Feedback from people who have bought MooT games

Some Reviews of MooT

Chronicle of Higher Education

Toronto Globe and Mail

Journal of Recreational Linguistics

West Coast Editor

The Brothers Judd

Vancouver Province

People who buy MooT are the luckiest people (feedback)

I heard about MooT when I bought the game in about 2003 on a visit to Pender Island, BC, Canada. The game has seen us through dark days and happy ones and the family are devoted to it. As a PRO, very retired, I think I know a thing or two about the English language but the quirkiness of West Coast 'Canadian English' is a constant joy. Long live MooT.

[Mootguy: We speak the same English as everyone else, it's the West Coast people that are quirky, especially the ones on Pender Island.]

Wendylla Smith

My sister and her husband introduced us to MooT. They emigrated to Alberta about 35 years ago and my nieces and nephews are all proud Canadians. We love MooT. We play it a lot, including on car trips. I especially like all the weird Canadian cultural references and strange puns, as well as all the solid philological esoterica. The OED gets a lot of use in our house. MooT is our gift of choice for our literate friends (whom we would NEVER call “language snobs,” though they might call me that.) Thanks for making a great game. We will probably check out the second edition.

[Mootguy: The second edition is also full of "weird" Canadian cultural references like "poutine" and "toque" — but there's no mention of Justin Bieber.]

Timothy Visscher (Montana)

Hi MooTguy! I found out about your game from one of my students in my English class at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. We played it for points one day when we had some extra time, and the kids loved the questions and loved competing for points. My student's name is Alexia Ingerson, and she said her Dad had brought it from Canada, his home country. I am hoping to make it a fun part of my English classes from now on. Thanks for creating the game, and hopefully I can some day afford the MetaMoot version!

Tracy Brennan (Boulder, Colorado)

Hi MootGuy - I saw it on one of my Wordsmith pages and thought it would be fun. We played it the other night, my sister and myself, and my 28-year old son and his girlfriend. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Great game! And I love that it's all teamwork, not competitive. Brilliant! Thank you!

Maria Alexander (at MSN.com)

I am a high school G/T teacher and have been playing Orijinz with my students for a couple of years now. Problem is everyone (especially me) now knows all the answers so when I saw the MooT site, I knew we had to have it.

It came last night and we are LOVING it. … The Speech & Debate as well as the AP English kids are devouring it! I look forward to long hours of enjoying this one! Thanks!

Jeannette Stanko Dixon (Wilde Lake High School G/T Education Specialist)

I recently took up playing Moot with some friends at work (I'm an engineer at Facebook) and it's my pleasure to report back that we are all LOVING the game. We played four games in a row the first day and brought it to lunch and dinner for two days subsequent to that. ….

Jackson (at Facebook)

One of the writing consultants at the Writing Center I direct actually found the game online. I'm not sure how, honestly, but we all gathered around and answered the questions. (They're always delighted, of course, to learn that their professor doesn't know everything--or much at all, depending on the topic--even with Ph.D. in hand!)

She suggested we buy it for our center. I dragged my feet, because our budget is extremely tight this year. She also asked my permission to put me on your mailing list of weekly fun questions.

Shannin Schroeder (The Writing Center)

I saw Moot advertised on the Word a Day page and bought it, hoping my grandchildren might enjoy it (and profit from it). Two nights ago, my three grandchildren and I played it with passion for two hours, until we were exhausted.

I am a Brit but they are US and aged nearly 15, nearly 15 and 13. They were therefore at a slight disadvantage because it really has an English weighting. But we played in friendly wise with lots of useful arguments, lots of failures, a few successes (the tiniest smattering of classical Greek was useful, e.g. philanderer).

At the end of the evening, they announced that they would take Moot home to New York with them and keep it until the youngest had done her SATs! They saw the value it has for that test. And I saw the youngest crouched over the slips with the questions we'd worked on, committing the questions and answers to memory.

Yoma Ullman

Played it at a family member's house, who had purchased it at a large game store. We had a great time playing it, as the questions are intriguing and challenging (and sometime controversial!). One flaw is that the questions are so interesting and so memorable that the cards are virtually useless once played. An expansion pack would be a good idea. Thanks.

Jason Bruckal

Dear MooTguy: Thank you for your creations. It's a treat to have found you. In AWADmail Issue 434, I just found your ODLT site and explored and revelled in viewing your previous years of MooT questions. I especially enjoy the "Feedback" and your response. I'm now alerting my kids to your sites, and we'll haggle over how many of us get your game to own/share. Your humor and enjoyment are delightfully contagious. Thank you for sharing.

