Best word games these days

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have been watching a lot of the Game Show Network lately, and I am really reminded of the creativity, education value, and accessibility of the efforts put forth during this Golden Age of American television history.

It occurs to me that word-based games may have shifted towards apps and internet games these days. It also seems that traditional TV game shows have been supplanted by reality TV, talent contests, risk-based entertainment, and so forth. So, I have a lot of questions about the importance of the daily word quizzes of yesteryear on the American culture. My curiosity leads me to asks the following questions:

1.) Do you do traditional crossword puzzles?
2.) What were your favorite “wordplay” TV game shows from the past?
3.) What are your favorite “word skill” apps or online games these days?
4.) Do you watch “Wheel of Fortune”?
5.) Do you use a thesaurus regularly?
6.) What is the best way to sharpen English language skills?
7.) (Optional) What is your age?
8.) (Optional) What is your “mother tongue”?

2
  1. I’m not super into crosswords
  2. I’m having trouble thinking of many word game shows besides Wheel of Fortune - other examples?
  3. I like scrabble/words with friends, hanging with friends, 7 letters, drawsome/epyc/telephone pictionary, scribblenaut, WOF, and things like Boggle, there’s some others that are board game only
  4. sometimes, but I prefer to play the video game
  5. thesaurus, reverse dictionary, rhyming dictionary, omniglot, etc
  6. word of the day, keeping lists of cool words I encounter, writing
  7. 37
  8. English. I took Latin in high school. I studied Spanish a bit before a trip abroad.
3

1.) Do you do traditional crossword puzzles?
No

2.) What were your favorite “wordplay” TV game shows from the past?
Wheel of Fortune, Concentration

3.) What are your favorite “word skill” apps or online games these days?
Word Bubbles, Text Twist

4.) Do you watch “Wheel of Fortune”?
Not anymore

5.) Do you use a thesaurus regularly?
Yes

6.) What is the best way to sharpen English language skills?
Read, write

7.) (Optional) What is your age?
42

8.) (Optional) What is your “mother tongue”?
English

4

1.) Do you do traditional crossword puzzles?

Yes. I find them therapeutic.

2.) What were your favorite “wordplay” TV game shows from the past?

For some reason I really enjoyed Lingo. I think half of the fun was laughing at some of the mistakes players would make under pressure.

3.) What are your favorite “word skill” apps or online games these days?

Word With Friends and a new one I’ve recently discovered on FB, Word Rack. It’s kind of like a speed boggle/scrabble hybrid where the object is to score a bingo faster than the competition, or else score the highest scoring word (letters have different point values like Scrabble) when the timer runs out.

4.) Do you watch “Wheel of Fortune”?

No. I find most of the contestants annoying and the game play not particularly enjoyable to watch.

5.) Do you use a thesaurus regularly?

Recurrently. Frequently. Commonly. Systematically. Habitually.

6.) What is the best way to sharpen English language skills?

Never believing you know enough and taking advantage of opportunities to increase or refresh your skills and knowledge.

8.) (Optional) What is your “mother tongue”?

English.

5

1.) Do you do traditional crossword puzzles?

Sometimes. Not nearly as often as I used to. I always do the one in the airline’s magazine on the plane though.

2.) What were your favorite “wordplay” TV game shows from the past?

I never really watched TV game shows, so none.

3.) What are your favorite “word skill” apps or online games these days?

I like Word Sandwich (http://wordsandwich.com) because it’s timed and I can compare my daily ranking with others.

4.) Do you watch “Wheel of Fortune”?

No.

5.) Do you use a thesaurus regularly?

Other than the one in my head, no.

6.) What is the best way to sharpen English language skills?

For me, the most effective way is writing as it forces me to concentrate on composition.

7.) (Optional) What is your age?

51

8.) (Optional) What is your “mother tongue”?

English