I was going to make this story an ethics quiz, but thought better of it. After all, there’s nothing unethical about Scrabble (now owned by Mattel) spinning off “Moron Scrabble.” Okay, the exciting Scrabble mutation is called “Scrabble Together.” Nonetheless, I find it hard to resist the feeling that this is a Great Stupid event.
The Mattel statements didn’t help. Ray Adler, vice-president and global head of games at Mattel, said: “Scrabble has truly stood the test of time as one of the most popular board games in history, and we want to ensure the game continues to be inclusive for all players.”
Oh-oh. Inclusive. Next we can expect “DEI Scrabble,” where minority players get twice as many points for their words as those privileged white, male players.
“For anyone who’s ever thought ‘word games aren’t for me'” Adler addled, “or felt a little intimidated by the classic game, Scrabble Together mode is an ideal option.” If someone is intimidated by Scrabble, she has more serious problems than new rules can solve.
I started playing Scrabble with my parents when I was about 8. I increased my vocabulary from getting beat at Scrabble. I practiced arithmetic. I learned strategy, and improved my spelling; I learned how to look up words in the dictionary. I believe that Scrabble is one of the three Great Games that every child, male and female, should be taught to play, because it teaches invaluable life skills. The others: chess and poker.
Brett Smitheram, the 2016 World Scrabble Champion, enthused, “The game speaks to a trend in younger people who want to avoid competitive games, instead favoring teamwork and collaboration working towards a fun goal together.” Right-o! Socialism, then. This will definitely take off in the U.K.
Avoidance of competitiveness is another canary dying in the mine of American values, the result of generations of participation trophies, anti-merit and ambition indoctrination in the schools and popular culture, and the leftist ideology that the goal of society is to make everyone winners, or at least to banish losing. On the bright side, capitalism is still around to exploit unhealthy trends and habits, and t’was ever thus. If suicide ever becomes a fad, count on companies like Mattel to start selling fun, realistic fake suicide kits so kids can practice.
Ethics Alarms 
Know your two letter words (they can be mighty powerful,) and be willing to give up points by using fewer tiles if it means keeping your opponent from gaining an advantageous position on the board.
My best friend from college (RIP) had two board gaming modes. Varsity team jock, dominating everyone else and winning by a huge margin; or cutthroat thug, who did everything in his power to minimize everyone else’s scores. Guy was super smart so whatever he chose his strategy was generally going to work. Fun times all around.
There actually has been a version of Scrabble which would count as “Moron Scrabble” for adults for decades. It’s “Scrabble Jr.”, which includes a 2-sided board: 1 side with pre-spelled words for one to match letter tiles to, and the other side with a grid of blank squares, for children to form words of their choice on. (I think the “double points” for a letter or a word going through a particular square are reserved for regular Scrabble — but don’t quote me on that, as it has been many years since my own kids “aged out” of Scrabble Jr..)
My parents tried out “Jr.” on me and my sister. We played half a game once, and decided it was junk.
Scrabble Jr. was alright with the kids up until my youngest was in kindergarten and 1st grade (and her big brother twins were 3rd graders and still willing to play the same games that their little sister liked). All 3 had learned to read (taught by their Dad & me) by the time they started school, though, so once the youngest was in 2nd or 3rd grade, they all went to regular Scrabble and never looked back.
Obviously, anytime the the woke uses the term “inclusive” for anything , they mean dumbing it down. Will they label the dumbed down version of scrabble as: “sutible for people of color”?