And judging by the app’s 300K iTunes ratings, I’m not the only one.
Words with Friends is essentially a social version of Scrabble for the iPhone – by no means an original concept. Pre-lawsuit Scrabulous (now Lexulous) did this via Facebook in 2007, and the official Scrabble app has a Facebook Connect play option (for a pricetag of $4.99, though it’s currently on sale). Why, then, is Words with Friends so darn addicting?
Words with Friends is essentially a social version of Scrabble for the iPhone – by no means an original concept. Pre-lawsuit Scrabulous (now Lexulous) did this via Facebook in 2007, and the official Scrabble app has a Facebook Connect play option (for a pricetag of $4.99, though it’s currently on sale). Why, then, is Words with Friends so darn addicting?
- It’s free. Yep, can’t discount this one. While Words with Friends does have a pay version, the ad-supported free version is far more popular. Free means easily accessible, and Words with Friends (true to its name) is an app that’s a waste of memory unless you have friends to play it with.
- It’s simple. There’s no fuss with this app. There aren’t a million options, no bells and whistles. It’s a classic game, and you play when it’s your turn. Then you go back to your life until you receive a notification that the play is back to you.
- It’s a connection. We live in a world of endless connections – which is stating the obvious. Facebook and Twitter aside, there’s something oddly comforting about receiving a push notification that it’s my turn to play in the middle of the night. In a way that’s more subtle than a text or wall posting, it shows that my friends are out there. In this day and age it seems like one can never go wrong with creating an additional form of connection.
