Words With Friends - are you hooked?

It seems everyone is playing Words With Friends these days! Have you experienced it? Are you hooked?

Released in 2009 by Newtoy, Inc. (Now known as Zinga With Friends), Words With Friends is clearly one of the most popular and most talked about iPhone apps/games out there. Words is currently rated number three on the iTunes App Store’s Top 25 paid games list and has 3,904,088 “likes” on its Facebook Page, but moreover, friends everywhere are talking about Words With Friends!

148Apps.com Reviews calls it, “A must have for Scrabble Fans” and I agree. However, what I find comical is, even those who claim to hate playing the traditional Scrabble board game are hooked on this online game! Maybe it’s the friendly competition (one can have up to 20 games going at once), maybe it’s knowing there isn’t a rush to finish (the game waits, even if a player temporarily exits the app), or maybe it’s the convenience of being able to take it wherever (since most play on their phones). Whatever the reason is, people are loving this game!

Words is a Scrabble-like word building game that accepts 173,000 words for points. There are 104 tiles (breakdown below) and players may electronically shuffle their tiles for a new view, exchange tiles (even all at once) or pass on a turn (exchanging and passing earn zero points that round). It offers the same score building tiles such as double letter, double word, triple letter and triple word so players are always on the lookout for those available spaces.

Tile and point breakdown:
2 blank tiles - worth 0 points
E (13), A (9), I (8), O (8), T (7), R (6), S (5) - worth 1 point each
D (5), N (5), L (4), U (4) - worth 2 points each
H (4), G (3), Y (2) - worth 3 points each
B (2), C (2), F (2), M (2), P (2), W (2) - worth 4 points each
V (2), K (1) - worth 5 points each
X (1) - worth 8 points each
J (1), Q (1), Z (1) - worth 10 points each

To play Words, one must simply purchase an app or choose a free version (see options below) and download it to his or her preferred platform. Once the download is complete, players can quickly set up an account and choose a username. Then… game is on! One can choose to invite a friend to play using their username, play a “random” player, or log on to his or her Facebook account and play there.

As with many apps, there are occasional glitches or issues needing players to perform a recommended update or to restart their phone, but with the price being under one dollar, how serious can it be? Fans think it’s well worth the small price (financially and time-wise) to have to deal with an occasional issue.
I highly recommend Words With Friends. It’s enjoyable, competitive, and just plain FUN.

Helpful Words Links:
Ad-free for iPad or iPhone or iPod Touch $0.99 cents

Words with Friends Free with advertisementsWords with Friends Free Android MarketHelp and Support including a Learn to Play section

Words With Friends Facebook Page  - “Like” the page for game news and friendly discussion and have the option to play from there as well.  Be prepared to share some of your personal information, if you choose this option.

Here’s a little something extra to peek at for you techies out there. Words with Facebook: rocking a new kind of technology (with HTML5)

Finally, if you'd like to suggest a word for Words With Friends, click here!