Charlsye

I already own the game and spotted the website in amongst the paperwork! It's a great piece of work, and we greatly enjoy playing! Thank you muchly!

Dan Caseley (Nottingham, UK)

Thank you for a wonderful opportunity to become reacquainted with MooT! Our son, when he was in Vancouver, purchased the game and brought it home to share with the family. It was an instant hit. Am considering purchasing a copy for our house (in Oklahoma), since our daughter in Florida has that original game. A delight for anyone who enjoys words - what a delightful and enlightening world it is!

Joanne Anstine

Hi MooT Guy, Thanks for your prompt response...I played the game at a friends house and it is now a buzz in our tiny town. Scrabble has been the usual game but your game is very fun, challanging and interesting. I have ordered two games and intend to send the second game to my sister living in London UK. We are spreading the word!! I look forward to recieving a game of my own...

[Mootguy: What is the name of your tiny town -- where moot is buzzing?]

Smithers B.C., is the name of our tiny little town nestled in the picturesque Bulkley Valley. If you look on a map and find Prince Rupert and Prince George we are right in the middle of the two, on Highway 16 to Alasaka. Best Steelhead and Salmon fishing in the world!!

[Mootguy: That's so cool, because one of the original group of fervent language buffs that helped me develop and test out the first set of questions was from Smithers - Kevin Wieden. In fact, he was the guy who caused it to be called MooT, because whenever he disagreed with one of my answers, he would yell out "That's moot." Before that, the game had been called "The game", but he yelled that out so often — and it seemed so appropriate — that I decided that it would be a good name for it.] "

Michaela Kafer (Smithers)

As always Moot challenges the mind an sends a fiery storm across ones synapse. Just to let you know that by playing Moot as a family, our children have excelled academically beyond belief. My son graduated from College w. honors, our oldest daughter has been accepted to one of the oldest and most selective and elite Ivy League schools in the nation and is the valedictorian for her class; and lastly our youngest girl is a member of the Society of High School Scholars and speaks fluid Italian. They are all well-balanced children and enjoy learning;still as a family.

[Mootguy: I'd like to think that this was due to MooT, but my guess is that it might also have something to do with parenting.]

nccshrine (at gmail.com)

Hi MooTguy. I was introduced to your game via a colleague. I was hooked in minutes. My colleague had the game for many years and was not sure it was still available. As I really enjoyed the game, I immediately researched it on the Internet. I was thrilled to learn that the game was still available through a local bookstore on the Internet.

Dianne Patenaude (Surrey, BC)

Heard about it cos I had one: my mom got me one back when they were still in stores (Granville Island, I think) and I gave the cards away in little stacks to other word-happy friends once I'd played with them, foolishly thinking I would remember the answers and have an unfair advantage if I used them again. Had I realized that my brain was so rapidly turning to mush, I would have kept them: I probably could have used the same game 20 times.… Everyone I know loves MooT. I wish you would put it back in stores.

Pamela Swanigan (Vancouver)

We heard about MooT three years ago from our then eighth-grader's language arts teacher. We bought a game and have enjoyed playing it ever since. The one we just ordered is a Christmas present for my father. Finally, something other than a moleskin shirt. My office enjoys the periodic trivia questions. Keep 'em coming!

[Mootguy: I will try to > keep them coming. I'm pleased to hear that teachers are using it. Was he/she using MooT in the classroom? ]

The teacher did use Moot in the classroom. I believe she hand-picked easier questions for the eighth-graders. My son loved it and came home from school with order information. He got the game for Christmas that year.

Susan Wells

… I had guessed "Jennifer." I see I was wrong, but while we're at it, let me ask what the etymology of Jennifer is, and let me add that we've loved your game for years and want to thank you a thousand times for the hours of joy (and knowledge) you have given us.

Zev Shanken (New York)

Hi, I heard about it from a friend who raves about it. He plays every Sunday.

[Mootguy: Note: If you are Jewish, we recommend that you play it every Saturday.]

Adrian English

Our family has been playing MOOT for about 25 years now, it is the game we play when we get together and there are enough people to form teams. My nephews and nieces associate it with family occasions. I have been buying copies of the game to give to them as they grow up and start their own families, and sometimes for the inlaws too.

Catherine Nasmith (Toronto)

We accidentally came across Moot YEARS and YEARS ago on a vacation in Nova Scotia. It is an important part of the fabric of life.

