Scrabble lovers were outraged by reports that the game's manufacturer was apparently changing the rules — allowing players to spell out proper nouns (the names of celebrities, companies, and movies, for example) as well as traditionally accepted common nouns (cow, antiestablishmentarian). A widely published press release said the change would "enable younger players and families to get involved." New high-scoring words would include the name of the rapper Jay-Z (23 points) and sandwich shop Quiznos (25 points). Is the classic game at risk?
What a cataclysmic alteration: While a broad vocabulary can fuel Scrabble prowess, says Richard Gottlieb in CNN, this change hands the advantage to players with the most brand names "embedded in their brains." How long before the Scrabble lords okay "foreign words, acronyms, and abbreviations," and our beloved game collapses under "the sheer weight of an infinite number of words"?
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