Word Games Based Upon Starting First Letters and Word Relationships

Abstract

A word game provides players with several starting first letters and one or more association categories, the association categories may include antonyms, homophones, hyponyms, synonyms and other word relationships. A player may begin to create a word set by deriving, finding, speaking or otherwise indicating a first word and a second word, on condition that the player generated words have starting first letters issued to the player and share a predefined association category. Disclosed word games may be played upon playing boards, with cards, upon electronic devices and other platforms.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a utility application based upon U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61/745,492 filed on Dec. 21, 2012. This related application is incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this application. If any conflict arises between the disclosure of the invention in this utility application and that in the related provisional application, the disclosure in this utility application shall govern. Moreover, the inventor incorporates herein by reference any and all patents, patent applications, and other documents hard copy or electronic, cited or referred to in this application.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICE

This application includes material which is subject or may be subject to copyright and/or trademark protection. The copyright and trademark owner(s) has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright and trademark rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to word games. More particularly, the invention relates to means and methods of creating and playing word games wherein players present or derive sets of words, with each word starting with an issued first letter and wherein the presented words have relationships with each other.

(2) Description of the Related Art

While word games are known in the related art, the related art fails to anticipate or disclose the basic parameters of the disclosed embodiments.

The game of Scrabble directs players to present words by placing issued letters within a predefined grid of letter spaces. While new words may use parts of previously presented words, player creativity is constrained to available letters and available letter space geometry. Scrabble and similar games present sets of letters that provide a crutch to players who are merely required to find words within a presented group of letters. Such games do not require players to search their vocabulary for words not before them. While Scrabble and other related games are helpful in practicing spelling and vocabulary skills, the prior art fails to enable players to exercise their own memory and creativity in an open ended or free-form platform. Thus, there is a long felt need for the presently disclosed embodiments.

The prior art discussed below further exemplifies the prior art's reliance of using visual cues, such as sets of letters, for players to visually select words created from available letters, the use of seed words and the use of previously presented words to solicit player presented words.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,065 issued to Motskin on Dec. 20, 1994 discloses a word game wherein a first player presents an initial word and subsequent players attempt to embed new words into the initial word or otherwise link new words to previously presented words.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,341 issued to Shah on Sep. 11, 2007 discloses a game wherein new words are based upon ending letters of previously presented words.

U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0068408 by Ruderer and published on Mar. 22, 2012 provides players with predefined seed words to base subsequent player presented words.

PCT application PCT/AU02/00832 by Tubridy and published on Jan. 3, 2003 provides a game board and instruction set allowing players to construct homonyms from randomly issued letters. Players are asked to present words spelled from a set of available letters. Players are not required present words not spelled out in front of them.

The book Winggle, Winggle, Wink, Wink by Teresa Evans, discloses various word games designed for grade school children. The Evans book teaches word associations but does little to test a player's ability to present words not readily apparent.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,255 issued to von Braunhut on Oct. 31, 1989 discloses a specialized deck of playing cards displaying various letters and words. The playing cards are distributed to players who present words by using letters printed upon the cards. Here again, players are not required to present words not spelled out in front of them.

In summary, the prior art presents a jig saw approach to word games, presenting players with letters, seed words or pieces of words to configure into words to present. The prior art fails to consider a more challenging approach wherein players are given minimum starting parameters to search their entire vocabularies and knowledge of word associations.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The presently disclosed embodiments overcome shortfalls in the related art by presenting unobvious and unique combinations and configurations of methods and components to create games and methods of play wherein players present or generate word sets, with each word starting from an issued starting letter and words within the sets having relationships.

The presently disclosed embodiments present a free-form style of play that eschews the rigid constraints and word space aids of the prior art. The presently disclosed embodiments ask players to search their entire vocabulary, using merely single start letters as search keys to find sets of words having a relationship and wherein a single start letter is the first letter of any presented word.

The presently disclosed embodiments are a far departure from the prior art penchant of requiring players find or select words 1) comprised from a pool of available letters, 2) based upon a given word or 3) fitted to a confined word space geometry. As a testament to the non-obvious nature of the presently disclosed embodiments, seasoned players of Scrabble and other prior art word games are initially perplexed by the disclosed word games. Players of the prior art word games are simply unaccustomed to searching their vocabularies for words that are not visually available or for words not based upon a given word or detailed clue.