Jack Chomsky (Columbus, Ohio)

Hey, since you seem to be a real person I thought I'd tell you how I'm using your game.

I teach at a boarding school in Delaware, and my job involves working on a dorm of sophomore boys. As part of my dorm duty I make them smoothies, and the other night for the first time to get a smoothie they had to answer a Moot question correctly; other faculty members have done this with Trivial Pursuit, but being a teacher of Latin and Greek and a general word-guy I thought Moot would be more interesting and different.

Most of the kids (high school sophomores and seniors) seemed really to enjoy the questions, especially the seniors, and I was really pretty surprised at how much fun they all had. One of the kids mentioned it again today, and expressed anticipation for another installment.

Chris Childers (Delaware)

My kids (11 and 13) are really into the game as well. sometimes they will take a wild guess and be right- other times- they miss by a mile- but thanks to the game- and their love of words(which comes from Mom reading) they have a vocabulary that exceeds the normal level around here(a hint- they started reading Robert Heinlien's juvenile works which most kids would never dream of because it's "too hard" but they LOVE it!)

Hope Celeste Jackson (Glasgow ,KY)

I bought the game 10 years ago, or so, at a game store in Ottawa, I believe. I left it on a park bench and someone snatched it. You can imagine my dismay.

The game had been a hit in my little group of friends for a couple of years. We conscientiously limited our playing time so as not to run out of questions. Then it was taken from us, and we couldn't find a shop that stocked it.

There was once a store in Toronto that sold it, but they ripped me off for quite a bit of money, so I don't send them games any more. You'd be surprised how often this happens to us lowly game makers.

Normand Côté (Ottawa)

I first experienced MOOT at a UNITARIAN family summer camp at Naramata, BC in July 2005, and later purchased a copy for myself. I love it! Last week, I attended a similar week-long UNITARIAN family summer camp at Seabeck, Washington, and introduced several campers to the game. To say the least, it was a hit! Several campers from Washington, Oregon, and BC asked where they could get their own copy of MOOT. I referred them to your website. If you receive any orders from Washington and Oregon in the near future, they may have originated at this camp.

[Mootguy: Many were received.]

John Poley

I hope this goes up on your review/comment board. But if not, please take the kudos from grateful parents.

I purchased your game about three years ago for my daughter. She’s a real ‘smarty pants’, but really the whole family plays when we are together. Anyway all three of our children have been written up in Who’s Who? Or the National Dean’s List, and have been courted by the best Colleges and Universities across our Nation.

I know that Moot had a hand in it, whatever questions they got wrong; they had to look them up (we adults did too).

Most board games are banal without any real challenges. Moot is a wonderful game that challenges the intellect to the brink of what you thought you knew. We are earnestly awaiting Moot II.

Preacherman7 at hotmail.com

Hi, I bought your game in the Vancouver Art Museum.

When my own kids were younger, we played it at the dinner table, and now I sometimes let my high school 11th grade English students play in class when they've been very good. I also may use it in my Latin classes.

I'm thinking of starting a Moot Club at my school. I particularly find the questions about word derivation useful.

Thanks! if you have any new questions or anything, please let me know.

Claudia DeSantis

Thank you for constructing a wonderful pastime, a way to test ourselves against the vagaries, nooks and crannies, and roots of our English language, even a way for know-it-alls to learn something every time. Richard Lederer and William Safire have nothing on you.

[Mootguy: In fact, they're afraid of me.]

Warm regards, Rick Bryan

I agree the game is great -- I just spent a week playing it in the Oregon Cascades with several people, including the guy you have listed first in your testimonials on your site (Greg McLauchlan). People were flabbergasted when I actually came up with the "Raccoonateur" answer, though they also objected that the Raccoon is an omnivore rather than a carnivore. I hope you're in the process of creating additional cards. I sense a Moot boom building. Cheers.

Stephen McMillan (Oakland)

I'm always a little leery of replying to a "list" name, for fear of embarrassing myself by misdirecting a personal reply to hundreds, if not thousands, of strangers who expect traffic only every few weeks.

But anyway, Mr. MootList, I heard of MooT when my daughter (a sophomore in linguistics at New York U) gave my wife and me a MooT game last Christmas. I can't say how she heard of the game, but she seems to have landed on several linguist mailing lists, so one of those is a fair bet.

It is all too easy, with Trivial Pursuit, to read through all the cards a few times and wind up memorizing many of the answers. Trivia can be like that. Given the all too limited number of MooT cards (only 1008? is that all?) we chose to ration ourselves to just a few hours at a whack.

