NEW YORK — Scrabble purists can relax. News of a new version of the classic word game that Mattel plans to sell in the United Kingdom allowing proper nouns set off waves of dismay across the Internet. But the official rules fans know and love aren’t changing.
Scrabble Trickster, due out in July in the U.K. only, will allow names of cities and celebrities, as well as other proper nouns. Other twists include playing words backwards or playing words unconnected to others on the board, Mattel said.
The game is a limited edition and will not replace the original Scrabble.
“This is just one new variation,” said John D. Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association, authorized by Hasbro to speak about Scrabble. Hasbro owns rights to the game in the U.S., and Mattel owns it in other countries.
The controversy started when U.K. media outlets reported about the new version. In the U.S., the articles were widely shared online and outrage spread.
“It’s such a part of the fabric of American life,” Williams said. “It’s about people’s love of words; it goes very, very deep.”
A few more words
Scrabble was invented in 1938 by out- of-work architect Alfred Butts in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. More than 100 million sets of the game have been sold in 29 languages, according to Mattel’s website.