Players of the prior art word games are initially stymied in their first attempts of marshaling all words in their vocabulary that start with one or more given letters and then cross-indexing the word groups to find two words having a relationship. Contemplated relationships between words include:

Antonyms—Words having opposite meanings, such as tall and short.

Homophones—Words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings and spellings, such as meet and meat.

Hyponyms—One word identifies a group and a second word identifies a member of the group, such as animal and dog.

Synonyms—Words with identical or similar meanings such as adroit and skillful.

Miscellaneous Relationships—colors, countries, states, male names, female names, plants, tools, kitchen items and other categories.

Generally, players are randomly issued groups of letters. A first player will select two letters and present or announce two words, each word starting with a selected letter and wherein the two words have a relationship. The two letters are placed upon a real or virtual surface and a colored player token, other insignia or colored connector is placed between the two letters. Each player has a plurality of player tokens colored or otherwise marked to correspond to each player. The use of colored player tokens allows for paperless scoring and presents a live visual clue as to which players are having the most success in presenting words. The player tokens are sometimes referred to as connectors or connector pieces.

A game set of letters may be comprised of multiple letters with the frequency of letters mapped to the frequency of use in the English language or other language played.

A die or other implements are sometimes used in the various embodiments. Prior to each game or round of play, types of approved relationships may be designated by the players. For example, for one round players may agree to use synonyms and antonyms only. Permitted word relationships may be tied to party themes.

Numerous embodiments are contemplated and include a standard board version, a reverse version, card version and electronic version.

In one embodiment, players are issued two or more letters, such letters may be issued or presented to players by the use of playing cards, spaces on a playing board or by other means. Other community letters may be presented for viewing and use by all players. A player may take one issued letter and select one community letter and present a set of words starting with each letter, with the words having a relationship. For example, in a card version, a player may be holding a B card and viewing an S card in the community set of cards. The player may state or record that B is for Begin and S is for Start, the relationship being synonyms. The player would take card B and Card S and place them in a personal scoring stack. Further, in the example above, after playing Begin and Start, a player may view another community card, such as a E card and declare or record End. As End is an antonym for Start, the player could additionally place the E card in their personal scoring pile of cards. In one embedment, a player uses one card from their personal hand of cards and as many community cards as possible.

Such an embodiment may be implemented by each player being issued a finite number of personal cards, such as four and by a finite number of community cards, such as four, being placed on the table or an electronic equivalent. After a player's turn, community cards may be replenished. Player cards may be replenished after a player uses their allotment of cards. If a player cannot make a match, the player places one of their personal cards into the collection of community cards. A game endpoint may be reached when all cards have been dealt and all players have exhausted their personal cards.

Card type embodiments include the use of personal card for a category, such as A for Animal, and the use of a community card for an example, such as G for Giraffe. In such a player turn, a D in the community set could be used for Dog.

In more child friendly embodiments, produced words may qualify as matches by simply going together. Derived word sets such as Horse and Carriage, Animal and Zoo, Pen and Pencil may be considered as acceptable word relationships. Derived word sets may be accepted for fitting into themes, such as the word set Hammer, Nail and Wood.

Disclosed embodiments overcome shortfalls in the prior art by the use of simple rules and the use of challenging word associations focused on the meaning of words as opposed to the prior art's penchant for enforcing the spelling of words. The first letter of each used word must correspond to a used or presented letter. But, knowledge of the full spelling of a presented word is not needed. Unlike the prior art of cross-word puzzles, Scrabble and other word space related games, the presently disclosed embodiments do not shame or constrain players due to a lack of spelling skills.

Disclosed embodiments overcome shortfalls in the art by broadening a player's usable vocabulary. A player's production of words to conform to the disclosed embodiments helps with aging memories and with expanding an everyday speaking vocabulary.

