It has been brought to my attention that I’ve made a grave error not mentioning pogo.com as a great place to play word games. In the words of my reprimander (yeh I made that word up), “Pogo is like the best place to play games and they have some fun word games too! Have you played their scrabble?”
I have to agree, Pogo is thee best place online to play games. So why didn’t I mention it before? It’s a very popular site and thought I’d be a little redundant in mentioning it. I made a mistake, my bad.
When I say pogo is a popular site, that’s not an exaggeration. At any given time their are close to 200,000 players online. Pogo hosts a variety of games which includes 15 word games ( a few a reserved for paying club pogo members) including Scrabble, hangman, tumble bees, bookworm and Boggle to name a few.
Not only is Pogo a great place to play games because of the amazing graphics and unique games but it’s a really cool place to just hang out. Pogo has a very active community and the in-game chat ability makes it easy to make e-friends
Pogo also gives out cash and other prizes. You have the chance to win up to 4,999 dollars just by playing. There are also daily, weekly, and monthly drawings you can enter. Tickets for the drawings are paid for with pogo points. No need to pay all you need to do is play.
You get more than just avatars at pogo too. You get “minis” totally customizable little you’s. There’s a mall where you can shop for clothes for your mini and right now you can purchase a red cross t-shirt for your mini with all proceeds going to the efforts in Haiti. I have mine, get yours at pogo.com today.
Scattergories is a great for game night. Let’s face it. Not everyone is into words as much as we are. With Scattergories you get a terrific word game without all the stuff people who hate word games hate.
Scattergories is simple, easy to learn, but challenging. In this game, you roll the lettered die to get a letter. You then list as many words, beginning with that letter for a given (s)catergory. For example if the letter is C, you might need to write down as many vegetables you can think of that start with C. You get more points for being original so thinking of words no one else will have on their list is the key here.
You don’t need an extensive vocabulary or great spelling to play this game. Anyone, whether they’re a wordphiliac or not can get in on this game, have fun and compete with the most hardcore wordphiliac. So if you love playing word games but hate the moans and groans when you pull out your beloved scrabble game, try scattergories on your next game night. It’s a game anyone can enjoy.
Etymologic.com has the toughest online etymology game, according to them. It’s a simple multiple answer game consisting of 10 quesitons. I can’t vouch for them being the toughest because I haven’t played every etymology game out here but this one was tough. Tough but fun. A lot of fun, give it try.
Lots of people enjoy reading, playing a good game of scrabble, or improving their vocabulary. But then there are other people who take their fondness for words to a whole ‘nother level. Those people are wordphiliacs and I, myself, happen to be one of them. You might be reading this and wondering if you qualify for such a title. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. If you answer yes to any of them…welcome to the club.
- Have you ever read the dictionary for fun?
- Do you consult the thesaurus for casual emails to friends?
- Do you get excited when you step into a Barnes and Nobles?
- Do you have a favorite word?
- Have you been attracted to or not attracted to someone based on the words they’ve used?
- When you find the perfect word to express yourself, do you feel an overwhelming sense of joy?
- Do people hate playing scrabble with you because you take the game to “seriously”?
- Have you ever gone through “book withdrawal” when you haven’t read anything good in a while?
- Do you like this blog?
Who knew, I guess cats can be wordphiliacs too…
Shockwave.com has over 45 word games. There are some games on there that you might be familiar with like “text twist” and “bookworm”, but they are many unique and interesting games as well.
One cool thing about Shockwave.com is their varying levels of membership. If you don’t want to sign up with the site, you don’t have to. You can just play and there are many great games at this level. You can also sign up, for free, get a cool avatar and participate in the sites raffles. Want more? You can sign up for “Club Shockwave” or “Shockwave exclusive” at a cost and gain access to more games and more functions.
I’ve played all of the word games on this site and “Super Word Scrapers” is my pick. In this game, you build words from letters like most other word games, but during “intermissions” you get a chance to earn bonuses by answering trivia questions. It’s this mix of word game and trivia that makes it stand out and adds something extra that you don’t find in most word games.
King.com is a community game site that hosts a variety of games and allows you to play for fun or cash. The site is based in the UK and there is a large international community. If you want to meet people closer to you, you can do that to. In the “community” section, just select you location and you will be introduced to people living and playing near you. You can send and receive messages and challenge your friends in game.
King.com currently has four word games. They are all “link-letter” types of games where you must spell the most, best, or original words out of a grid of letters. One game stands out, though, and that is Word Battle.
Word Battle is great because unlike most online word games where you compete against yourself or too many people, you only compete with five people here. Just like the name of the game it really feels like a battle. If you are competitive and would like some recognition for being the butt kicking wordphiliac that you are, then this is the game for you. After your win, your competitors a forced to look at you gloating avatar while you are announced the winner. I’m always up for a good challenge myself and if you want to go toe to toe with me, I’m QueenOfNowhere on there.
Freerice.com is a very cool site that has been around since 2007. Visitors to the site play a variety of trivia games in several categories including art, math, chemistry, language learning, English grammar and vocabulary. Needless to say, the vocabulary quizzes are my favorite. And better yet, while you play you have the opportunity to help thousands of starving people around the world.
For every answer you get correct, ten grains of rice are donated and distributed to people who need it. Ten grains of rice may not be much but when when thousands of people play, it adds up quick. To date, Freerice.com has donated 72,881,139,820 grains of rice!
The vocabulary words get harder as you correctly answer the multiple choice questions, so there’s no getting bored here. I have to warn you, the game is quite addictive. But what’s better than feeding your brain while you feed the world?
