Words with Friends facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Words with Friends |
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| Developer(s) | Zynga |
| Platform(s) | Android, iOS, Facebook, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, Windows Phone, Windows |
| Release date(s) | July 2009 |
| Genre(s) | Word game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Words with Friends is a popular online word game. It was created by a company called Newtoy, which is now part of Zynga. In this game, players take turns creating words, much like you would in a crossword puzzle. It's similar to the classic board game Scrabble, but it's a different game.
You can play many games at once, up to 40! The game sends you a message when it's your turn. You can find friends to play with using their username or through Facebook. You can also let the game find a random opponent for you.
Words with Friends first came out in July 2009. You can play it on many different devices. These include phones and tablets that use Android, Windows Phone, and iOS (like iPads and iPhones). It's also available on Facebook, Kindle Fire, and Nook Tablet. The game even has a chat feature so you can talk to your opponent. For a few years, Words with Friends was one of the most popular games in the iOS app store. You could get a free version with ads or a paid version without them. By 2017, it was the most played mobile game in the United States. A newer version, Words with Friends 2, was released in September 2017.
Contents
How to Play Words with Friends
The rules of Words with Friends are a lot like Scrabble. Each player gets seven letter tiles chosen randomly. You keep getting new tiles until all 104 tiles are used up. Players take turns making words on the game board. You can place words going across or down. Your goal is to score as many points as you can.
Scoring Points
The game board has special squares that help you score more points.
- If you place a letter on a "DL" or "TL" square, that letter's value doubles or triples.
- If your word covers a "DW" or "TW" square, the value of your whole word doubles or triples.
- If you use all seven of your tiles in one turn, you get 35 bonus points! This is sometimes called a "bingo."
The game ends when a player uses all their tiles and there are no more tiles to draw. It can also end if players pass their turn or swap tiles three times in a row. When the game finishes, the player with the highest score wins.
Game Features
Words with Friends has several helpful features:
- Resign: You can choose to quit a game.
- Pass: You can skip your turn.
- Swap: You can trade one or more of your tiles for new ones, but you lose your turn.
- Tile Bag: You can see which tiles are still left to be drawn.
- Word Strength: This feature can show you how good your word choice is compared to other possible words.
- Power-ups: The game offers special tools like "hindsight" (which shows you the best moves after you've played), "swap+" (to help with tile swapping), "word radar" (to find good spots for words), and "word clue" (to give you hints).
The game accepts about 173,000 words. The list of words is based on a standard English word list, with some extra words added by the game creators.
Connecting with Others
Since Words with Friends launched, its random opponent and chat features have helped many people connect. Some players have even found love! For example, in 2009, Megan Lawless from Chicago started a game with a random player, Jasper Jasperse, from the Netherlands. They chatted through the game and got married in 2011.
Other couples also met this way, like Trish and David Palmer, and Stephen Monahan and Britney Hilbun. The game has even helped in serious situations. In 2011, an American player chatted with her Australian opponent about her husband's health. The American player's husband, who was a doctor, suggested an immediate hospital visit. It turned out the Australian husband had a serious heart blockage. The couples later met on a TV show called The Doctors.
Words with Friends as a Board Game
In 2012, Zynga teamed up with Hasbro to create physical board game versions of Words with Friends. These board games are just like the app, but you play them in person. There's a regular version, a fancy "Luxe" edition with a spinning board, and a small "To Go" travel edition.
Words with Friends is not the only Zynga game to become a board game. Other popular Zynga games like Draw Something and FarmVille also have physical board game versions.
Online Safety Information
In October 2019, there was news that some information from Words with Friends accounts had been accessed by others. This affected about 218 million accounts. The information included players' names, email addresses, login IDs, and other account details. This shows why it's always important to be careful with your personal information online and to use strong, unique passwords for all your accounts.