Disclosed embodiments are sometimes referred to as a game of “Synonymy™”, “Synonomy™” and may be considered a game “[w]here words have meaning.™”

These and other objects and advantages will be made apparent when considering the following detailed specification when taken in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic view cross referenced words

FIG. 2 depicts a contemplated game surface

FIG. 3 depicts a game in play

FIG. 4 depicts a sample game in progress

FIG. 5 depicts a card game embodiment

FIG. 6 depicts a card game embodiment with cards in a starting position

FIG. 7 depicts a card game embodiment with cards moved one turn

REFERENCE NUMERALS IN THE DRAWINGS

100 a sample instruction set

110 sample words for B, such as big, base and others

120 word set “big” and “little” having opposite meanings

130 sample words for L, such as little, loud and others

200 a key of bonus point relationships, such as synonym, antonym and homonym

210 a disclosed grid system of a game surface

220 a blank space upon a game surface

225 an “H” marked space upon a game surface

230 a “S” marked space upon a game surface

235 an “A” marked space upon a game surface

300 a playing surface or representation of a playing surface

310 a blank or open space upon a playing surface

320 a “W” white connector used by a first player

330 a “R” red connector used by a second player

340 a “B” blue connector used by a third player

350 a letter “A” tile having a point value of 1

352 a letter “B” tile having a point value of 3

354 a letter “D” tile having a point value of 2

356 a letter “E” tile having a point value of 1

358 a letter “F” tile having a point value of 4

360 a letter “G” tile having a point value of 2

362 a letter “H” tile having a point value of 4

364 a letter “I” tile having a point value of 1

366 a letter “L” title having a point value of 1

368 a letter “O” tile having a point value of 1

370 a letter “U” tile having a point value of 1

372 a letter “T” tile having a point value of 4

374 a letter “V” tile having a point value of 4

400 a sample game in progress

410 a first blue connector used by a first player

415 is a second blue connector used by a first player

420 a first red connector used by a second player

425 is a second red connector used by a second player

430 a first “T” tile

435 a second “T” tile

440 is a “B” tile

445 is a “C” tile

450 is a “S” tile

500 is a set of player cards

510 is a set of community cards

520 a card showing a “B” and used by a player to state the word “Big”

530 a card showing a “G” and used by a player to state the word “Giant”

530 a card showing a “T” and used by a player to state the word “Tiny”

600 a “S” card

610 a “F” card

620 an empty space on a playing surface as a result of the S card and F card being played and the S card placed on top of the F card

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The following detailed description is directed to certain specific embodiments of the invention. However, the invention can be embodied in a multitude of different ways as defined and covered by the claims and their equivalents. In this description, reference is made to the drawings wherein like parts are designated with like numerals throughout.

Unless otherwise noted in this specification or in the claims, all of the terms used in the specification and the claims will have the meanings normally ascribed to these terms by workers in the art.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of “including, but not limited to.” Words using the singular or plural number also include the plural or singular number, respectively. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while steps are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps in a different order. The teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other systems, not only the systems described herein. The various embodiments described herein can be combined to provide further embodiments. These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of the detailed description.

Any and all the above references and U.S. patents and applications are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions and concepts of the various patents and applications described above to provide yet further embodiments of the invention.

These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of the above detailed description. In general, the terms used in the following claims, should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above detailed description explicitly defines

First Embodiment

A game board comprises a grid having spaces suitable for letter tiles and connector pieces. A plurality of letter tiles which might have point values are distributed to the players. Players may agree upon word relationships to be used during play.

A game board may be marked with starting letters or have color markings to show spaces designated for bonus points mapped to color coded relationships. For example, some grid spaces may be marked in orange to note that an antonym in the orange grid space will earn extra points. Color keys are sometimes presented upon a game surface and may delineate colors spaces to bonus point relationships.

A first player may select two of their letter tiles and place the letter tiles one space apart and place their colored connector piece between the letter tiles. The player may then announce the two words and the relationship between the words. For example, a player may place a P tile and a W tile and announce Peace and War as being antonyms. A completed and successful turn is sometimes called a connection, as a player has connected two letters on the board by presenting words of the correct starting letters and of a qualifying relationship. Each connection entitles a player to place their color coded connector between the presented letters.

Players take turns and present connections if possible. If a player cannot present a connection, the player may pass and play resumes to the next player.

Each player may make or announce a connection between two letters previously placed upon the board. Such a player would stack their connector piece to the other connector piece(s) found between the two subject letters.

Previously placed letters are not permanently bound to their original word and may be reused in subsequent player turns and reassigned any other word having the same first letter.

Creating an analogy allows a player to place three connector pieces in one turn.

Second Embodiment

In a reverse version of play, a physical or virtual board or game surface displays letters separated by connectors. This version may be played solo similar to playing a crossword puzzle. Player writes in the words that start with displayed letters and those words are connected to adjacent ones by their meaning. Spaces between letters may indicate the type of connection between the words. For example, space may indicate that the words starting with their respective letter are synonyms or homonyms or part of one another, such as beach and sand. Players take turns announcing words starting with the displayed letters and having a relationship. After a successful turn, a player places their colored connector between the used letters.

