WORDS WITH FRIENDS EXPERIMENT

(Be warned – this is not a school project. I am just this odd enough to do this in my freetime. My daughter says it best. Nerds have Swag!)

I have done a little experiment with Words with Friends over the past few weeks. For those who don’t know, Words with Friends is an online scrabble like game by zynga that many people play through facebook. I wanted to find out if I enjoyed playing the game with my own brain power or if I found more pleasure from winning.

I competed in 14 games, some with family and some with random players that I was matched up with through the game. I divided the games into groups of 7 games.
Group one I played strategically, I would play for the most possible points. This would often lend itself to shorter words and words that were formed in multiple directions. This word play would make future word placement and creation harder for myself and my opponent. I would seek out the bonus point tiles and would place higher point value tiles on double and triple point tiles and many times include that in a double or triple word bonus tile for the word. Once, I believe, I got 88 points for the word “jest”. If I had difficulty finding a word that would give double digit point value, I would take to the computer and look up words. This was very helpful in finding 2 and 3 letter words, j and q words and adding to words that were already on the board. By adding one letter I could change “maze” into “amaze” for a large point return. My final score would often double that of my opponent. The final score of one game having me surpass my opponent by over 275 points. I won 6 of the 7 games.

Group two, I played with no aid from the computer in finding words. I just used the words that were already in my mind. I didn’t seek out the bonus tiles, but I didn’t avoid them either. I found myself playing longer words of 4-6 letters which allowed for a lot of opportunities for word placement on the board. I won 3 of the games.

Obviously, part of this game is random. You can not choose the letters or their values that you are given. If you do not receive an X, Q or J during the game, good luck winning. It is possible, but it is much harder.

I was not surprised by the outcome of my little self -experiment. I enjoy the play of the game, not the win. Is it enjoyable to win? Yes. But the win brought little emotion if any when the game was so calculated and plotted. It was similar to grocery shopping, just grab something and cross it off the list and go onto the next thing. But if the win was competitive and came from with in myself with little or no aid from others in person or computer form, the sense of accomplishment was a great personal joy. I enjoy the give and take, the banter of playing the game. Win or lose, if it was a good push and pull, I came away happy and that it was worth my time.

TAKE IT TO LIFE
So how to apply my experiment to life….

Your thoughts?