73 - Words with Friends

Words with Friends is my new favourite iPhone app. Essentially Scrabble by Email, you partner up with a buddy and trade off words at your own pace.

You leave your word, submit it to the server and then shut the app. A little while later, a push notification appears letting you know that your friend has played their move, and its your turn. There’s no rush or annoyance that the other player is taking forever to assemble the word THE - it doesn’t matter if it takes you ten minutes or ten days to compose the perfect word.

It works because while Scrabble is best played with real human beings, who don’t think EOX or AY are real words, players don’t really need to be in the room at the same time. This isn’t exactly Halo. The Games with Friends team does offer Chess too, but I don’t have a clue how to play, so let’s not go there.

It also makes me think of other games that might work by email. Surely not every turn-based game would be a winner when played in such short, infrequent bursts. Would Pokemon with Friends work? How about Tony Hawk HORSE with friends? Maybe Worms with… actually, worms are best left between you and your doctor.

Oh, and Paul (my brother), if you’re reading - play your damn word!

Words with Friends is free, but you can pay a couple of quid to remove the ads.