This Scrabble game board invention is normal dimensions except thicker
to house the electronics. The letters continue to be loose tiles
except beneath each tile is an electronic contact. Each square on the
playing board also contains a reciprocal electronic contact point.
The idea is the scrabble board "knows" which letter is placed where.
The housing underneath contains some of these connectivity devices: a
USB socket, a wireless Bluetooth chip, a Wi-Fi link. There is one
single button on the board that is pressed to confirm any word played
and two small LEDs (green = yes and red = no) to give the answer.
This board might be used to simply confirm or refuse words placed
according to a closed electronic dictionary. This reference point
could be held on a laptop, desktop computer or a PDA (personal digital
assistant) such as a PALM using a combination of the connectivity
devices. Maybe even a smartphone!
However the origin and most exciting application of this concept is
the TLD scope game. A new style Scrabble game that is enjoyed through
playing website domain names only. This would require a specially
designed website page which enables players to select before each game
which TLD (Top Level Domain) is to be played. For instance players
might select only .com and .co.uk to be within the scope of the play
or just .au for example for Australia!
Words played are thus confirmed or refused according to whether a
domain name within the agreed TLD scope actually exists. Different TLD
elections would reflect different languages – hence a multi-lingual
game. A computer user with a home broadband and Wi-Fi set-up would
experience little delay in the confirmation procedure. Nor any
additional costs if the broadband was, as commonly is, unmetered.
Connectivity options would allow play to be held in any room away from
the computer, indeed in a café with a smartphone! The option to
download an updated TLD reference file might be a further option to
think about to play to happen without even an actual online
connection.
Potential hurdles and issues include:
1. Should Proper Names, abbreviations etc TLD words continued to be
disallowed and as such could game websites offer a suitable filter
system.
2. Should hyphenation be permitted?
3. Should word combinations e.g. "thedog".com be allowed?
4. How can players be prevented registering domain names deliberately
to win future games? Might Google-like ranking procedures help to
filter out artificial websites without a threshold number of pages or
links in?
5. Would letter values continue to work the same? If the game is to be
multi-lingual is there a way to make letter values electronic and so
adjustable to reflect the existing Scrabble language letter values
without changing product?
Is there interest out there in developing it? Although any design
should incorporate the ability to play a game from a normal electronic
dictionary, it is the promised TLD scope games that would distinguish
it in the market. It would need trials, but there is continued and
widespread curiosity in domain names. It thus should be anticipated to
sell well if the product were priced just under 100 dollars. At the
very least it could be used by marketing executives in the boardroom
to brainstorm ideas before deciding which "www" to register for a new
product launch!
Note: Other suggested product names:
1. Internet TLD Scope Scrabble
2. Internet TLD Scrabble
3. TLD Scrabble
4. Scrabble TLD
5. Scrabble WWW
6. 3W Scrabble
Your comments welcome…
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Project First Cup inventions development program supports the frank
exchange of ideas, concepts and prototypes likely to lead to
commercial success. Project First Cup requests acknowledgement as
first source when things succeed.
Please visit
www.tide2000.com/feedback to discuss this invention and
others.
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