identities among the players of the san francisco scrabble club

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Identities among the players in the San Francisco Scrabble Club Hugo Albrektson 12/17/2014

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Identities among the players in the San Francisco Scrabble Club

Hugo Albrektson

12/17/2014

• Scrabble players are less likely to know the meaning of a word.

• Players in the San Francisco Scrabble club distinguish themselves through their own, personal game paraphernalia.

• For professional Scrabble players, the game is more about strategy and probability rather than words.

Overview

Location:

Rincon Center 121 Spear Street

Subculture:

San Francisco

Scrabble Club

Research strategies and frameworks: - Participation in situ - AX4 (Activities, Artifacts, Actors, Atmosphere)

- Shadowing - Interviews

Andrea Carla Michaels

Andrea has been playing at the San Francisco Scrabble Club for almost 21 years. She says that culturally Scrabble is a way of learning how to spell, even though she admits she sees the word differently from when she’s playing and when she’s writing.

Andrea has an apple shaped board. She tells me about a tournament she played in New York and that’s where she got it. From a restaurant owner who fed them all days that they were playing and then she got to bring this apple board with her home.

Andrea also tells me that the way of practicing the game has changed over time. New software programs and strategies has evolved along with technology and that’s how the young player can calculate scores and probability really easy when they practice.

Scrabble players are less likely to know the meaning of a word

• “I could not tell you the meaning for maybe half the words that I actually know.” Charles, former state champion in Scrabble.

• Many players create their own, handwritten wordlist but without the meanings of the word.

• In the streets, Scrabble players can spot and sometimes memorize random words that will score great points in future games.

• Letters are used and moved around independently on the tile rack.

• One player once confessed that he didn’t own his own, customized board. The rest of the group reacted surprised and expressed their immediate concern and even offered him a free board next time he would come to play scrabble.

• There weren’t a single thing of merchandise (letter tiles, tile bags, boards, tile racks and chess watches) from the same brand/supplier.

• Plenty of the gear carried emotional feelings for the players, and had a background story to where they’d gotten the gear in the first place.

• Players had their own design/layout/function for their score sheets.

Players in the San Francisco Scrabble Club Distinguish themselves through

their own, personal game paraphernalia

• It used to be like you couldn’t turn around in a tournament without hitting a math PHD” Mike, member of San Francisco Scrabble Club.

• Many players hold in words worth more points, to not open up other areas of the game board for their opponents.

• “Why did I open for you?!” Saint, when playing a big point word but opened up for Mike. Saint lost that game with only a few points.

• “You have to know your 2/3/4-letter words very well” Andrea, Member of the San Francisco Scrabble Club.

For professional Scrabble players, the game is more about strategy

and probability rather than words.

New directions, concerns and considerations

• The interview material was collected mostly from outside of the club, due to bad audio at the Rincon Center. Answers might not be the same as when you get them in person at the club on Tuesday evenings as when you get them at a coffee shop in a interview set-up environment.

• Players didn’t come continuously to the club, which meant that I almost met new players every time I was there. That becomes a challenge when you want to look at different relationship in between players and how they behave to each other as a group.

• I studied San Francisco Scrabble Club only, but I’ve come to realize that going to a tournament or bigger competition outside of the Rincon Center would probably give one lots of more insights and valuable data concerning the group as well.

Insight Video

https://vimeo.com/114897412