by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 26, 2008

Literati is fun game that was first created in 1990, and was distributed as a "shareware" during the early 1990s. Yahoo Games offers an online version where players take turns dragging letter tiles onto a shared board and competing for the highest-scoring words. It's a lot like Scrabble, but with interesting differences.

* A blank tile is guaranteed in the first rack of letters. Whereas the hundred tiles in a game of Scrabble include just two blanks, Literati gives each player a blank "wild card" tile in their first rack of seven letters! This is a good improvement, making it easier to start the game with a long word, maybe even a 7-letter which gives the other players something to build on.

* The letter tiles change with every game. When the game starts, a computer selects which 100 tiles will be available in that game following loose "likelihood guidelines". Sometimes this means a Literati game will include too many vowels or consonants, but it also makes it possible to have spectacular runs of luck, with useful letters being drawn on turn after turn!

* There's more blank tiles during the game. After the first turn, the computer still includes one additional blank tile for every player in the game. These extra blanks makes it easier to form longer words, which I think makes the games a lot more fun.

* Using all seven tiles only earns a 35-point bonus. In Literati it's much easier to play all seven tiles in a single turn - especially since there's so many extra blanks. The scoring in Literati compensates for this by slightly reducing the seven-tile bonus. But it's still very exciting to lay down every title and earn a fresh rack of new letters. And strategically, if any blanks are left, there's at least a 20% chance of drawing it among those seven new tiles, so one great turn is often followed by another.

* Different patterns for the score multiplying square. The "triple word score" squares aren't tucked in the hard-to-reach corners in Literati. Instead, they're moved three squares closer to the center. It's also possible to form a word over both the "triple letter score" square and the "triple word score" square - which will multiply the value of one square nine times!

Yahoo's interface takes this fun game, and adds some useful extra features. It's obviously handy to have the score calculated automatically, and it's mixed in with the chat window below the game. Yahoo assigns a rating to all its players, giving an indicator about the relative skill of various players. It's also possible to select what type of game - for instance, the more challenging variation where there's a time limit in which all moves must be completed. (Failing to finish the game before the timer expires results in an automatic loss.)

Anyone who's played Literati will tell you it has one major flaw. The game is addictive, and you'll probably spend a lot of time playing it!

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