“With Friends” games offer students a thoughtful alternative

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November 22, 2011 • Staff, -
Filed under Opinion

Some claim that video games hurt the focus of students. This may be true for some games but there is one argument for the opposite. Recently popular games “Hanging…With Friends” and “Words…With Friends” are not only fun and competitive but learning games. “Words…With Friends” is similar to Scrabble and players can compete against random players or Facebook friends. “Hanging…With Friends” is a game where the player makes up a word from drawn letters for their opponent to guess. If the word is not guessed within a few strikes, the player loses a balloon. After losing five balloons, the player loses the game.

“I really like Words…With Friends because it gives me a chance to beat people. Besides that, I like finding out how big my friends’ vocabulary is,” junior Kimberly Veliz said.

The “With Friends” games are the sort that help students with vocabulary. Those who know less words basically cannot win. The game encourages students to learn more words and think more critically. Further, students scramble to use stronger words and in the process discover new terms. For example, ‘qua” is not a word commonly used but due to the “Words” games, it has been brought to light.

“I don’t really like Hanging with Friends because people play a lot of words that I don’t know but sometimes after someone plays a word against me and I don’t know it, I’ll Google it. So I do learn from it,” junior Hannah Lindo said.

The games also offer students a chance to play competitively even on the go. While “Words” can be played on Facebook, its partner “Hanging…With Friends” is only available for iPods, iPhones and other smart phones with internet capabilities.

“Hanging…With Friends is like the new phenomenon. Every class I go into someone is either playing or talking about how great it is. Personally, I think that it’s awesome for our society and I hope it continues,” junior Jessica Linenberger said.

Overall, those who say that these games do not make students think are in the wrong.

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