(CNN) -- What's so addictive about a Scrabble-like online game that it can get you kicked off an airplane? Non-gamers have been asking that question since actor Alec Baldwin was booted from an American Airlines flight Tuesday in Los Angeles for refusing to turn off his phone. His reason? The "30 Rock" star was in the middle of playing "Words with Friends." For the uninitiated, "Words with Friends" is a multiplayer word game that people play online, usually on their phones or via Facebook. Like Scrabble, players receive a random assortment of letters on tiles and must use them to form words on a crossword puzzle-like grid. Words with rare letters such as Q or Z are worth more points.
Little secret, I've never played Words With Friends. Just haven't done it, sure I have it DL'd on my phone and tablet, I'm not a tool or anything, I just haven't played it yet. It's weird too, because I'm the definition of an early adopter, by all accounts I should have been the first person on Words, just waiting for someone else to join so I could play. Shoot, just this week I went out and bought a new vacuum, solely because it had a headlight. I thought it was technologically advanced, for all those times where I vacuum in complete darkness. But Words with Friends? Just haven't done it.
I just don't get the hype, still don't after reading this article. Its basically Scrabble, right, just a different name? Don't get me wrong, I love a good game of Scrabble, and get ultra competitive about it, its just I've never found myself wishing that I'd brought my scrabble board with me so I could play with my friends on the shitter, in the subway, or in line at Target. Great game, not exactly beckoning me at all hours of the day.
Plus, I've never been one for these games that last for days on end. Like those people who play chess and only move 1 piece every time they visit eachother. What the fuck is that, how's that fun? Just sit down and bang out a game fellas, its chess, takes like 20 minutes, I've seen black people in the park finish up in like 3 minutes. No need for the two year mini-series saga over a chess board. Same with Words With Friends (I take it we can't abbreviate this WWF?). No, I don't want to play a game where you place a word every 4 hours. I 'm either into the game or I'm not. I may be really amped for a game at like 10 AM one day, but if you don't respond until 6 PM, I'm probably not going to be interested in playing anymore, my attention span is short.
