# Scattergories Question: Was This Fair? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 13, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496 "2019-06-13T21:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/1 "2019-06-13T21:28:21Z")
Last weekend I was playing Scattergories with my wife, son, and son’s girl friend. The category was “mobile phones”. I didn’t have much, so I proceeded to do M=m key, O=o key, ect. O and E repeated, so I used “one key” and “eight key”. I, of course, thought that was nothing short of brilliant. My opponents disagreed, and thought they were being generous giving me half the points. I mentioned that our other son, who was turning in early, would probably agree with me. Ms. P said no way and asked him without telling who had pulled this stunt. He agreed that it was brilliant, and said that the person doing it (he thought it was his brother) should get all the points. My opponents reluctantly relented. What say you? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/2 "2019-06-14T00:11:22Z")
I’d be willing to grant “one key” and “eight key” but “M-key” and “O-key” ? Screw that. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/3 "2019-06-14T00:47:11Z")
Yeah, anything that’s just the letter and a word is a foul. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/4 "2019-06-14T00:52:27Z")
Maybe I should retroactively award the game to Ms. P. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/5 "2019-06-15T15:52:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, anything that’s just the letter and a word is a foul. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/6 "2019-06-15T17:07:30Z")
[Moderating] Oh, and I only just noticed that this is in Cafe Society. Let’s fix that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/7 "2019-06-15T17:13:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, anything that’s just the letter and a word is a foul. I agree. Plus, when’s the last time you saw a mobile phone that had an M key? ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/8 "2019-06-15T19:33:11Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I agree. Plus, when’s the last time you saw a mobile phone that had an M key? Since I don’t have a smart phone, not long. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scattergories-question-was-this-fair/835496/9 "2019-06-18T01:56:01Z")
First of all, is it well understood among your group of players, that the category “mobile phones” actually means “things relating to mobile phone” or maybe “parts of a mobile phone”? Because if I heard “mobile phones” I would be thinking “types of mobile phone” or “brands of mobile phone” or “models of mobile phone”. And as a long-time player of social games such as scattergories, there are few things more frustrating than an ill-defined category. That said, if the category was “parts of a mobile phone”, I think I would accept “one-key” and “eight-key” but not “o-key” or “e-key”. If it was a more nebulous “things relating to a mobile phone”, it would be very close, hard to say without hearing what types of things are generally accepted or not. (And since we’re discussing scattergories, I feel like this is as good a time as any to bitch about the two most ridiculous scattergories robberies I ever suffered: the category was “things that are round”, and for the letter N, I came up with “nest”, which was voted down. And the category was “super heroes” and for the letter P I came up with “Pink Power Ranger”, and was voted down.) (The moral of the story is… play _Codenames_ instead.)