Mind Games Popular With Shoppers

Holiday shopping may require a thinking cap this year as the popularity of mind games – particularly word games – is soaring.
With hit movies and Broadway musicals chronicling everything from spelling bees to crossword puzzle tournaments, word-related games are enjoying a high profile in American pop culture. Venerable board games such as Scrabble and Boggle are experiencing a rebirth online. Even top-selling dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has gotten into the act, releasing Word Sweep, the first board game to feature the company’s official dictionary definitions.
Reyne Rice, toy trends specialist for the Toy Industry Association, says that consumer interest in mind-building word games – once the quiet pastime of brainy bookworms – is indeed a growing trend, especially among families who play games together.
“Games are a way to keep us sharp and our minds active, like mental gymnastics,” says Rice. “By challenging each other and learning new skills with mind and word games, families are creating a lifelong love of learning, in a fun and entertaining way.”
Rice notes that recent consumer interest in mind puzzles and word games has helped boost family board game sales, which rose 12 percent last year according to market research firm The NPD Group.
A quick scan of retail shelves demonstrates the trend. In addition to omnipresent Sudoku and crossword puzzle books, new games including Nerdy Wordy by Briarpatch, Wordrop by Rumba Games and LetterFlip by Out of the Box have arrived. However, the most notable new entry may be Intellinitiative Game Company’s Word Sweep because it is backed by Merriam-Webster, America’s leading language reference publisher.
Clay Siegert, the president of Intellinitiative, the company that collaborated with Merriam-Webster to create Word Sweep, says word games are hot thanks in part to recent box offices hits like Spellbound, Akeelah and the Bee and Wordplay, a documentary generating Oscar buzz about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament hosted by New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz.
Broadway is also capitalizing on the trend with the Tony Award-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Siegert insists it’s a coincidence that Word Sweep is being launched during the recent word game boom. He says the game has been in development for several years after its concept was invented by a former teacher named Steve Smith. Smith, an annual contestant in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, appears briefly in the movie Wordplay. Siegert says his company co-created the game with Smith and then brought Merriam-Webster into the fold.
“We developed the concept and game play strategy first, and then approached Merriam-Webster,” Siegert explains. “With the authentic dictionary definitions from the number-one name in words, we thought it would be a great fit.” Siegert adds that because the game has a natural appeal to word-lovers, book stores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders quickly stocked the game.
To play Word Sweep, players hear the definitions for three words that appear consecutively in a Merriam-Webster dictionary. The players then try to guess all three words to make a “word sweep” and move around the board. There is a sample card on the company’s Web site, www.wordsweep.com.
Rice confirms that many game manufacturers are experimenting with new formats, such as shorter game play, pop culture tie-ins and other ways to keep mind games relevant and fresh. She also cites the growth of online games as another driver of the “mental gymnastics” trend.
Dave Walls, president of Funkitron, the game company that publishes the online versions of Scrabble and Boggle, says that the current popularity of mind puzzles and word games has increased interest in his catalog of games too.
Walls, whose games are distributed through Web sites like Yahoo and AOL, says the growth in online games has not come from hardcore gamers like one would think. Instead he says it’s coming from “casual gamers” – females, teenagers, 30-somethings and grandparents.
“This audience is very broad, and it includes a fair amount of people who enjoy playing games and who are not your typical gamers,” Walls says.
The growth of online games underlines the trend that playing mind and word games “feels like a redeeming pastime where you’re actually learning something,” according to Rice.
Courtesy of ARA Content