Soccer Dad: Boggles the mind

May 22, 2007

Boggles the mind

Last week Jerusalem Board Games gave an overview of Boggle: Review and Variants. Right now I'd say that Boggle is my favorite word game.

Word games were something I played quite a bit growing up, especially with my mother and brother. Although Scrabble was originally our favorite, at some point our favorite game was Perquackey.

Perquackey consisted of 13 dice with letters on them. Players would take turns throwing the dice and spelling words with the resulting letters. Until a person scored 2000 points he would use only 10 dice and could make 3 letter words. Each player had to make 5 words of each number of letters. (5 3 letter words, 5 4 letter words etc.) If a player made a singular word, he could not also use the plural if that involved adding an "s." When the player had finished making 5 three letter and 5 four letter words he'd get a bonus.

The game went until 5000. After a player reached 2000 he was vulnerable and would add the 3 red cubes (all consonants.) Once a player was vulnerable, 3 letter words were no longer allowed and if he failed to achieve a certain score (I think 500) he'd lose points. Usually it would take about two turns to go past 2000 and maybe anther turn or two to get to 5000.

Other than at my parents' house I don't think I've seen Perquackey any place in recent years.

At home we have Big Boggle and I very much enjoy playing against my 16 year old. We've been playing against each other for 5+ years now and she's gotten very good. I'd see we split about half our games. (Usually she'll win if it's just 4 and 5 letter words and I'll win if I find some giant words.)

I can't, however, much agree with this.

People with "Scrabble" like vocabulary are always going to wipe the floor with other players.

It's not the big vocabulary that wins; it's the ability to see words out of the same letters. For example, if you have a square with "M" "T" "A" and "E," you know that you can spell meat, mate, tame, and team. That's the important skill in Boggle. (It's very much a Perquackey skill.) The less common words (in my experience anyway) don't make a difference. It's being able to recognize words in their scrambled form, which I think is a separate skill.

I'm very impressed with my daughter's doggedness in Boggle. Originally she was quite at a disadvantage. But she persevered, learning the tricks of the game. Sometimes I'd give myself a handicap (only use 4 or more letters but allow her 3 letter words) but after awhile she wanted to play on the same level as me. About two years ago, she started beating me with greater frequency. Now, as I mentioned above, we split the games we play pretty evenly.

A few months ago I played a game with a number of adults. I'm pretty sure she would have beaten all of them had she played. She's learned very well and I'm very proud.

Boggle, Word Games.