You have different options for playing Scrabble online. One of them is called the Pixie Pit. Of course this has little to do with pixies. It is an online word game similar to Scrabble. I have tested this online game for you. To be honest – I didn’t become a fan, but this way to play Scrabble online is worth a try.
This is How the Pixie Pit Works
On the Pixie Pit website you can create a game and invite a Scrabble friend by email. You have to generate a password for the game and then you start by placing the first word on the board. The seven letters you need will be chosen automatically for you. After you have confirmed your first word, your opponent will get an email with a link to the game. He will see the board with your first word on it. He also has seven letters on his rack and can choose his first word. After he has confirmed his word, you will get an email that informs you about his move. Now you can place the third word. This procedure continues until there are no letters left. In the end you have a lot of messages in your mailbox and you are either the winner of the Pixie Pit game or not.
Playing Scrabble Online with the Pixie Pit – The First Steps in Pictures
Image 1: This is the empty Pixie Pit board that appears after you have created a match. Image 2: I placed the word PRINT. In order to do so I clicked on each empty square that I wanted to fill and placed the letters by using the keyboard. Once the word is ready, you click on “Post My Play”. Image 3: After this you will receive a notification informing you of the state of the game: Which letters are on your rack, how many points you got for the word PRINT, and the current score. You are also told that your opponent has received an email with your latest move.
Image 1: My opponent was informed by email that I had started an online Scrabble game with him on Pixie Pit. The link in his email will first lead him to a page where he too has to generate a password for his game. Image 2: After he has created his password, he will be led to the board with my first word on it. Image 3: Now he is able to create his first word in our Pixie Pit match.
My Mistrials Playing Scrabble Online with the Pixie Pit
My first attempts at playing Scrabble via Pixie Pit were unsuccessful. I started a few games with a friend of mine and I failed because of the visibility of the game. After you’ve received an email from your opponent you have ten days to make the next move. But I often forgot to play because the emails quickly vanished in my account when I got too many emails. Of course at first I was enthusiastic because I wanted to get to know this game, but it only lasted a few moves. Then somehow the Pixie Pit was out of sight – and out of my mind.
I Finally Finished a Pixie Pit Game!
Ironically, I played my first full Pixie Pit game with someone who sat directly in front of me. I just asked one of my Scrabble friends to meet in the evening and play a full Pixie Pit match with me. We could have just played an analogue Scrabble game, but we sat there in one room, each with his laptop on his lap and played Scrabble online. This way, however, we were able to analyze the specific features of the Pixie Pit together:
The Features Specific to Playing Scrabble Online with the Pixie Pit
- While you are trying to come up with a word, you might also like to move the letters on the rack back and forth. Unfortunately this is not so easy with the Pixie Pit. When you click on “Sort” or “Shuffle” the letters are mixed randomly. And if you try to move a letter manually, it is just exchanged with the adjacent letter. You can’t just take the seventh letter and put it on the first position of your rack.
- Since we are both used to playing with the Scrabble app, we tried several times to move the letters per drag and drop. But this does not work in the Pixie Pit.
- The Pixie Pit does not compare your words with any Scrabble word list. So you can play any word you want. Scrabble friends therefore have the option to play Scrabble online with the Pixie Pit – and use their own house rules or family rules.
- It is possible to challenge words, but it is a little bit complicated and hard to understand for Pixie Pit beginners. We tried the following scenario: I played a nonsense word. My opponent challenged it – and I still had the right to veto his challenge and put my word back on the board. After this there is no way to get rid of the nonsense word in that match. A second thing we considered strange was that you can even challenge a move that your opponent has made.
Playing Scrabble Online – With the App on Facebook or with the Pixie Pit?
If I want to play Scrabble online, I will continue to use the Scrabble app on Facebook. The Pixie Pit is just not practicle for me, since the turn notifications vanish too fast in my email inbox. I also think that Pixie Pit is a bit old-fashioned and some features don’t work that well – like the moving of letters and the challenging of words.
However, I am aware that many professional Scrabble players appreciate the Pixie Pit. They even play full online Scrabble tournaments via Pixie Pit. For them it is a plus that there is no word list in the background and they have to rely on the words they have learned. So I recommend that you try the Pixie Pit too and form your own opinion on this online Scrabble game.