A Guide to Word Games What Are Word Games? Word games are considered a member of the broader puzzle genre and involve the creative use of letters to form words. They vary from other puzzles by requiring a firm grasp of language, with those possessing larger vocabularies gaining a significant advantage over others during competitive gameplay. Those with good reasoning skills and a high level of common sense will also have the advantage. An example of a commonly known word game is the television game show Wheel of Fortune, where contestants and viewers attempt to guess the phrase or word using a category and the letters guessed by themselves and other contestants as clues.

Despite all the bells and whistles, Wheel of Fortune is actually a glorified version of Hangman. Word games have been played a variety of ways. Some games are played with pen and paper, others with boards and tiles and a few are even played with words simply spoken out loud. Common word type games include crossword puzzles, word searches, charades, Scrabble, Boggle, Scattergories, puns, anagrams and more. Humans communicate and express themselves in language and enjoy playing with it as well. Despite the seeming simplicity of games using words, it is actually a highly logical form of puzzle. Word games are as logical and rational as numerical puzzles such as Sudoku and Kenken but are often viewed as more approachable than puzzles based on numbers, especially by those with an apprehensive attitude towards mathematics.

Word game puzzles have a variety of different game mechanics. Some word games involve guessing the hidden word while others involve creatively using word tiles to construct new words. Props like paper or boards are not always needed, with the word game charades involving only purely physical actions to convey a word to others. Word games are some of the most enduring games in terms of popularity and the games are enjoyed by all ages and demographics of people irrespective to social or economic status. The History of Word Games The history of word style games is almost as vast and broad as the history of human language itself.

Perhaps the best way to explore the history of this genre is to learn about the origins of some of the most popular word games played today. Hangman - The history of Hangman is hard to track but the game is believed to have originated sometime after the year 1830. The game was referred to as Birds, Beasts and Fishes in the book Traditional Games which was published in 1894. The name of the game evolved from that whimsical title to Gallows, Game of Hangin and eventually Hanger. Word Search - Word soup style puzzles were the precursors of the modern word search. A word search is a grid type puzzle developed by Norman E. Gibat in 1968 for a magazine given away by Safeway stores.

The word search puzzle is relatively young in comparison to other puzzle games but word searches have maintained a steady level of popularity ever since their creation. Entire books devoted only to word searches are commonplace in bookstores and they are a staple in newspapers as well. Trial version of microsoft office 2016 for mac download. Scattergories - Scattergories was first manufactured in 1988 following the popularity of other word games such as Scrabble and Boggle. One of the most interesting features of the game Scattergories is the unique 20 sided die. The letters Q U V X Y and Z are all excluded from the die due to the lack of words starting with those letters. The gameplay involves quickly creating a list of words starting with the letter rolled by the die and falling into a specific category such as ‘vegetables’. No two words may be repeated, so a strong vocabulary is the key to success when playing this game.