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Words with Friends, Facebook & Apple
By Dave Winer on Monday, January 10, 2011 at 8:06 PM.

I grew up in a family of Scrabble players, but I wasn't one of them. My creativity doesn't like Scrabble-like pressure. I quickly get frustrated and want to quit. I always wondered about this because I love crosswords. I guess for me words are a solitary thing, not a social thing. permalink

Until I tried Words With Friends. permalink

A picture named wwf.gifA couple of my friends from California were pinging me about this. "Dave let me know when you start playing Words With Friends." So I tried it and I like it. A lot. I'm getting good (or at least better). It's relaxing, and you learn a lot about the person you're playing with, even though they might be very far away. Some people get that Words With Friends is a collaboration even though you're playing against the person you're collaborating with. I like to win, but I also like it when my opponent is generous. I try to be generous, when I can. permalink

This led me to an interesting conclusion about Words With Friends in relation to Apple and Facebook. permalink

1. Re Apple, their social network was a flop. But WWF shows they don't have to do anything to have a really great social network boot up on their platform, something far more interesting than the money-motivated network they tried to build out of music of all things. I don't mind paying but they made it about paying. Uck.  permalink

2. Re Facebook, funny they are procrastinating about getting their APIs into the iPad environment. Words With Friends would make a fantastic Facebook app. A really fantastic Facebook app. Hey for all I know they have somehting like WWF, but this is the network I'm on for now. Facebook should be in here too, it seems to me. permalink

Anyway, I waited a long time to write this post cause I can only play so many games without losing my whole life to WWF. So don't be pissed if I don't accept your invite to play. :-) permalink

PS: It looks like they were bought by Zynga. permalink

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