Freelance Writer, Blogger & Editor

Starting in July, Mattel will be releasing a new version of Scrabble. Not one of their annual fancy board updates, with the turntables and the slots for pieces and diamond-encrusted Q tiles and so on, but an actual change to the rules for the first time in the game’s 62-year history. Yes, starting this summer, players will be allowed to use proper nouns.

According to the BBC, a Scrabble spokesperson said that the changed rule will add “a new dimension”  and introduce “an element of pop culture into the game.” Which is of course vital, as there’s an alarming dearth of pop culture in our board games today. To wit: a three-minute Google search only turned up Simpsons Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit for Kids Nickelodeon Edition, and the Twilight, Star Trek, and Seinfield editions of Scene It?

Mattel is also apparently considering allowing “floating words”–words unconnected to other pieces–and words spelled backwards. These are all just “number of twists and challenges included that we believe existing fans will enjoy and will also enable younger fans and families to get involved,” according to the spokesperson. In this regard, she’s correct: abandoning rules altogether and playing “throw small plastic squares at a big cardboard square” would enable younger fans to get involved (toddlers love throwing small plastic things almost as much as they love shoving them up their noses). Which is what everyone wants out of their half-century old spelling games, right?

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