We played the good guys (two or three of us) against the bad buys (mistakes). We would lap the bad guys on the board four or five times before bedtime, even when giving them double moves. Sometimes we disagree with the answers, but, as you say, our complaint would be with your references, not you. My kids used to make fun of me for reading the dictionary. My fledgling linguist daughter now joins me in mining Greek and Latin dictionaries for nuggets. Recently I wanted an -ism for "beating a dead horse". How about psophihippomastigonism? psophios - dead, as of animals hippo - you know mastigono - horsewhip The Greek, if lengthy and not exactly euphonic, is somehow cooler than something like mortequine flagellation. When not being a word nerd, I am gainfully employed in developing computer software for scientific research, most recently protein simulation for drug discovery. I'll try to think up a killer blurb.

Warm regards, Rick at pobox.com

Hello Mr MooTGuy,

I received your game as a Christmas present and it is so cool!!! (My mom ordered it from you.)

I don't think it's too hard at all - I was playing it with my brother (age 14) and my sister (age 10) and they were getting a lot of the questions right. It is definitely the best board game I have ever played.

Avril Kenney at mmcollege-prep.org

Moot has been my favorite board game for a long time, and I am always trying to push it on people. I am a member of a very large community weblog called metafilter (www.metafilter.com), and I want to create a post recommending your game.... Hopefully, I can drive some business your way.

[Mootguy: Thanks for doing this, Richard. There was quite a surge of activity on my website, with hundreds of people signing up for the mailing list. Note that word-of-mouth is the only way that people ever hear about MooT.]

Richard Dub at gmail.com

Thanks for sending MooT. We look forward to getting it as we are giving our copy to a friend. I learned about it in a game store in Vancouver last summer; they recommended it.

It is one of the, if not THE, best intellectually stimulating games I've ever played (there's a blurb for you to use!). [Mootguy: This one is going on the side of the MooT box.]

We looked for copies here in the States at a big game store in Berkeley. They had never heard of it, so we told them to find it and get it! This game should be in every game store worth the name. [Mootguy: Evidently, it is one of those CIA fronted game stores (they're all over the Third world). Since receiving this email, I have been investigated by the US State Department, and they have banned me from traveling in the US unless I am accompanied by a neo-Conservative lexicographer.]

You know, small ads in the professional association newsletters of several organizations, such as the Modern Language Association, could generate a LOT of orders I would think, esp. as word of mouth spreads about how great MooT is. thanks again for a brilliant game.

Greg McLauchlan at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU

Thanks for the confirmation, I look forward to getting the games. One is to be used as a Christmas gift and the other is for ourselves.

We played MooT a few weeks ago at a friend's place, their names are Simon and Anne. Anne said she received the game as a gift a while back from her sister, who is from out west.

They have modified the rules slightly though, and I thought I mention how:

1) We played using a cribbage board. Simon said he preferred one longer game over many shorter games, since a run of bad answers can effectively ruin a team's chances of winning.

2) If you answer a question incorrectly you loose the points, but you cannot go negative.

3) You can also choose to 'pass' and not answer a question, not loosing anything. This means there are some pretty serious discussions late in the game about how sure on person is about their answer.

4) There is no formal "challenge" process for points, only gloating rights by being able to tell them how wrong they are and why without reading the answer first.

Our one game lasted about three hours or so, with lots of time spent checking references after the fact.

Not that we don't believe your answers, its just sometimes you need to know exactly why you were wrong. We had such an entertaining (and educational) time that we just had to buy one for ourselves.

I am very pleased to read that you haven't dumbed-it-down yet, since that would rob those that consider dictionaries to be appropriate bedtime reading from enjoying your game (my father owned his own personal copy of the Oxford Unabridged, that tells you the kind of household I grew up in).

Thanks for making such a great game and I wish you all the business success.

[Mootguy: In the instructions, the first rule of MooT is: "If you don't like my rules, make up your own." I am please to see that people are doing that and making the game work for them. Thanks.]

Eric and Heather at yahoo.com

Hi! I haven't got around to ordering Moot, yet... got to get past the next paycheque... but until I do, let me tell you how I heard about you.

I met a freelance writer at a party put on by a local magazine (Boulevard -- Victoria, BC) and she told me that she had the greatest game in the world and that I would love it. [Mootguy: I like her already.]

Fast forward a few months... I finally got to play a round two weeks ago and the writer told me how sad she was that she didn't know how or where to buy herself another game or two to give to friends. [Mootguy: My marketing strategy is working. One correspondent called it the "opposite of hard sell."]