Third Embodiment

In a card implemented example, a deck of cards i.e. 52 is comprised of cards having a letter and point value. Cards are dealt to the players and a fixed number of cards, such as four are placed face up, exposed to the players. Such exposed cards are sometimes called community or table cards.

Players take turns presenting a card having a letter and using their card letter and a community card letter to announce words and relationships. Upon a successful turn, the player takes their card and the used community card and the next player takes a turn. Paperless scoring is achieved by the accumulation of cards after successful turns. The point values of accumulated cards may also be summed to declare the winner. Adding point values to cards creates further challenge to the players as the use of some letters is favored over the use of other letters. This added variable encourages players to prioritize their mental cross indexing. A Player may take in as many cards from the table cards as have a connection to each other. For example, if the connection to be played are synonyms and antonyms, a B in players hand can take in an L and S on the table if B represents the word Big, L, large and S, Small. More complex moves can be made if player “risks” a card by putting a B from players hand on an L on the table then waits a turn and takes in both the B and L with an S in his hand.

Fourth Embodiment

In a computer, tablet, touch screen, personal electronic device, or software application or “app” embodiment includes means and methods of playing disclosed embodiments over networks, such as the Internet and includes the use of non-linear game surfaces, remote play with multi-players and single play. In a single play embodiment, a database may store data fields to determine the correctness of words presented and point values earned.

Fifth Embodiment

In a forward play embodiment, players change intended word relationships on the fly on a turn by turn basis.

FIG. 1 visually presents game instructions 100 of one embodiment wherein letters “B” 110 and “L” 130 are presented and a player considers words that begin with “B” and words that begin with “L.” Words that start with “B” comprise big, blight, blend, base, back, bend, burn, black, blend, bright, bum. Words that start with “L” comprise little, loud, law, laugh, lap, lake land, lack, laud, lose, loose, lance, lamp, lantern and listen. To make a point qualifying connection, the “B” group of words and “L” group of words are cross indexed or placed in a set 120 comprising words having a relationship, such as being synonyms, antonyms or other relationships. In FIG. 1, the words “big” and “little” are shown to intersect, as they have opposite meanings.

Game instructions consistent with FIG. 1 include:

To play the game, think of words that being with B then think of words that begin with L. Scan the B words in your vocabulary then scan the L words. Find words that have similar of opposite meanings.

FIG. 2 depicts a game surface 210 or game board wherein connector spaces are marked as “S” 230 , “A” 235 or “H” 225. The position of each connection space represents an artful and careful configuration so as to seamlessly accommodate connections upon all useable grid spaces. Referring to the center square marked “S” if a synonym connection is made on either side (left-right, top-bottom) two colored player connectors would be placed upon the center square “S” space. If antonym or homonym was placed, just one colored player connector would be placed upon the center “S” square. Blank spaces 220 are to be filled in with letters posted by players.

FIG. 3 depicts a sample game in play using three different colored or marked player connectors placed between letters. Points for each letter are also shown. The points for a letter may be set inversely to the letter's frequency in being the first letter in a word. Embodiments include table versions wherein letters are placed on any surface and not a board. Such a surface may be virtual.

For bonus points, connectors may be stacked upon one another, for ease of scoring at end of game. Multiple points may be shown by stacking connectors.

In FIG. 3 “W” 320 white connecter is used by a first player; a “R” 330 connector is used by a second player and a “B” 340 blue connector is used by a third player. In the presented example, the second player has placed their player marker B 340 between a V letter and a T 372 letter to note a valid word set created on the board. Blank square or space 310 is unoccupied and may be used by any player.

FIG. 4 depicts a sample game in play with printed explanations regarding the placed letters and connectors. The board or place surface in general 400 comprises letters T 430, T 435, C 445, B 440 and S 450. Blue player chip 410 is between S 450 and B 440, the letters may have been used to state the words Stream and Brook. Red player chip 420 is placed between B 44o and T 430 and may have been so placed after a player stated Bottom and Top.

Blue player chip 415 is between T 430 and T 435 and may have been so placed after the blue player stated Tale and Tall. Red player chip 425 is between T 435 and C 445 and may have been so placed after the red player stated Tote and Carry.

