Gah!

Why do the PopCap word games have such stupid rules on what words are allowed? The two word games I’ve tried – Bookworm and Bonnie’s Bookstore – use different dictionaries, but they’re united by not allowing rude words.

So I’m playing Bookworm and I can’t have CUNT. Why? Because it’s offensive, presumably. (It’s taboo but it’s not slang, according to Chambers.) But , you know, I’m the one making it. I can understand them making sure it doesn’t come up as a game-generated word you have to make for bonus points, but it’s still a real word that should be allowed, damn it!

And moving on over to Bonnie’s Bookstore, I find ORGY is disallowed. Eh? What? Orgy? Actually, that was a case where it refused to use a wildcard tile as the R. I guess it’s got ORGY down as an “offensive” word to not bring up in those situations. Be interesting to see if I would be allowed it if I could make it without wildcards, actually. But still, ORGY seems a pretty normal word to me.

And it doesn’t do British English. That’s the only reason I can think of for not allowing PONCE, anyway. I guess it just can’t be an American word, or something. Well, I suppose it is kind of slang, but still, I should be allowed it.

Because I say so, that’s why!

Also:

FELCH

Now allowing that could have meant I lost the game and everything! (As it happens I didn’t – I won on the very last turn – but still…)

I mean, I’d still love to see Bookworm or Bonnie’s Bookstore on the Xbox Live Arcade, but only with bigger dictionaries that allowed all real words, whether offensive or not.

At least it let me have PENIS. It would have been very odd if that hadn’t been allowed.