I am a fan of Scrabble, the word game in which two to four players compete to score points by placing tiles to form words, each containing a score and a letter, onto a 15 x 15 board of squares. Some of the squares have numbers on them that either double or triple your word or letter score. I play it regularly with my grandparents on the weekends. It’s great fun and never results in a family argument. However, disappointingly, it has become the latest – and probably not the last thing – to go woke by introducing another version of the game, which is more inclusive and not competitive. This is the first time it has been changed in 75 years.
Scrabble Together, created by American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company Mattel (who brought us the Barbie movie), is the new ‘updated’ version of the traditional word game. It has been designed to be more collaborative and accessible for those who find word games or the concept of competing intimidating – primarily members of Generation Z. Here is what Ray Adler, vice-president of Mattel, had to say about their new creation:
Scrabble has truly stood the test of time as one of the most popular board games in history, and we want to ensure the game continues to be inclusive for all players. For anyone who’s ever thought ‘word games aren’t for me’, or felt a little intimidated by the classic game, Scrabble Together mode is an ideal option.
The new board is double-sided with the original version of the game on one side and the updated version on the other. The instructions for the game say that in lieu of scoring points, which is the point of the traditional game, players play in teams and work together to win goal cards, which set the players challenges, such as making a word containing three different consonants or vowels. There is no time pressure and the game ends when a team completes 20 goal cards or when a team cannot complete a goal card. So, in addition to not having to create words from scratch or competing to do so, the new game does not require players to add up a column of numbers. Presumably, this is designed to accommodates people who are innumerate as well as illiterate.
This change was apparently stimulated by the popular online word game Wordle (of which I am also an avid player), which was purchased by the New York Times in 2022, where users have to guess a five-letter word every day. However, this change is unnecessary. Why create something intended to be challenging and competitive in the first place and then attenuate it because some people find it difficult to play? Simply, just do not play it and let other fans enjoy it. Scrabble has a 4.7/5 rating on Google, with 150 million sets sold worldwide, which you can buy in 121 countries in 30 different languages. Did it really need ‘updating’?
This is not the first time Mattel has been accused of making Scrabble woke: in 2022, it decided to ban over 400 words in the official score list, including words that may be ‘offensive’, ‘racial slurs’ and ‘sexuality and gender insults’. This was an attempt to make the game more inclusive, but it just resulted in scores of players quitting the game and accusing the manufacturer of virtue signalling. Naturally, ‘woke’ is an acceptable Scrabble word. Nevertheless, despite this unwelcome change, at least Mattel didn’t change the fundamental nature of the game.
It’s a shame to see a brilliant and original game, which was first made in 1938, going woke. That said, they are not taking away the original version which, I imagine, most people will continue to play.
Jack Watson is a 15 year-old school boy and Scrabble fan. He has a blog about supporting Hull City Football Club here.
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Sneaky Mattel. Selling one with the other, that way no-one cqan vote with their money and leave them with unsold games.
Participation medals, yay! Scores are microaggressions.
Scrabble for (adult) children.
Unless they are selling the unadulterated game in parallel, I can see versions of the vintage game commanding high prices on auction websites.
This is not the first new version in 75 years. For several years (until we gave it to a charity shop) we had a set of superscrabble. It has a board twice the size and quadruple words and letters. The problem was it took at least twice as long to finish a game
I was shocked a couple of decades ago attending my youngest’s primary school sports day.
There were no winners, no losers, no competitive sports and everyone got a prize.
The only race was for the school and its teachers – to the bottom.
Who knows a child who is naturally not competitive in any way?
“Inclusive”. ——-Is really just a polite term supposed to be implying consideration for other cultures in our midst but actually means increasingly pandering to other cultures more and more till the original culture is erased.
Inclusive = exclude excellence.
Nope. Cooperative board games are a huge part of the industry, with games like Gloomhaven, Spirit Island and Pandemic being among the highest rated games on Board Game Geek. These games aren’t light or easy games by any means, and it’s not that there’s no challenge, but you’re playing together against the game rather than against the other players. It’s not everyone’s preference, but it’s not woke. A lot of games include different modes – competitive, cooperative and/or solo, and others have different versions of the game available (e.g. Codenames, which is played in teams competitively, and Codenames Duet, which shares most of the same game mechanisms, but is played by two players cooperatively). Frosthaven, the sequel to Gloomhaven and a fully cooperative game, reached almost $13 million on Kickstarter. It’s not surprisingly that Mattel wants to tap into the cooperative gaming market with Scrabble. There’s plenty wrong in the world, but cooperative Scrabble is nothing to worry about.
Nothing wrong with cooperative games.
However the point is Scrabble is not a cooperative board game, it is a competitive board game. That’s the fun.
But Scrabble Together is cooperative. If Scrabble was ceasing to exist, it would be different, but this is just another option for Mattel to capitalise on a lucrative market.
Next Monopoly ‘updated’…. Polyopoly in which everyone wins.
I have seven letters on my little Scrabble tile holder.
Arranged with malice aforethought they send this message to Mattel: **** ***!