FIG. 5 depicts a card game sometimes comprising 52 cards, with each card showing a letter and an associated point value. An assigned or printed point value to a card letter may be inversely proportional to the frequency of the letter used as a first letter in the word of a language.

In a card embodiment, sometimes played between 2, 3 or 4 players, a dealer shuffles, and distributes cards, face down, to the players. In the best mode known to date, each player is dealt four cards face down. The player cards are sometimes called personal cards 600. The dealer then places a number of cards (sometimes 4) face up, which are community cards 510.

The players pick up their personal cards and view them, but make their best efforts to now allow other players to see their personal cards. Upon a player's turn of play, the player thinks of, creates, produces, speaks or otherwise derives a word whose first letter is one of the letters held in the player's hand. The player then creates a word set, the word set comprising a first word based upon a letter in the player's hand (used as the first letter of the first word) and a second word, the second word starting with a letter found in the community cards. To create a valid word set, the first and second words must comport to an accepted word relationship, such as being synonyms, homonyms, antonyms or others. Spelling in not needed, as a player may verbally state the first and second words and their relationship. Once two cards are matched via the system above, and all players agree to the validity of the word set, the two subject cards are taken by the player as means of keeping score and to clear the table for the next player turn. If there are other community cards that a player may use to create a valid word set or word sets, the player may do so in one turn. If player cannot make a match, then the player must place a personal card face up on the playing surface.

In the sample play presented in FIG. 5 a player uses a personal card with a B 520 and states the word “Big” to match with community card G 530 stated by the player as “Giant”. The player also uses personal card B 520 to form an association with the T 540 card used to state or represent the word “Tiny.”

FIG. 6 depicts a starting position of a card game embodiment wherein a matrix of cards are placed upon a playing surface. A matric of 3×3 is shown, but other dimensions are contemplated. Adjacent letters may be used to create word sets. The game of FIG. 6 may be played with one or more players.

In one example of play, in FIG. 6 a player may use letter F 610 and state or otherwise indicate the word “Finish” and may use letter S 600 to state the word “Start”, thus creating a valid word set with an association of being antonyms. The player now as the option of playing the F 610 on top of the S 600 and thus leaving an empty spot in the middle of the matrix.

FIG. 7 shows a continuation of FIG. 6 wherein the player decided to place the S 600 on top of the F 610, leaving an empty spot 620 where the S card was in FIG. 6. In this embodiment, skill is used to create word sets between adjacent letters (which may be in the form of cards, tiles or a virtual system) and is used to decide where to stack two used letters. An object of the game to have one letter left only. When played by more than one player, covered cards may be retained by player for scoring purposes.

Items

Disclosed embodiments include the following items.

Item 1. A method of playing a word game comprising the steps of:

• providing a first letter and a second letter to a plurality of players;
• providing the plurality of players an association category for word sets; and
• a player from the plurality of players creating a word set, the word set comprising a first word created by the player starting with the first letter and a second word created by the same player starting with the second letter and the first and second words having a relationship comporting to the provided association category.

Item 2. The method of item 1 wherein the provided association category is selected from the group comprising antonyms, homophones, hyponyms and synonyms.

Item 3. The method of item 2 wherein the first letter and the second letter are provided on a random basis.

Item 4. The method of item 3 wherein each player from the plurality of players is provided with three or more letters.

Item 5. The method of item 3 including the step of recording a successful construction of a word set.

Item 6. The method of item 4 including the step of using playing cards having letters and randomly issuing playing cards to a plurality of players.

Item 7. The method of item 5 including the step of a issuing a plurality of personal playing cards to each player and issuing a plurality of community cards.

Item 8. The method of item 6 including the step of a player using one personal card and one or more community cards to create one or more word sets.

Item 9. The method of item 7 including the step taking the personal card and the one or more community cards used to create one or more word sets to record the successful creation of one or more word sets.

Item 10. The method of item 4 using a playing board and letter marked markers.

Item 11. The method of item 9 using predefined symbols placed upon the playing board, the predefined symbols indicating association categories.

Item 12. The method of item 10 including the steps of placing letter marked markers upon the playing board to record the successful creation of a word set.

Item 13. The method of item 11 including the step of placing player markers upon the playing board to record the identity of a player who created a successful word set.

Item 14. The method of item 4 using an electronic game board and electronic game markers, the electronic game markers marked with letters.

