Z ynga on Thursday is rolling down a sleeker, better made version of Words With Friends, the Scrabble-esque mobile game that first arrived on the scene last year. The organization also circulated data that are exclusive OCCASION in regards to the planet’s top scoring urban centers while the most typical wrong terms that individuals you will need to play (which you yourself can peruse in the bottom of this post).
The organization is tweaking the version that is new months after polling their users about feasible features, hosting focus groups at their San Francisco HQ and soft launching the rebooted software in nations like Australia and Canada. After reporting disappointing profits previously this current year, it seems Zynga is not using possibilities with dedicated users of these many game that is widely-played.
For many attached to the older form of Words With Friends, never worry — no body will have to update. For individuals who elect to obtain the app that is new ongoing games will not be interrupted. And players whom install the brand new variation can nevertheless swap tiles with players whom cannot.
For many prepared to move ahead, right here’s what is various:
Solo Enjoy: it was users’ many required function. Term nerds can now practice against a computer even if they are offline (like, state, Alec Baldwin for an airplane). The pc opponent plays in line with the skill that is human’s, surmised from every move they will have ever built in the application.
Community Match: this particular feature is a bit like Tinder for those who play term games. Before, users had just the choice of requesting a “Smart Match,” when the software would pair two strangers of comparable abilities for a game title. Through this brand brand new feature that is opt-in players is now able to decide to challenge some body nearby and choose whether that individual is man or woman; whenever going right on through prospective opponents, one swipes left to skip them and swipes 
straight to request a match. When they accept, the overall game starts.
Term Strength: this particular feature, that used to be an in-app purchase, is available these days at no cost. When a new player sets tiles down, but before they agree to that term, only a little icon that is green pop-up. Users can click onto it for an evaluation of just how strong that word is—in points—compared to every other possible move they are able to make. The Word Strength function may be fired up or off as a person so chooses.
Dictionary: Zynga partnered with Dictionary to offer players an in-app dictionary that can not only let them know whether a term is qualified to receive play, but its meaning and rarity (according to just how frequently it is played in term With Friends). The dictionary is searchable, provides pronunciations that are audio churns out a term regarding the Day, the same as Dictionary does.
Data: the version that is new offer “head-to-head” statistics, so players can easily see just how they’ve stacked up against one another as time passes, with regards to total victories and losings, typical game ratings and so on. The brand new game board additionally provides prime room to players’ names and profile photos, all section of an endeavor to really make the game more social.
Whenever asked just just exactly how Words With Friends is further departing from term games that came before it — like Scrabble — Vice President of Games Jonathan Knight claims the social aspect is one of the keys. “Words With Friends is actually catching that feeling of games that people spent my youth with but actually merging that with the zeitgeist of smart phones and connectivity that is online” Knight claims.
A lot of reasons for having Words With Friends will not modification with all the enhance. Record of some 170,000 words that are playable simply the exact exact same, since do basic game guidelines. Users’ ongoing games continue to be presented in a “to-do list” format, with games by which it is their change towards the top. But there is however more animation, easier navigation as well as other great features that Zynga hopes will attract lapsed users and new people.
Though Zynga will not state just how lots of people are making use of the software, Knight claims there are many players of Words With Friends than just about any Zynga game, and 55 million matches are taking place at any time. “The brand new features are actually answering everything we hear from our players,” Knight claims. “We’re using it really really, and we are spending deeply within the franchise.”
INVALID WORDS
The invalid term that Words With Friends players usually attempt to get down regarding the board is te, which, however allowed in Scrabble, is certainly not permitted when you look at the Zynga game. (In Taoism, te defines the essence of Tao inherent in every beings.)
In reality, the vast majority of the 100 most frequently refused terms are a couple of letters. The legitimacy of qi, a word that is high-scoring no body makes use of in actual life, has maybe assisted lead players down a course where they repeatedly try to play combinations like ri, yu, ec, ix and zat.
WORDS PLAYERS COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING INVALID
Presumably somebody believes they will have nothing to readily lose once they try it out at some random letter combination like ke. But there are a few terms that players get downright aggravated about being refused, using to social networking to show their complaints. Frequently, it seems, the source issue is an unhealthy comprehension of just just what qualifies being a appropriate noun, that are usually prohibited this kind of games. The following is an array of such words supplied to TIME by Zynga:
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