I'm a librarian who loves a challenge so I did a little surfing based on some of the information I found in the writer's older version of the game and found you. I passed the information on to the writer and decided to get a game for myself, too!

S. Wiles at University of Victoria, B.C.

I am a member of the Dictionary.com forum at Propero/Delphi. Someone posted a link to your site yesterday and mentioned that they had only gotten about four out of ten questions. Most of the members of the site are inveterate word-a-holics, so I'm sure you'll get a lot of hits and new members from the Dictionary.com participants.

[Mootguy: The last time I did it I got 3 out of ten.]

Stephen Rovinsky at qjpmchase.com

Every few days or so, the Chicago Sun Times lists a web address for "Our favorite places on the 'net." In Saturday's paper, your web address was listed. It sounded interesting, so I checked it out. Very interesting, and very entertaining. I will be placing an order for the game come October for a birthday gift for my live-in girlfriend. She and I love to feed our brains with activities such as this.

Thank you! Michael Alan

Hi, thanks for sending MooT; we look forward to getting it as we are giving our copy to a friend. I learned about it in a game store in Vancouver last summer; they recommended it.

It is one of the, if not THE, best intellectually stimulating games I've ever played (there's a blurb for you to use!).

It's a blast, whether played in corporatist or collectivist mode. We looked for copies here in the states at a big game store in Berkeley--they had never heard of it, so we told them to find it and get it! this game should be in every game store worth the name. You know, small ads in the professional association newsletters of several organizations, such as the Modern Language Association, could generate a LOT of orders I would think, esp. as word of mouth spreads about how great MooT is. thanks again for a brilliant game.

Greg McLauchlan

Thanks so much for sending this to Montreal! McGill students work very hard and it takes something amazing to entertain them in their brief downtime. The fact that your game was played at a Department Party and was a wild hit speaks volumes for it. I can not wait to play it!

Emilie Chamberlain

Dear MooTguy, In answer to your question as to how I heard about MooT, a friend of mine had purchased MooT a couple of years ago at a bookstore and I have been searching for it every since. It's my absolute favourite game and we play it anytime we have a gathering.

Whenever we have a games night, MooT is a given! We hold a girls night once a month and play it, so exposure to the game has been growing. We also played it at a Bachelorette party this weekend and everyone loved it. There are a few of us that would love to get our hands on our own copy! Is there anywhere in Vancouver that I could go and pick up a copy as I don't have a personal credit card and would prefer to pay in cash? Please let me know.

Best regards, Kristina Peszel

My husband and I are ardent Moot enthusiasts, and have endeavored to hook many of our friends on your addictive product. [Mootguy: See note on horse tranquilizers below.] Needless to say, in our years of playing your engrossing diversion, we have devoured all 1,008 paralyzingly witty questions. [Mootguy: According to the rules, you're supposed to read the questions out loud.]

As Americans, we know that you Canadians can't get enough of our Yankee dollars. [Mootguy: He has a point there.] Assuming that 1,008 more questions were available to us, how many of the aforementioned Yankee dollars might we be asked to proffer in return? We eagerly await your response.

Meyl at earthlink.net

We found the game up at my friends cabin on New Years eve this year and had a blast playing it. I'm a real word fan. This game made my mind work in wonderful ways. [Mootguy: Experiments have shown that the MooT effect is similar to MDMA mixed with horse tranquilizers.]

D. Wallen at telus.net

Dear Author of the Toughest Word Game,

All the questions are rather interesting and extremely useful, and now as I got the game at last I can't but admire the simplicity and complexity of the design and the idea of the game.

I use Moot in my classes with 3rd year students. They showed genuine interest and it was decided that we would try questions every time we have classes. I personally get to know a lot and I may suggest another idea for you to probably be used: why not organize the questions on the cards of some particular color: like, etymology questions- say, pink, country studies ones - green, grammar - blue and so on. I think in that case there will be more rules how to play the game... Thanks again for the game and enlarging the scope.

Elena from Moscow

I am English and played moot with a Canadian family when I visited for thanksgiving.

I was astonished and delighted to find that such a thought provoking game existed. I do not fully subscribe to your website's views about its prospects for distributing it to a wider audience. I would agree that it is unlikely to meet true mass appeal without dumbing it down a lot but in its present form it could still reach a greatly enlarged audience. I would be happy to discuss this further if you have interest. In the meantime, I would like to buy 3 sets and enjoy playing again - it is altogether too much hard work doing it the homespun way with an etymological dictionary.

