Word Zero is a crossword board game in the style of others you may have seen. Two players take turns placing tiles on a board to form words. Tiles have different point values, and some board spaces have bonuses (like double-word score), and so on.
What makes this game different is the absence of ... everything except the game itself.
Zero interruptions: We have no ads during game play.
Zero distractions: We don't have gems, rewards, stickers, or achievements.
Zero deception: We do offer computer players (Bots), but they never pretend to be real people.
Zero manipulation: We don't send you notifications nagging you to play a game
Zero cheats: We don't have in-game assistance or power-ups
Instead, Word Zero has a simple model of requiring one "token" for each game you play.
Each new user gets a batch of free game tokens to start. More free tokens are provided periodically and as resources allow.
Users who want to play more often can purchase additional tokens through In-App Purchases.
Game tokens do not expire and can be used at whatever pace you like.
Signing-In
Word Zero coordinates games by using a service in "the cloud" which requires that each player sign-in using "Sign In With Apple". This is designed to ensure that only you can access your account, but also to protect your privacy. We collect as little personal information as possible, and we share none of it within the game. You can use Word Zero without anyone knowing your real name, gender or location.
Each player account has a name, which is "Anonymous" by default, but you can change it. The name you provide will be publicly visible to other players. You may be use your real full name, but many users will prefer to use just their first name, or a nickname.
Your account name can be anything you want, with two restrictions:
Account names which are offensive may be disallowed.
Don't use your account name to pretend to be a specific living real person that you are not. For example, no matter what your real name is, you can use "Tom" as your account name, but don't use "Tom Holland" unless you are, you know, a famous actor who played Spider-Man.
Player account names are not required to be unique, but every account also has an ID which is a unique number that is set by the system when the account is created, and can never change. For example, there can be multiple (or many) player accounts with the name "Jenny", but only one of them can be player ID 8675309. Real people communicating outside the app can use these IDs to be certain that a Word Zero player is a specific real person.
Word Zero can send push notifications to let you know when it is your turn. As with all iOS apps, this is configurable.
Game Play
The starting player for each game is determined randomly.
With each turn, a player may play some tiles, swap some tiles, or pass.
Once the bag has 7 or fewer tiles remaining, swapping tiles is no longer allowed.
Tiles placed on the board must all be in a single row or column with no gaps.
Tiles placed must form valid words, in both the main row or column of the play, as well as any crossing words.
The validity of a word is determined by the word list in effect for that game. For games in English, we use the NASPA Word List, which is the official word reference for SCRABBLE play in the United States and Canada.
A blank is indicated by a ? symbol and may be used to represent any other letter in the alphabet.
Each player's rack starts with 7 tiles, and after each play is refilled back to 7 tiles from the bag.
A game ends when one player's rack is empty, or after 6 consecutive non-scoring turns (a pass or a swap).
Games are "correspondence" style. Each player has up to 3 days for their turn. If a player does not make a turn within that time period, a pass is automatically assumed and it becomes the other player's turn. If a player "auto-passes" twice in a row, and if their opponent makes a turn in between, the game is considered a forfeit and the opponent wins.
Starting a Game
Every game begins by a player sending a request. The "Request a Game" screen offers several ways of finding a possible opponent:
Anyone: An open game request for any player with a specified minimum rating.
Suggested: Shows a list of players with a similar rating.
Previous: Shows a list of players you have previous played.
Friends: Allows sending a game request to a specific player using their player ID, which would need to be communicated outside of the game.
Fairness Guidelines
Players who use this app are expected to play without outside assistance. Using any of the following during a game is considered cheating:
Word lists
Dictionaries
Online word lookup or anagram websites
Computer programs
Other people's advice
All players are on the honor system.
Ratings
An Elo rating system is used to give an approximate indication of the strength of each player. The Elo rating system is commonly used to rate players in many games, including chess as well as offical Scrabble tournament play.
All players start with a rating of 1500, which goes up with each win and down with each loss. The size of the change depends on how likely the outcome was, based on the difference in ratings when the game started.
Two players of equal ratings are each considered to be equally likely to win.
When a player wins against someone with a signifciantly lower rating, the new ratings don't change much, since the win was expected.
When a player loses against someone with a significantly lower rating, the outcome is considered an "upset", and the change in rating points will be larger.
The Elo ratings shown in Word Zero cannot be usefully compared to those from any other game or group.
Bots
Although the primary focus of Word Zero is to facilitate games between people, the ability to play against computer players ("Bots") is provided as well.
The Bot-related features are intentionally kept separated from other areas of the app, so there can be no confusion about whether you are playing a Bot or a real person.
Playing against a Bot can be used for practice, or when a human player is not available, or as a way of increasing one's overall rating.
Several different Bots are available. Currently, all Bots are "greedy", which means they always make the highest-scoring play they can find, ignoring issues of rack balance or defense. Some Bots have access to the full dictionary, whereas other Bots have a more limited vocabulary they can use.
If a player is a Bot, it is clearly identified as such, and a description of how that Bot plays is provided.
Bots never send game requests, and they never decline game requests they receive.