Hold onto your old Scrabble games, Mattel has announced changes to the 75-year-old board game to make it “less competitive and more inclusive” to pander to Gen Z. Players will now have a 'No More Scoring' option on a double-sided board, where more astute players can play the historic version. The Scrabble board has not been changed since it was invented in 1938.The woke version of the game is called Scrabble Together and will include “helper” cards, has scrapped traditional scoring and is now based on setting “goals,” allow people to play in teams, and has a shorter duration, per the New York Post.Mattel VP and the company’s Global Head of Games Ray Adler told the publication in a statement Scrabble Together is “for anyone who’s ever thought ‘word games aren’t for me’, or felt a little intimidated by the classic game.”“Scrabble has truly stood the test of time as one of the most popular board games in history and we want to ensure the game continues to be inclusive for all players,” said Adler. “Scrabble Together mode is an ideal option.”“Scrabble Together Mode continues to celebrate the wonder of words just as the Classic version does, but thanks to its exciting new co-operative and dynamic gameplay, it’s more accessible and brings people together.”The new version of the game’s helper cards give players prompts and clues according to their desired challenge level.Further, rather than keeping score, players set a goal such as, “Play a horizontal word,” “play a three-letter word,” or “play a word that touches the edge of the board.” As soon as a player accomplishes 20 “goals” they win. Despite Mattel’s best efforts, however, it appears there is still a closet in the game of Scrabble Together. If a player uses up all their prompt cards and didn’t complete one of their 20 self-set challenges, they lose. Mattel reasons if players don’t have to do math, it will result in “shorter games," Adler said. “The makers of Scrabble found that younger people, Gen Z people, don’t quite like the competitive nature of Scrabble,” former UK MP Gyles Brandreth, who now co-hosts a podcast called Something Rhymes With Purple, told the BBC. “They want a game where you can simply enjoy language, words, being together and having fun creating words.” “We play the original game, but change is inevitable."“The game speaks to a trend in younger people who want to avoid competitive games, instead favoring teamwork and collaboration working towards a fun goal together,” said 2016 World Scrabble Champion Brett Smitheram in a statement to the New York Post. The new version of the game will soon be available in Europe, a Mattel spokesperson told CNN, but as the company no longer holds licensing in Canada and the US, it now belongs to a company called Hasbro, Scrabble Together is not foreseen as an option for Canadians and Americans in the near future. “While we don’t have any plans for an update in the US, we love the idea of different ways to play Scrabble and continue to attract new players to the game around the world,” a Hasbro spokesperson told the Post.“Scrabble is one of the world’s best-known word games, bringing people together over a board for over 75 years. The way we use words is constantly evolving and so is Scrabble, which is why the iconic game has created a second side to the board that is collaborative and faster-paced to make gameplay more accessible,” Mattel said in a press release.
Hold onto your old Scrabble games, Mattel has announced changes to the 75-year-old board game to make it “less competitive and more inclusive” to pander to Gen Z. Players will now have a 'No More Scoring' option on a double-sided board, where more astute players can play the historic version. The Scrabble board has not been changed since it was invented in 1938.The woke version of the game is called Scrabble Together and will include “helper” cards, has scrapped traditional scoring and is now based on setting “goals,” allow people to play in teams, and has a shorter duration, per the New York Post.Mattel VP and the company’s Global Head of Games Ray Adler told the publication in a statement Scrabble Together is “for anyone who’s ever thought ‘word games aren’t for me’, or felt a little intimidated by the classic game.”“Scrabble has truly stood the test of time as one of the most popular board games in history and we want to ensure the game continues to be inclusive for all players,” said Adler. “Scrabble Together mode is an ideal option.”“Scrabble Together Mode continues to celebrate the wonder of words just as the Classic version does, but thanks to its exciting new co-operative and dynamic gameplay, it’s more accessible and brings people together.”The new version of the game’s helper cards give players prompts and clues according to their desired challenge level.Further, rather than keeping score, players set a goal such as, “Play a horizontal word,” “play a three-letter word,” or “play a word that touches the edge of the board.” As soon as a player accomplishes 20 “goals” they win. Despite Mattel’s best efforts, however, it appears there is still a closet in the game of Scrabble Together. If a player uses up all their prompt cards and didn’t complete one of their 20 self-set challenges, they lose. Mattel reasons if players don’t have to do math, it will result in “shorter games," Adler said. “The makers of Scrabble found that younger people, Gen Z people, don’t quite like the competitive nature of Scrabble,” former UK MP Gyles Brandreth, who now co-hosts a podcast called Something Rhymes With Purple, told the BBC. “They want a game where you can simply enjoy language, words, being together and having fun creating words.” “We play the original game, but change is inevitable."“The game speaks to a trend in younger people who want to avoid competitive games, instead favoring teamwork and collaboration working towards a fun goal together,” said 2016 World Scrabble Champion Brett Smitheram in a statement to the New York Post. The new version of the game will soon be available in Europe, a Mattel spokesperson told CNN, but as the company no longer holds licensing in Canada and the US, it now belongs to a company called Hasbro, Scrabble Together is not foreseen as an option for Canadians and Americans in the near future. “While we don’t have any plans for an update in the US, we love the idea of different ways to play Scrabble and continue to attract new players to the game around the world,” a Hasbro spokesperson told the Post.“Scrabble is one of the world’s best-known word games, bringing people together over a board for over 75 years. The way we use words is constantly evolving and so is Scrabble, which is why the iconic game has created a second side to the board that is collaborative and faster-paced to make gameplay more accessible,” Mattel said in a press release.