Jeremy Oades at hotmail.com

thank you for hours of fun. I've been playing MooT with my children and friends for years now. When we (BCIT faculty) were on strike about 3 years back I took handfuls of cards to the picket line and a few more fans were born. My son is teaching English in Taipei and a year ago I tried to find a game to send to him, but the bookstore I had bought mine in (a small independent on Granville St.), Chapters, and other stores I phoned told me it had disappeared.

My son arrived on holiday from Taipei last week, and desperate to keep my own copy, I searched again, this time online - and there was the website. Because there is nothing on the site to indicate who was providing the service, I was not ready to commit my Visa, but the Google search also included an interview with you, and several locations were listed at the end of that, including Hager's Books in Kerrisdale.

I phoned Saturday, they had two in stock, I bought them both; these two are travelling back to Taipei with my son. I've asked Hager to phone me when they get a third, so I can give it to my daughter in Calgary - another fan. Again, thank you for such a fun game. I'm glad to find the rumours of the game's disappearance, and yours, "greatly exaggerated".

Valda-Jean (VJ) Johnston (valdajean__shaw.ca)

I ordered 2 Moots .... How did I find out about it? I am a teacher and I was in a workshop last week.

We began talking about word games and one of the presenters said, " You have to get Moot! I bought one for each of my kids for Christmas and they have had a blast with them!" She gave us the web address and the rest is......... history. I ordered 2. One to have at home and one for my classroom. I tried the sample questions on your website. FUN and a great learning tool, too.

Lea S. Jones (Skj9920__aol.com)

we heard about 'MooT' while visiting our local indie bookstore "the Reading Well" and encountering an acquaintance who had recently purchased a set and was very keen on it, ( I had played scrabble against her at previous local literacy tournaments).

Maxwell Newby (woodlands__pei.sympatico.ca)

Actually, I've been on the mailing list before, and I am switching addresses. I don't remember how I originally found out about the game. It was online somehow, and I hinted around at my birthday that if someone didn't get it for me I was just going to have to buy it myself.

I would like to kiss whoever it was that made this game. [Mootguy: !!!] Not only that, but I would love to extensively pick their brains. See, I'm a huge nerd, and nearly every one of these questions gives me the giggles. One of my favorites is "Are dead disco dancers defunct?" I actually have that one on my wall. Thank you, and feel free to ask me any other questions you would like to. :)

Marlea (Marlea__mchsi.com)

As a returning student to university, this time in Philosophy (I am a Political Science graduate, I find language, the various aspects and usage of it very interesting. I intend to specialize in either the pre-socratics or Locke (your local language philosophical hero) AND Artificial Intelligence from both a Philosophical and peripherally technical perspective (I have several, now semi-antiquated diplomas, in computer programming). Again the use of language in information transfer activities becomes fascinating.

THANK YOU for making such a fun tool available to everyone!

Christina Varga (vargacm__myway.com)

I heard you speaking on the CBC some years ago about your game and was quite intrigued and kept your web site in my favourites but never did anything about it. This summer I met with a friend of mine from Ontario who has Moot and told me it was a great game so am finally getting my act in gear.

Anthea Piets (apiets__shaw.ca)

Years and years ago my sister (who had been living in Halifax, NS, at the time) brought it home (Grand Falls, NB) for Christmas. We played in mixed teams (adults and kids) for hours! I remembered the adults answering the hard questions and us kids getting the easier ones (Yogi Bear and serge de Nèr)mes come to mind). Anyway, my sister brought it back to Halifax with her but during her move to Newfoundland a few months later it got lost. And we mostly forgot about it. So, last year I started hanging out with linguists (I was dating one at the time) and the topic of games came up so I told them about this game my family played. But I couldn't remember the name. It finally came to me just a few weeks ago. So I hunted it down on the Net. And voila!

Medgar Marceau (mmarceau9__yahoo.com)

Thank you for making our Christmas such an enjoyable and educational one. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this expansion of my vocabulary and deeper understanding of the nuances of English - but I'm sure it will come in handy some day ;-) However, we are coming near the end of the first 1008 questions and wonder if you have plans for a further set. Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Mootguy: Note: There is a second edition available now. It's called MetaMooT. It has 1008 new questions and it is a bit harder than the first set. If anyone actually reads this and want to find out more, email me at mootlist@mootgame.com and put "metamoot" in the subject header.]

Barbara McGavin at focusing.uk.com)

I don't recall how I heard about it. However, I bought the game back in 1990 and, according to a note sent with it, I was the first American to get one. [Mootguy: To be precise: you were the first American to actually pay for it. Five MooT games were stolen in New York at a street fair earlier that year.]