Item 15. The method of item 13 including the step of placing the electronic game markers upon the electronic game board to record the successful creation of a word set.

Item 16. A system for playing a word game, the system comprising:

• a playing board, the playing board comprising a plurality of blank spaces and a plurality of spaces marked to show open spaces and association category spaces;
• a plurality of letter tiles, with a letter shown on each tile; and
• a plurality of player markers, with each player marker having a unique indicia suitable for mapping to a player.

Item 17. The system of item 15 wherein each letter tiles comprise a marking of a point value.

Item 18. A card game system for creating words sets having words comporting to an association category, the system comprising:

• a plurality of playing cards, each card having a back side substantially similar to the back side of every playing card;
• the plurality of playing cards having a front side, with the front sides displaying a letter of the alphabet displaying a point value, the point value being inversely proportional to the frequency of the card letter used as a first letter of a word in the language of the used alphabet;
• one or more instructional cards instructing players to playing a word game comprising the steps of:
• providing a first letter and a second letter to a plurality of players;
• providing the plurality of players an association category for word sets;
• a player from the plurality of players creating a word set, the word set comprising a first word created by the player starting with the first letter and a second word created by the same player starting with the second letter and the first and second words having a relationship comporting to the provided association category.

Item 19. The game system of item 18 further including one or more bonus match cards, the bonus match cards providing one or more association categories, a point multiplier and a letter to be used by a player to obtain bonus points.

Claims

1. A method of playing a word game comprising the steps of:

a) providing a first letter and a second letter to one or more players;

b) providing the one or more players an association category for word sets; and

c) a player creating a word set, the word set comprising a first word created by the player starting with the first letter and a second word created by the same player starting with the second letter and the first and second words having a relationship comporting to the provided association category.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the provided association category is selected from the group comprising antonyms, homophones, hyponyms, word relationships and synonyms.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first letter and the second letter are provided on a random basis.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more players are provided with three or more letters.

5. The method of claim 1 including the step of recording a successful construction of a word set.

6. The method of claim 1 including the step of using playing cards having letters and randomly issuing playing cards to the one or more players.

7. The method of claim 6 including the step of a issuing a plurality of personal playing cards to each of the one or more players and issuing a plurality of community cards.

8. The method of claim 7 including the step of a player using one personal card and one or more community cards to create one or more word sets.

9. The method of claim 1 including the steps of:

a) placing a plurality of community markers upon a playing surface, with each community marker marked with a letter;

b) a player selecting a first community marker and a second community marker and creating a word set from the selected first and second community markers; and

c) the player placing the first community marker upon the second community marker or the player placing the second community marker upon the first community marker.

10. The method of claim 1 using a playing board and letter marked markers.

11. The method of claim 10 using predefined symbols placed upon the playing board, the predefined symbols indicating association categories.

12. The method of claim 11 including the steps of placing letter marked markers upon the playing board to record the successful creation of a word set.

13. The method of claim 12 including the step of placing player markers upon the playing board to record the identity of a player who created a successful word set.

14. The method of claim 1 using an electronic game board and electronic game markers, the electronic game markers marked with letters.

15. The method of claim 14 including the step of placing the electronic game markers upon the electronic game board to record the successful creation of a word set.

16. A system for playing a word game, the system comprising:

a) a playing board, the playing board comprising a plurality of blank spaces and a plurality of spaces marked to show open spaces and association category spaces;

b) a plurality of letter tiles, with a letter shown on each tile; and

c) one or more player markers, with each player marker having a unique indicia suitable for mapping to a player.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein each letter tile comprises a marking of a point value.

18. A card game system for creating words sets having words comporting to an association category, the system comprising:

a) a plurality of playing cards, each card having a back side substantially similar to the back side of every playing card;

b) the plurality of playing cards having a front side, with the front sides displaying a letter of the alphabet and displaying a point value;

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

a) instructions instructing one or more players to play a word game comprising the steps of:

b) providing a first letter and a second letter to one or more players;

c) providing the one or more players an association category for word sets;

d) a player from the plurality of players creating a word set, the word set comprising a first word created by the player starting with the first letter and a second word created by the same player starting with the second letter and the first and second words having a relationship comporting to the provided association category.

20. The game system of claim 18 further including one or more bonus match cards, the bonus match cards providing one or more association categories, a point multiplier and a letter to be used by a player to obtain bonus points.