Scrabble: How did this popular American Board Game come into being?
Scrabble, which was originally called Lexico and then Criss Cross, and was based on the crossword puzzle and anagrams. It was created by architect Alfred M. Butts in 1931. In 1948, James Brunot reinvented the game, renamed it Scrabble, and sold it. In 1954, it was first sold in Great Britain.
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score their points by arranging tiles with single letters onto 15*15 grid of squares on a gaming board. Scrabble tiles must be arranged such that words can be read left to right in rows or downward in columns in a crossword format. The words formed are also usually found in a dictionary.
The origin of Scrabble
Butts first merged parts of anagramming with standard crossword puzzles to produce Lexiko, but he later refined the game and released Criss Cross Words. According to reports, Alfred Butts drew inspiration for the current letter distribution system from the front page of The New York Times. The front page of The New York Times was examined to see how frequently each of the English language's 26 letters was used. It was found that vowels appear more frequently than consonants, with E being the most commonly used one. Butts allocated different point values to each letter and chose how many of each letter would be included in the game after determining the frequency of use.
However, the letter S presented a challenge. Despite the fact that it is commonly used, Butts chose to include only four S's in the game in order to minimise the use of plurals. He didn't want the game to be too simple, after all! Butts met a board game enthusiast entrepreneur named James Brunot a few years after coming up with Criss Cross Words, who showed tremendous interest in the game. Brunot made it his aim to make Criss Cross a commercial success since he saw it as having a lot of promise. Indeed, he discussed the design, rules, gameplay, and name with Butts.
Where did Scrabble get its name from?
Changes were made to improve the game's enjoyment and appeal to board game fans. The most significant modification was arguably the game's name change. They came up with the idea of renaming the game from Criss Cross Words to Scrabble which means "to scratch’’ or ‘’to scrape" or "to scrawl’’. In 1948, the name 'Scrabble' was trademarked, and the game as we know it was born. It’s incredible that for nearly three generations, Butts’ core cryptographic analysis of English language and his initial tile distribution have remained valid.
What makes Scrabble so popular?
Scrabble is simple, fun and gets people talking. Anyone who has ever played this game with a group of friends knows how interesting and hilarious it can be, and how it always leads to engaging discussions. When playing Scrabble, there is always some amazing conversation to be had, making it a perfect board game. Games are supposed to be enjoyable and educational too, and that is exactly what Scrabble is.