My daughter is now in grad school and she enjoys the game so much, I thought I'd buy her a copy of her own. With only a little Googling, I found your site and ordered her a copy.

I'm glad you're still making this wonderful game. It has brought us many hours of enjoyable conversation.

Tom at scrubjay.org

My wife and I bought MooT at a Vancouver bookstore in August 1996 on our way to teach English in China. I suspect ours is one of the most traveled sets, as it became an indispensable teaching tool in Taiwan and Australia, as well as a fixture in our backpacks through Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Now back in Saskatoon [Mootguy: A Canadian prairie-town with a river and an artificial ski hill. Huge tourist trap.] , I was elated to come across the website yesterday. I look forward to an occasional stumper from you.

Lee Smith at hotmail.com

When my mother-in-law died we found it [Moot] amongst her stuff. We took it with us on a sailing trip to Desolation Sound last year. We pulled it out the first night and it was an instant hit. We played it every night of the trip and have been playing it with the same group regularly since. We have decided to send it to like minded friends for Christmas.

Fowlerr at direct.ca

I bought Moot at our local "Game Trek" store in Toronto for my husband for Christmas. We are *huge* language and math puzzle people and a lot of the games out there are just too easy for us ;). This one keeps us on our toes! We have nearly gone through all the questions, and we're hoping that you'll find the time/energy to come up with more! [Mootguy: MooT II is scheduled for release sometime before 2009, maybe.]

Sarah Rainsberger at mostly-math.com

By the way, I love your game, I've bought at least 6 and am responsible for spreading it to countless others since discovering it in 2000. You should give me a free box of questions. Just kidding. [Mootguy: He didn't get a free game, but I did reply to his email.]

(dwong__brunico.com)

I bought my copy of Moot at a book shop in Vancouver while working there in 1999. I returned home to Australia in 2000 and have been playing it with friends and family ever since. It's a fabulous game - probably the best we've played. [Mootguy: I only had to buy Alan one case of beer to get him to say this. Australians are nice people.] We never get tired of it. I hope that you're making a decent return from it, as I would imagine it's not the easiest product to market.

Alan at merchantwise.com.au

I bought the game last summer in preparation for the linguistics class I teach each spring [Penn State Harrisburg]. My class (due to the required subject matter) can sometimes be boring and difficult: I have to teach traditional grammar (parts of speech, this is a noun, that is a verb, etc.) as well as history of the English language and an intro to linguistics (semantics, morphology, phonology, syntax and language variation). [Mootguy: Boring? Sounds like heaven to me.]

The class is designed for future English teachers, and the curriculum is set by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Education. I used your game to liven up class for a few minutes (5-15) once a week or so. The class met for 75 minutes twice a week. Thanks for making the game. The students learned from it and had fun with it.

Cheri Ross

I stumbled across your website (I have no idea how) a couple of years ago and kept talking about it, so one of my friends bought the game for my birthday.

Now, it's my dad's birthday and I couldn't think of anything better for the man who has everything (and who loves to correct my grammar). It really is a great game.

K Stadum at hotmail.com

My father-in-law had a MooT game. I say "had" because it's been in our possession for well over a year - we have slightly better luck in finding folks to play it with us. But I'll eventually get around to buying on either for myself, so he can have his back, or for him, since we've had his for so long.

MooT is certainly our favorite board game. "Scrabble" is alright, but my wife always routs me when we play. In MooT, however, I can hold my own. And if, on a given turn, I can't hold my own, then I learn something. So it's a win-win situation all the way around! It's a great game. Thanks again!

Joshua Barron at hotmail.com

I met someone recently who said "I know a game that you'd love. I need to loan it to you." She was right.

Actually, I just put in an order (via PayPal) and the first set that I'm buying is a gift for someone else! I think I'll eventually need my own.

Best to you, and many thanks for this splendid creation!

J. Blatter at gmail.com

My wife's sister came into town from Canmore, Alberta and we took her straight from the airport to a pub where she was meeing some of her friends that she used to tree-plant with.

Her friend was raving about this game he was finally able to track down and he happened to have it in his bag. So he pulled it out and we were passing the questions around and having a blast trying to figure them out (I'm sure the beers helped).

We had a few English degrees there (I'm just a lowly biologist...) so we were getting quite a few right. It's a great idea for a game and I decided to get one for myself and one for my brother and his wife who are both high school English teachers.

