Takes two to cheat

Date: 08 January 2010 13:46:21

This is the actual game referred to in this post. So I was playing Wabble tonight. And I have an etiquette question regarding made-up words. If you look in the bottom left quadrant of the game, you will see "JAILER". This scored 42 points and put me ahead of my very able opponent. If you look closer you will see that for JAILER to be valid, LE has to be a word. Which it isn't. In English at any rate. Now in the rules of Scrabble, and in the online versions there are guidelines regarding situations where it is suspected that a player has made up a word. If you think your opponent has been creative you can challenge them. If you're right, their word is removed and they miss their turn. If you're wrong, they get their word and you miss your turn. If you think it's not a word but you're not sure enough to risk missing a turn over it, you can let it go. The question: if you make up a word and are not challenged and then win the game, did you actually win the game or not? Or in other words, is making up words simply a strategy that can be used at the player's discretion if they are willing to take the risk of being challenged? If you look at the rest of the board you will see a number of other non-words. I "accepted" these "words" in the full knowledge that they were... not words... in an attempt to assuage my guilt about LE.