People Who Play Word Games

- By Lance Hemenway
They’re almost everywhere. Hiding within small libraries, or huddled in the dark—frightened of the daylight. -People who play word games; the rare and talented individual who actually delights in the flirtation between language and entertainment. But who are these bizarre people? Why do they play these word oriented games? And are the rest of us in any real danger?

Word games have existed for a long time. Looking for words and phrases in a series of mixed up letters has been with us since civilizations have been able to put pen to papyrus. Anagrams, palindromes, lexigrams, and puns have all found their way into our lives at one time or another. People like being able to engage their minds while being entertained. Of course, there are some people who prefer not to be bothered with “Intellectual stimulation” during their entertainment. -And those people watch “Cops.”

For some time, games like Boggle, or Scrabble, did seem to disappear into the distant haze of our early childhood memories. And it was true, that during the immense growth spurt of the video game industry, puzzle games, in general, officially lost favor with the public nation wide. But in the last few years, with the growing amount of imported board games from countries like Germany, board games have been through a renaissance of sorts. Sales of board games in general, and more specifically, word games, have increased dramatically.

In regards to online gaming, the situation is similar. Downloadable games continue to find their way into almost every household. And it is in this respect that word games have really found their niche. Computer gamers have spent thousands of their free hours online stimulating their little brains till their heart’s content.

For example, the game “Love Letters,” a new title available on Jenkat Games. (www.jenkatgames.com) The game combines the flavor of Scrabble with the framework of your typical video game experience. Released just in time for Valentine’s Day, Love letters allows players to search about in a box of candy hearts, searching for the proper letters to spell words provided them on a list. The farther you proceed, the more words you have to assemble.

Word games are staging a bit of a comeback. And in many ways, they never lost favor at all. Many people have discovered that word games have increased their ability to focus, and concentrate for longer periods of time. Gamers have shown their love for word games in all of its various forms, while game manufactures attempt to feed the growing demand. Word games are not only a big part of gaming as a whole, they are a growing part of video-gaming as well. And that fact doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.