It is 11 o'clock at night in Seattle, and my mother is CRUSHING me in Scrabble.
I just don't know it yet.
Let me back up a bit here. My Mom has been a major Scrabble addict for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure she has her very well thumbed copy of the Scrabble dictionary memorized. Not that it matters -- as a writer, she has a vocabulary that can kill... and the ability to spell, which helps, too. So let's just say you do not step to her lightly when it comes to word games.
So it was with great trepidation that I sent her my first iOS Scrabble multiplayer request a few weeks ago. She still lives in Texas, which means a two-hour gap between our time zones. Plus we're both self-employed, which means we're working when everyone else is watching television. So I wasn't really sure what to expect -- if anything at all. I wasn't surprised when I didn't see movement on the board for a few days.
Then she sent mail saying it was my turn.
I found myself paralyzed with fear. I had challenged a bona fide Scrabble badass to a game, and she accepted. (Note: It took me six tries and a Google search to spell bona fide correctly. I also misspelled badass, according to MS Word. So this gives you an idea of my skill level.)
Long story short, she beat me. Like a drum. She was kind enough to mention that "I know you had bad letters" in an email about something completely un-Scrabble related, which I appreciate. That's a good Mom!
(Note: While I was writing this, my Mom put down two tiles and scored 25 points. True story.)
As I watched her score rise higher and higher, I felt a strange gamer twinge that I haven't experienced in many, many years: Multiplayer Mania. (I just made that up, by the way -- so, uh, let's make it happen!) Yes, Multiplayer Mania. That feeling you get when you're in a deathmatch, and you just hope you can get one point on the board before the timer runs out. Or when your team has lost the flag for the TENTH TIME, and you have one minute to capture their flag and haul it back to the base.
In short, I was remembering what it was like to play Halo online.
As a busy gamer, trying to do anything multiplayer is difficult. I just don't have the time to build the skills necessary to survive the average firefight. Yes, I have beaten all the Halo games -- over a period of several months. That hardly qualifies me to jump in a multiplayer match. A relative tried to get me into the latest Call of Duty game, but I was so far below his level that the matchmaking system didn't even bother letting me in his lobby to be cannon fodder. Realistically, the only multiplayer I've ever done well in -- much less excelled -- is BioShock 2 (my audio review). I could have played that forever, or so I thought, but then I got bored. So needless to say, multiplayer has not been a big part of my life... until recently.
I don't know why it's taken me so long to realize it, but multiplayer doesn't have to involve shotguns and Big Daddies -- unless you count Gamewatcher. Yes friends, I have seen the light: casual multiplayer games.
It really started a few years back, when my son's obsession with Plants vs. Zombies began. On Saturday mornings, he would practically camp outside our door until I got up, anxiously waiting to say, "Can I be the zombies?!?" -- his subtle way of asking if we could play PvZ multiplayer on Xbox 360. That also happened to be the first year he went to PAX, and Plants vs Zombies versus mode on the Nintendo DS (two DSes, one cartridge) was a saving grace for us all. He could have spent all day just sitting in line, sending zombies toward my waiting plants. Getting to go in PopCap's amazing Zombie suite that year was the proverbial icing on the cake. (He still has PvZ detritus all over the house, including a bumper sticker on his bedroom door.)
His elementary school chess club experience made him a formidable opponent from the beginning. The many, many hours of PvZ solo practice made him unbeatable. Until one day, I started winning. I. WAS. WINNING! I puffed out my chest and told him, "It's OK, honey, you're still really good." He gave his best deadpan and just responded, "Oh, I'm letting you win because you're my Mom. I thought it was rude to beat you all the time."
It was the last PvZ game I ever won. That was two years ago.
After a while, he decided he'd rather play the computer, so he was, you know, challenged. That didn't kill his desire to play games with Mom, though. So one day, we just started flipping through games on the Xbox. We tried a Simpsons brawler, but it got old fast. We stopped on a few other games that we thought were multiplayer, but found out they were single player only. (Three kids in Costume Quest and no multiplayer? Really?)
After several trials and errors, we landed on Puzzle Quest on Xbox 360. I had mixed feelings about this one. For the uninitiated, Puzzle Quest is an older Match-3 RPG game. (Yes, that's a genre. I just made it up.) Basically, you pick your favorite character class from Dungeons and Dragons (Mage, Fighter, etc.) and walk along a fairly linear path to find people who give you tasks. Only instead of running all over worlds and having adventures, you walk two inches and play a Match-3 game with whatever fantastical creature is getting all up in your hizzy.
The game differentiates itself from other Match-3s by adding spells tied to your character class. Fighters bash, Mages cast spells, etc. The colorful gems on the board provide your mana, while skulls perform instant attacks.
The Match-3 element is a kick -- it's the walking around part that I don't care for much. So I was thrilled when my son decided to make this his new favorite Mom and Me activity. I chose a Mage because... I liked her cape. (Yes, really!) Our son picked a fighter because... he could beat me down with his giant hammer.
Two weeks and dozens of games later, he's leveled up to the point that he's intentionally throwing moves and pointing out good moves to me so that I can catch up. Yes, once again, the chess master is schooling his mom. (He has graciously suggested I spend some of my current downtime leveling my player.)
With my mom stomping me in Scrabble and my son Puzzle Questing across my character's face, there was just one thing left to do: Challenge Gamewatcher.
My husband is a huge fan of PopCap's Bookworm series, so their multiplayer-only free-to-play Bookworm Heroes seemed like a natural fit. I mean, what could go wrong? (Spoiler: Everything.)
We generally have four or five games going at all times, primarily because no one else will play with me and I really, really want to win this game. He had an advantage in that he actually pays attention to details, and noticed that each character -- Hamlet, Purple Girl, Stoned Guy (OK, those aren't their real names, but that's what I call them...) -- ANYWAY, each of the characters have their own special powers. Oh, and Gamewatcher has a hella big vocabulary, too.
Without getting too detailed, I will say that I have been able to beat Gamewatcher a few times at this one. I do wonder if the tequila shots have been helping me. (Hey, I'll take it!) My victory is likely to be short-lived, however. We've both moved on. We're seeing other games. We're not going to the Bookworm Heroes fountain as much as we once did. I guess I'll just have to find another game to invite him to play.
I wonder if he has Scrabble installed.
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