It’s just Words, but with Friends

Our online writer explains why he loves online word games which can be played around the world.

I moved jobs recently, to a role which takes me from London to South Yorkshire and the North East a lot more, and means more nights than ever in Premier Inns and Travelodges.

Once the novelty wore off – and it did pretty quick – I went about finding ways of keeping myself social in hotels. There are only so many kitten videos on YouTube you can watch.

Enter the new found way of using up train time and solitary hotel nights as well as keeping a competitive rivalry up with people round the world- Words with Friends.

Words with Friends is a lot like Scrabble but with slightly different letters and board scoring, I assume to avoid legal cases from Scrabble’s head office. It’s available as an app inside Facebook or as a free app (with ads) on Apple and Android devices.

Using the wonderful power of the network we know as the world wide web I can play up to 21 games of Words with Friends at once, with friends all round the world – ideal as an interactive competition and way to connect with my social circles.

For a Scrabble lover and über-competitive person such as myself, this is a brilliant way to have some fun, use up time, and showcase my vocabulary skills, even if half the time I have never heard of the words I make up (maybe a learning opportunity too?)

Right this second, I am beating Nick Wong (director of online) in at least three games, losing two games to my good friend the lawyer in London, closely edging out my doctor friend in Melbourne, Australia and pondering what to do with seven vowels against my girlfriend, of which five of them are ‘I’s. I won’t mention the thrashing I have been subject to by another one of my sales colleagues. He’s off next year’s Christmas list.

Words with Friends even achieved notoriety recently as Alec Baldwin was thrown off a plane for playing it after the doors were shut. Initially I laughed, but now realise that it’s that addictive that it could easily happen to me too.

So if you want to fill up time, or at least have a few spare Sunday afternoons during winter to fill up and a handy laptop, tablet or smartphone, I highly recommend reliving those heady Christmas Day afternoons where everyone argues over whether “Qis” is in fact a word (it is by the way…). There’s even chess with friends and hangman with friends too, if words don’t cut it for you. Happy playing. – and

I’d be glad to hear about anything else that can keep me occupied on the road and competitively connected to my friends.

So, let us know below if you have any other favourite networked games.

Download our free wi-fi app

All our broadband packages include FREE wi-fi access at 3.5 million UK hotspots.

 

Learn more about free wi-fi