Calling all Scrabble fanatics!

A New York Times article last week Online Scrabble Craze Leaves Game Sellers at Loss for Words definitely aroused my curiosity. Having once considered myself an expert Scrabble player, although eventually I did learn otherwise, I am always on the lookout for new players and new strategies. I had played Scrabble on the computer previously, but the games were too dissimilar from the real game. This article, in the Business section of the Times, describes the online game Scrabulous as "a virtual knockoff of the Scrabble board game". Accessible from Facebook, Scrabulous draws over 700,000 players daily and claims nearly three million registered users. The article goes on, however, to describe how the companies that own the rights to Scrabble, Hasbro and Mattel, the two largest toy makers in the world, have denounced Scrabulous as piracy and have threatened legal action against its creators, two brothers from Calcutta, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla who are the owners of a software development company.

Scrabulous has a board that looks just like Scrabble and the same number of letter tiles with the same point values. Players can send invitations to others on Facebook or search for opponents by posting messages. There is no time limit for moves or games. Scrabulous tracks player statistics, and it does not allow fake words. It cannot, however, prevent players from cheating. Four varieties of the game are offered by Scrabulous:

Just Scrabulous - You can join a game room and play online against any user who agrees to oppose you. You can also play live with friends privately inside the rooms.

Scrabulous Blitz - Players compete against each other in rounds that
last 4 minutes. Whoever gets the highest score before the timer runs out wins.

Email Version - You can play with your friends over emails. You will not need to register and, of course, you do not need to be online at the same time. For those of us with ample time, you can even play many games simultaneously.

Solitaire & Computer - You can play against the "robot" or just practice alone. There are over 10 robot levels and you can even save games.

So if I have whetted your appetite, you may wish to take a look at some websites about Scrabble:

Welcome to WorldWide Scrabble - This is the official site for Scrabble, providing history, trivia, and strategy tips for this board game, plus product information and links to clubs and organizations. Try the Scrabble Word of the Day.

Scrabble Crossword Board Game - Parker Brothers - Take a look at their Scrabble Word Builder and Scrabble Dictionary. You can also access online Boggle and Upwords.

Natiional Scrabble Association - Includes a roster of clubs, upcoming local tournaments, event coverage, and rating lists.

And our library's materials about Scrabble include:

Word wars [videorecording]: tiles and tribulations on the Scrabble game circuit /Discovery Times and Seventh Art Releasing present an E-Wolf production ; produced by Eric Chaikin; directed by Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo.

The Official Scrabble players dictionary.

The Oxford guide to word games by Tony Augarde.

The official Scrabble players handbook edited by Drue K. Conklin, Scrabble Crossword Game Players, inc.

Scrabble anyone?