Brian Ragle: Words with Friends

So, the latest addiction on the iPad is a Scrabble-type game called "Words with Friends". I was turned on to it by, of course, friends who play it on their iPhones. The iPad screen real estate does this game immense justice. Big, brightly colored tiles, responsive touch controls, and subdued sound effects make this a pleasure to play.

The game is played on a turn by turn basis, with each participant taking his or her own sweet time to respond. Think of it like chess by mail (and the makers of this game also do a similar chess game). The push notification becomes essential in this case. You turn on your device and find that one of your opponents has made a move and now it's your turn.

I spent pretty much any free time I had yesterday playing this game and went to bed last night with words on my brain. I woke up this morning to find 3 players had made moves and had to force myself to see to other tasks before sitting down to indulge. However, the game seems to be a heavy drain on the iPad's epic battery life. Running the game for an hour resulted in over 20% battery loss. I'm not sure what's happening which would cause such a drain, but it's curious.

The iPad version is $2.99 and available now.

My game name is "ragle".

[caption id="attachment_581" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="104 point score (name of opponent redacted)"]