Play Scrabble Online for Free
From LoveToKnow BoardGames
Did you know that you can play Scrabble online for free? Don’t be fooled by the knock-offs either. There are lots of wanna-be scrabble games on the Web that try to equal the original Scrabble game, but to truly enjoy the tile-based spelling game, you need to stick to Scrabble and the rules that make everybody carry a dictionary to each game.
Games.com
If you are looking for a great multiplayer experience with the Scrabble brand, then check out Games.com. While the original Scrabble version isn’t free, you can play two variations for free through your Web browser. The first is ‘’’Scrabble Blast’’’. There are three modes to choose from: 1) See how many points you can get from 100 tiles; 2) Number bombs explode when you make words of a certain length; and 3) Action mode has bombs that fall progressively faster. ‘’’Scrabble Rack Attack’’’ gives you a rack with 7 letters to see how many words you can make from those tiles.
Scrabulous
Scrabulous was launched in July 2006, and even though it does not include the word Scrabble anywhere on its site, the game plays just like Scrabble. There are many ways you can enjoy Scrabulous. Just Scrabulous is the classic game either timed or not timed. Play contestants all over the world or create a private room in which to invite your friends. Scrabulous Blitz is a game where the player with the most points after four minutes wins the game. If you really want to take your time, you can play e-mail Scrabulous where moves are made by special notations. Lastly, if you can't find anyone online to play with (which is rare with "millions of users"), you can relax with a solitaire game or a game against the computer.
Play Scrabble Online for Free with E-mail Scrabble
E-mail Scrabble.net
As of this writing, E-mail Scrabble.net is in beta testing but has gained a decent amount of players. You install a little program that acts as your e-mail program in sending moves. The site has a leaderboard for the top 50 players and forum for assistance if you are having technical difficulties or just want some strategies.
Scrabble-Master
Scrabble-Master is an even more low-tech way to play e-mail Scrabble. It was developed and launched in 1997 because the webmaster wanted to play some relatives who lived overseas. You actually use your own board at home to represent the moves you and an opponent send over e-mail. The site gets everything started for you and acts as a moderator for your game in terms of scoring, proper placement, and handing out additional letters when needed. Unfortunately, you have to find your own opponents, but Scrabble-Master gives you some tips on where on the Internet you can find some.
Internet Scrabble Club
It's free to join the Internet Scrabble Club, and you can usually find a good number of people playing Scrabble in English, Dutch, Romanian, French and Italian. After registering, you must install the Internet Scrabble Club interface. Half the window is the board, and the other half is area where you interact with the program and other players. There is also a rating system that seems to resemble the Chess rating system and is more accurate with skill levels. According to the site, the average rating of a player is 900, while expert players tip the scale at 1800. One of the major downsides of playing Scrabble online for free at the Internet Scrabble Club is that you need to learn some commands for the interface, but of the 50+ commands you can know, you will need to memorize about 10-15 of them to truly enjoy this website.
True to the Original
To play Scrabble online for free, and that's 100% free, you probably will have to resort to "knock-offs" or independently-programmed games. Most of your popular sites (like Yahoo and Games.com will have free online versions of Scrabble and perhaps a free trial download of the original Scrabble game, but not a 100% free playable version to install on your computer without paying a fee.
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