Once upon a time, my family and friends viewed me as a Scrabble ace. It was mainly because I have always been a good speller and developed a large vocabulary at an early age. As I've gotten older, however, I am routinely beaten at Scrabble and similar word games by my sister and my best friend. The problem is that I don't have much of a strategic mind.
Here's an example. I'm playing Lexulous with my sister; it is a Scrabble clone you can play via email (formerly known as Scrabbulous). I have the choice between laying down the words "patois" or "path". The simpler word would earn me five more points, but I know my sister would be impressed if I trotted out "patois". I resisted the urge to flaunt my word knowledge and played "path". It put me 20 points ahead of my sister, but I still wish I had played "patois".
See? I play Scrabble because I love getting a chance to use the words I know, while my sister tallies points in her head and actually remembers what color the triple-word-score square is. That's why I usually lose.
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