Blog Posts by Mike Smith

No doubt you've played loads of Scrabble over the years. By now, you've probably played it on a computer or even an iPad, too. But we're guessing you've never played it quite like this.

Available from curio retailer Hammacher Schlemmer, this wall-mounted Scrabble board is five times the size of the classic game, covering some 49 square feet.

And the cost? An eye-popping $12,000, making it quite possibly the world's most expensive Scrabble game to boot.

What's worse than losing a game to a stranger?

Losing to a friend, of course.

And while hit Facebook and portable game Words with Friends beautifully streamlines the process of challenging your pals to Scrabble-style wordplay, it doesn't go too far to make the pain of losing any more bearable. So tip the odds in your favor: check out these key tips to improve your Words with Friends performance.

The U.S. military has a problem.

Getty ImagesWorking out the bugs in the software that controls modern weapon systems is proving too complex, too difficult, and worst of all, too expensive. In short, the top Pentagon brass needs help. But they're not reaching out to the usual teams of academics, programmers, or engineers.

Instead, they're asking gamers.

The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is about to embark on a multi-million dollar project to investigate whether the skills of today's gamers can be tapped to improve the reliability of military equipment, reports NextGov.

Bridge hand (Getty Images)Counting figures as diverse as Warren Buffet, Martina Navratilova, and Dwight D. Eisenhower among its millions of fans, bridge is one of the world's most intricate and rewarding games. To succeed, you'll need strategy, memory, intuition, logic, guile, and no small amount of luck.

Small wonder it has a reputation as being hard to learn. Don't let that put you off: follow these simple steps, and you'll be ready to lay down with the best of them.

Times are hard. Money is tight. Congress's approval rating is even lower than normal. In these recession-struck days, there's still one thing that unites Americans of all political stripes: a dislike of politicians. And if there's a second, it's the certainty that you could do better.

Care to put that to the test?

You can do just that in with these election-themed political games, which range from highly realistic recreations of famous U.S. election races to tongue-in-cheek simulations of the political hustle and bustle of running your own banana republic. Democrat, Republican, or Independent, you're sure to find something worth your vote.

Snow days rule.

Getty ImagesActually, let's revise that: Snow days rule for kids. An unexpected day off school, a yard full of snow to play in, all your friends doing the exact same thing -- what's not to love? That's got to be enough to keep you entertained for, oh, at least a half-hour.

But then what? Never fear, parents: once the novelty's worn off and the sledding and snowball fights have lost their appeal, here are some fresh suggestions to keep the kids busy for the rest of the day.

Once upon a time, Blizzard Entertainment's massive-selling, massively-multiplayer World of Warcraft looked invulnerable, dominating the online role-playing game market with an unprecedented 12 million paying subscribers.

World of Warcraft (Blizzard)Nothing lasts forever, however, and Warcraft's world is no exception. Since hitting its high-water mark in 2010 those, numbers have been dwindling. Naturally, a slew of challengers are readying themselves to take its place as the go-to online game, but how are they going to differentiate themselves from Blizzard's behemoth? Can any of these games succeed where countless others have failed?

One has already made a dent: Star Wars: The Old Republic, which was released at the tail end of 2011. On the strength of the Star Wars brand and solid reviews, it's fared well thus far and will likely continue to make strides through 2012.

But it won't be alone. Here's what 2012 has in store for online RPG fans.

Lego FriendsDespite producing a staggering 400 billion bricks in a mind-blowing number of configurations since production started in 1958, there's been one thing Lego has had trouble building.

A female audience.

As a company, Lego has rarely been in stronger shape, having more than doubled its 2006 revenue to over a billion dollars in annual sales, but it's still trying to reach beyond its primarily young, male demographic. Since 2007 the company's been plotting what execs are hawking as the biggest Lego launch in a decade, and this month rolls out a controversial line of over 20 new sets aimed squarely at young girls.