Who wants to play scrabble?

July 11, 2009 3:34 PM

Calling all MeFi Scrabblers! Who else uses the Internet Scrabble Club? Wanna play?

I know it doesn't really qualify as a social app, so: I am, at times, an addict on Wordbiz*, the interface that www.isc.ro uses. But there are a lot of opponents who are, shall we say, less than pleasant on there, and I'm searching for new folks to play. If you ever visit I'd love to add you, and then I'd be notified if you were online... and could perhaps challenge you to a match. I'd love to get a little MeFi community going over there as I am sure there are some amongst you who play.

PS - If this has been asked before, please let me know! I searched to no avail.

*If you'd like to join, Wordbiz is the interface you download from isc.ro, and you play using that program. Works on both macs and PCs.

posted by ORthey to MetaFilter-Related at 3:34 PM (39 comments total)

Oh, and my username is dur, I generally hover between 1200 and 1300 and like playing all types of games (challenge rules, length, etc).
posted by ORthey at 3:36 PM on July 11, 2009

I'm chudmonkey at the ISC. You can always e-mail or mefimail me if you fancy a game - I'm usually near a computer.
posted by chudmonkey at 6:44 PM on July 11, 2009

Hellyeah! I just became thewendell at the ISC.
posted by wendell at 8:58 PM on July 11, 2009

I play most days, at least a couple of games. I play mostly short (under 5 min a side) games, but will accept most challenges. lisejane is my handle. I look forward to seeing you mefites there!
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 11:59 PM on July 11, 2009

On as 'fcaf', usually rating between 1000 and 1100.
posted by 0xFCAF at 12:32 AM on July 12, 2009

I used to play on scrabulous all the time, I'll take a look at this. Placeholder for now.
posted by empyrean at 3:59 AM on July 12, 2009

Is there a Mefi chess club?

(Checks Wiki... nothing.)
posted by unixrat at 5:39 AM on July 12, 2009

I used to play this a lot back in college. I'll rejoin in a week, I think my handle is "TheWhiteHa". They have a 10 character username limit if I remember correctly.
posted by The White Hat at 7:40 AM on July 12, 2009

I've been addicted to scrabulous on facebook so would love to give this a try. Doubt I'll be up in the 1000s though. I'm there as "goodfeta". Email me/ Mefimail me if you are ever up to a game.
posted by beautifulcheese at 8:06 AM on July 12, 2009

I'm mostly playing Lexulous these days--FB link in my profile.
posted by box at 8:31 AM on July 12, 2009

I've been playing Scrabble against the brain of my PSP for, like, weeks now, and could probably do with some human opponents. You guys are human, right?

I signed up as, yes, DrWu, and hope to see youse guys online soon.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:48 AM on July 12, 2009

Well, I've just set up an account. So I'm "themulp".
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:48 AM on July 12, 2009

Just set myself up to play and tried it out. I'm mefimisha, and if it's okay I'll go ahead and add you all as my buddies!
posted by misha at 9:59 AM on July 12, 2009

I had a hard time with the interface on ISC, but I am totally addicted to Scrabble on FB, so if anyone wants to add me over there (link to profile in, um, my profile) then feel free.
posted by sugarfish at 10:06 AM on July 12, 2009

Hmm...so, how do I add you all as buddies? Or do I have to find a match with you first? I see "right click on a name on the Main console" but not sure how to get the names to come up?
posted by misha at 10:11 AM on July 12, 2009

Is there a Mefi chess club?

sort of (mostly inactive I think)
posted by juv3nal at 12:17 PM on July 12, 2009

Hmm...so, how do I add you all as buddies?

Good question... not a super intuitive interface. To add someone type the following:

buddies +(username)
(ie, buddies +dur)

To see which of your buddies are online, click the "buddies" button at the top right. You can "match" people when they are online.
posted by ORthey at 12:30 PM on July 12, 2009

Heh, I used to play on this site years ago, but it's been so long I forgot my username. So I reregistered as 'tripnhalf' if anyone's up for a game.
posted by trip and a half at 1:02 PM on July 12, 2009

I'm also an avid FB Scrabbler. Feel free to add me via the link in my profile.
posted by andythebean at 1:33 PM on July 12, 2009

Hurray-- I'm totally addicted, and would love to play MeFites. I'm analog9.

