Words With Benefits

Life in the Boomer Lane is a huge fan of words. She is also a huge fan of friends. For that reason, it’s not surprising that she recently discovered the online game, “Words With Friends.” It’s sort of like a fast and loose version of Scrabble, in which no one can see how you came up with the word you play on your turn. All the maneuverings are done privately.

One can play with anyone who is registered on the site, by challenging them to a game. LBL plays primarily with her Actual Friends in real life. Aside from getting dumped by one of them, the rest seem happy to play with her.

At some point, LBL noticed that several people whom she did not know were challenging her to play a game with them. It took several days for her to note that these people all shared two characteristics: They were men. They were older men. LBL was intrigued.

A few days later, there were more older men waiting for her to play. Because LBL is often slow on the uptake, she simply couldn’t imagine why older men wanted to play a word game with her. She asked one of her Actual Friends if she ever had older men enthusiastic about playing the game with her.

Her Actual Friend laughed. She said the same thing always happens to her, and, when she first started to play, she even accepted the game challenge with a couple of them. As soon as she started to play, each man initiated a private conversation with her, which one can do through WWF. It was an obvious attempt to get something going that went beyond word production. She told these men she was married and stopped communication.

The light dawned. Now LBL saw WWF in a completely different light. Here was a hotbed of people who were able to seek people that bypassed Match.com or singles dances. Of course, there was a downside. There was no vetting. One could be communicating with someone who was married or otherwise already partnered. One could be communicating with someone who was incarcerated or on the road to being incarcerated. One could be communicating with someone whose photo was someone other than them. One could be communicating with a Trump supporter. The horrors were endless.

It was then that LBL discovered that messages could be sent in ways other than through WWF’s chat capability. Her latest online paramour who challenged her to a game, had his first word prominently displayed: CLIMAX. LBL realized that one could potentionally play entire games using just porn words. The possibilites were endless. With enough command of the English language, one could have an entire secret sex life under the guise of being literate.

LBL didn’t respond to CLIMAX’s challenge. Aside from the obvious fact that she is happily married, LBL prefers more of a slow burn lead up to sexual activity, rather than jumping right into the final product. And, while she might occassionally cheat in word production during the game, she has her standards about cheating with the other players.