Words With Friends celebrates 17 years with dictionary contest

Words With Friends has hit 17 years, which means the mobile word-game veteran is now old enough to make younger apps feel insecure. The anniversary event includes daily gifts, a community challenge and a Become a Solo Star contest where players can pitch their own word for the in-game dictionary and potentially become an in-game character. That is a smart anniversary hook because it lets players touch the game’s actual language layer instead of just claiming another badge. Word games survive because habits survive.

People keep coming back to beat friends, defend questionable spellings and discover that one person in the group is disturbingly good at vowels.