In a shock announcement, Mattel, the makers of Scrabble, have decided that proper nouns should be allowed. This change is being brought in to make the game more accessible for younger players, letting them use the names of their favourite television characters and celebrities.
I don’t know about you, but when I was young, I did know some words that were not proper nouns, and I suspect young people today do also. Mattel is treating them as if they are celebrity-obsessed halfwits. Maybe research has determined that they indeed are, but that was where Scrabble could be a useful educational experience.
Up until now, all you needed to deal with any quibbles was a decent sized dictionary. Now you’ll also going to need the TV guide, and a subscription to “Hello!” magazine.
This is the sort of thing that makes me despair. D&D has already been reduced to a glorified boardgame by its miserable 4th edition. MMOs are each more dumbed down than the last. Scrabble, I thought I could count on you.
Worst patch ever.
I suspect there will be an old scrabble versus new scrabble battle sometime in the future. :)
Dear god, combine the proper nouns from D&D with Scrabble… Drizzt on a triple word score for the facepalm.
Bah humbug.
So I guess we’ll see a lot of Lala now.