Anyone else notice that a huge percentage of players on isc.ro seems to be Canadian? (I always ask/offer location when I start a game.)
posted by availablelight at 1:35 PM on July 12, 2009

I play most days, at least a couple of games. I play mostly short (under 5 min a side) games, but will accept most challenges. lisejane is my handle. I look forward to seeing you mefites there!

I also love a good 5-minute game too!
posted by availablelight at 1:37 PM on July 12, 2009

pickybug is me on isc.ro - usually around the 700 - 800 level... but happy to play anyone
posted by mattr at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2009

My favorite games are 5-6 minutes as well, usually void.
posted by ORthey at 2:24 PM on July 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm a little clumsy with this interface, but I'd love to find a reason to quit facebok entirely. I'm on there as jessamyn.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:03 PM on July 12, 2009

The interface is indeed wonky and sort of archaic, but actually doesn't take long to master.
posted by ORthey at 6:51 PM on July 12, 2009

just downloaded it/signed up. i'm on there as gursky.
posted by gursky at 6:56 PM on July 12, 2009

Oh, I should have put this in the post, but... here is a good page of starting instructions, with more help topics on the left.
posted by ORthey at 7:00 PM on July 12, 2009

I1 A1M3 S1O1 T1O1T1A1L1L1Y4 IblankN1!

I1 A1M3 h3llbee O1V4E1R1 T1H4E1R1E1 S1O1 W4H4E1N1 I1 A1M4 O1N1 I1 W4I1L1L1 S1O1 O1W4N1 Y4O1U1 Q10U1E1E1N1S1!
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:16 PM on July 12, 2009

I have been playing against the computer because I am terrible and it's a great way to get an idea of how gameplay works if you're really new. Just type 'who C' into the console box and it will give you a list of computer opponents. Type 'match [name]' to start a game.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:28 PM on July 12, 2009

Thanks, Jessamyn! I'm a bit embarrassed by my poor Scrabble-fu and not quite ready for a human opponent, but was wondering if there were any bots to play against.

(regged as zerokey if anyone is in the mood to give someone a beatdown)
posted by zerokey at 7:43 PM on July 12, 2009

Signed up as 'empy' because this nick was taken already. Pffft.
posted by empyrean at 10:28 PM on July 12, 2009

Okay I've been getting my ass kicked by computers for a day or so now. Anyone else running the client for Mac who can get the auto-letter placement to work [like when you click on a box to get the arrow and then you just type in the letters from the keyboard]? I can't make it happen for me.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:57 AM on July 13, 2009

Jessamyn, you have to hit tab first - then you can type! I'm on a mac and it works.
posted by ORthey at 11:41 AM on July 13, 2009

That works great, now I can get my ass kicked more quickly and with less RSI, thanks!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:21 PM on July 13, 2009

my handle's chameleo. Rating usually 1600-1700. Void games. 3-4 minutes.


Handy hint: if you make a mistake changing tiles using the GUI, then clicking on the blank will reset the tiles to your original had.
posted by lalochezia at 12:35 PM on July 13, 2009

Also, look at the technical advice in this thread.
posted by lalochezia at 1:07 PM on July 13, 2009

I just signed up as umbuzada on isc. Is anyone else having trouble getting Wordbiz for Mac to work?

I'm a little over my head here. When I click on wordbiz.jar, it asks me to choose a language to play in, and then the window opens for an instant before shutting down.

On the download page for wordbiz for mac, it says "to run the program navigate to the wordbiz directory and type java -jar wordbiz.jar" but I'm not sure where to type 'java -jar wordbiz.jar' in a way that will actually do anything. Does anyone know what I'm missing here?
posted by umbú at 6:20 PM on July 13, 2009

I downloaded it and was able to just click the wordbiz.jar and have it run.

You can also open a program called Terminal which is where you'd type that line. So, you'd need to do this:

- put the folder with Wordbiz on your desktp if it's not already (doesn't need to be, but this will be easier if it's there)
- open the Terminal program (it's in the utilities folder)
- type 'cd Desktop' [without quotes] this changes to your desktop "directory"
- type 'cd DIR-NAME' [replace with directory name that wordbiz is in- this is what "navigate to the wordbiz directory" means]
- type that line of code

What happens? I'm running 10.5 and it just worked which I realize is not terribly helpful.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:53 PM on July 13, 2009

not_on_display just signed up and he said he just double-clicked the jar file and it opened up, slowly but it did open.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:06 PM on July 13, 2009