbit. I did wonder what Scopely did or are doing about this?

I don’t know if the app is successful ie how many paid subscribers they have, I just wish they’d bring out something boring with less bells and whistles for the old school scrabblers.

Something I for one would happily pay for, Scrabble without interruptions.

I did find one other app, Classic words, very basic, no community where you can play a game against the computer, your phone and the opposite is true, the board is small and the graphics eegh but it’s way better playing with a lot less interruptions.