Re: What happened to the old scrabble!

Another update:

I have found that the way to play a human with "traditional" or "NSA" rules is to chose "multiplayer" (facepalm -- I should have figured that out)!

Also, I have gotten used to the game mechanics, etc.  I discovered that if you look carefully, there is a highlight around the square on the board where the tile will drop.  I actually kind of like the graphics and music now.

Clarification on the bot playing ability:  The bots have large vocabularies (other commenters have mentioned that even the beginner level can use rare words) -- but even the "expert" bots don't appear to have strategy skills (they open up premium squares, etc).

Since my last post, I have lost to the "expert" bots on (very) rare occasion, so I can no longer say I "beat them every game" -- but "expert" bots should be very challenging to play, and they are not.

The rest of my complaints I stand by, especially #1.  Even when playing another player supposedly using NSA ratings, I see no ratings, no progress on ratings, etc.

And re #3, I'm still a "beginner," even though I nearly always beat the "expert" bots (and see no progress).  Beating bots should count for these Pogo-created ratings (they aren't NSA ratings; those are gone!).

New complaint:  Even in so-called "NSA rules" games, the game is highly censored.  I did some research and found that about a year ago, 236 "slur" words were banned by the NSA, so that is part of the reason -- but I have had several mildly offensive words blocked in the new game that are NOT slurs (for example "*," which also has non-offensive uses; the noun that is the male equivalent of the word "hen," and the verb that means to move a mechanism into position for firing such as a shutter or a trigger -- also blocked was "slave," which non-offensively is also a photographic flash that fires along with other ones, and the 2nd drive on an PATA drive controller port).