In Word Wizard in the last day and a half I have acquired 4 (count 'em, FOUR) Z's.

Anyone want to buy a Z?

Yes please! All I need is zinc and I've got the i and n.

I desperately seek a Z. Can I swap it for 3 Q's and a Y?

Well, I dealt with those Zs and now a week or so later I have two Zs (different ones) and two Js!

Word Wizard is a crazy game. I've wondered if there was (or could be?) a link between your score and the letters you are awarded, but it does seem completely random.

What I mean by a link is that if you get a very high score, like 1460, you get a letter that is used frequently in English--T, R, E, S, L etc; whereas if you just scrape through with 1150 you get a Q. Assume there's no interest in making the letters anything other than completely random? The game works well as it is, so it's just an idle thought rather than a serious proposal--unless everyone loves it, in which case I claim credit

I don't think score is related to the letter allocation - I can get an E when someone comes in and starts talking to me as I desperately try to finish with only half an eye on the quiz, scraping in because of the long time required to talk and play at the same time. Then I can get 15 right in 50 seconds and get an X. And I don't think it should be linked. I love the randomness of the letters, and the fun of deciding what to do when I see KOXOJOZOZOXJ - obviously I need to trade, but what order, vowels for consonant or consonants for voewls? And how many, just a single trade and see what the replacement letter and the next hour bring, or dump the scraggly lot? Getting nicer letters for scoring well would diminish that part of the game, in my opinion.

As a tournament Scrabble player, I love the game, too, but the letter distribution is just crazy. At one stage I had Q Q J J J X X (and five other consonants), but traded my way out of it. (It took a while, hehe).

I have a theory about how letters are allocated, which is probably wildly wrong, but here goes.

There is an unlimited number of alphabets, and as each player completes their game and presses Enter, they are allocated the next letter. Player 1 submits answers and gets an A; two seconds later, Player 2 hits Enter and gets a B, Player 3 gets the C, and so on.

I do not think the score is related, as I have got awkward letters and good letters for similar scores.

Terry said somewhere that the letters are given based on scrabble distribution (without the blanks). So the first 9 people to play could each get an A, and the next 2 would get a B and so on.

It could be decided by a random number generator: each letter gets assigned a number or set of numbers, and a random number from 1-95 (the number of tiles minus the 2 blanks) is chosen. So A would be given the numbers 1-9, B would be given the numbers 10-11, C = 12-13 etc.

In any case, I don't think it really matters.

You summed the thread up beautifully in this single sentence.

I think the letter you're given depends on whether you're smiling or not when the PC looks at you and decides what you'll get. A big grin earns the available good letters. A sad frown only gets worse with the issuing of tough letters. So, keep smiling when you hit that enter button.

Yes - Big Brother (a.k.a. Terry) is watching you.

If he's watching our avatars, then I can see why lorance's alarmed face has produced so many Zs.

Just kidding.

But then wouldn't you and spanishliz always get identical letters? Or do you? Hmm...

Good question. I've never asked...

Random distribution with replacement. Over a large sample, all letters awarded match that of scrabble.

So it's theoretically possible that everyone will receive a Z every time they play for 20 years straight.

But not likely.

I need that Z for over a month now. And a C, please?

I have a Z and I had a C. But what is really annoying me is getting four Es practically in a row. I have vowels popping out of my ears, but the older ones happen to be some of the ones I need, so can't trade.