[Mootguy: I've noticed over the years that tree-planters make good MooT players. Correlation? Cause-effect? I have no idea.]

Dennis Jacques

We've had a treasured copy for many years - it's number 443. We don't play very often: every few years at a campout or family gathering we have a game: men against the women.

The men are always Team Testosterone and the women always The Ovarian Cysters. Nobody can ever remember whether the men or the women won the last time round.

Recently I introduced it to a small group of coworkers who play games once a month - we played corporate MooT for the first time and it was a fun evening. Thanks for 20 years of fun.

Bob and Jo Twaites

Hello Mootguy!We just bought Moot for a good friend who is a gamenut and turning 50. I agree, the teams of 2 to 4 are the way to go. Are you the game's creator? I'm asking because, in response to your question regarding how we heard about Moot, about 10 years ago we were visiting my father in-law, Frank, and his wife, Elaine, who live on Keats Island north of Vancouver.

Frank had discovered it, and they gave us the game as a gift, so we were playing Moot, having dinner, drinking wine. We were having a great time, and at some point a disagreement came up about a rule. We went back and forth and eventually opened the box and read the instructions, then realized that the name of the game's creator (you?) was listed in the box.

We gave you a call and talked through the whole question and figured it out.

[Mootguy: Note: Things have changed. I don't do this anymore. Now, if you phone, you only get to speak to my handlers or, if you're lucky, someone in my entourage.]

It was an incredibly fun and memorable evening. Thanks for a brilliant game. It's our favorite. Cheers,

Tom Steinmetz and Sarah Murphy Minneapolis, MN

Hello Mr. Mootguy, Thanks for sending the games. I first heard about this game when, on a quiet urban evening in early August of 2007 (while I sipped on some fine Spanish red wine and while in the background I could hear the sizzling of salmon steaks and asparagus over a barbecue grill) a friend asked me if I wanted to play Moot. My friend and I have continued to play ever since on a weekly basis, although, sorry to say, we didn’t know that there were rules, or game strategies until I read about them in your message below.

Although our setting may yield similar results than the one you propose, our game is much simpler than yours: a room with two people playing at proving that the one is smarter than the other: it is, ultimately, a vain and shameless attempt at demonstrating our language skills. Being a novice of (at?) the English language, I am particularly proud of being able to put up a decent fight when it comes to word definitions against a skilled adversary, although grammar and style is my Achilles heel.

In any event, your recently received games will go to great homes: Medeine, a poet and translator (Lithuanian-English) living in Lithuania; Jonathan, a Toronto-born writer living in Germany; and an ex-lover who studies languages in Philadelphia. By the way, if you ever dumbed down or ‘cleaned’ Moot, you would deprive it of its wonderful irreverence and whimsical appeal. So please—finances permitting—keep it is as is.

Best regards, Esther Berzunza

I absoluely adore your website - it's SOOOO helpful for those who are not native speakers but just use English as a foreign language. You let us peer into the deapth of the language and meanings we would never have a chance to see ourselves. I try to send gift subscriptions to my friends and I'm sure they like it, too.

Zetta Ermakova, Olympic Sochi

Hi, I bought your game in the Vancouver Art Museum. When my own kids were younger, we played it at the dinner table, and now I sometimes let my high school 11th grade English students play in class when they've been very good. I also may use it in my Latin classes. I'm thinking of starting a Moot Club at my school. I particularly find the questions about word derivation useful. Thanks! if you have any new questions or anything, please let me know.

Claudia DeSantis

I found your game in a lovely local bookstore, Mosaic Books, about oh, 10 years ago now. I bought it for my dad, then a year or two later I went back to buy another one as a gift for my husband and Mosaic didn't have it anymore, but they gave be your website and phone number. Then I phoned you and you were so nice and you sent me another game.

Audrey Campbell in Kelowna

Hello MooTguy: I'm returning to your mailing list, actually. I heard about your game through a friend about 5 years ago and got in touch with you and purchased the game at that time. I was living in Victoria, then. Out of the blue, I got a job in Phoenix and, of course, brought MooT with me and have now introduced it to my new circle of acquaintences. They are hooked and so I hope you can expect a sudden rush of purchase requests from down here!

[Mootguy: Phoenix is a MooT hotbed now. They've even renamed one of their major thoroughfares "MooT street" - or so I've been told, anyway.]

Until a job opens up for me back up in Canada, again, I will spread the word about MooT south of the border! Cheers! Sandra

Anonymous (Phoenix)

How I heard about MooT: My son plays it with his friends at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He likes it so much, he wanted to give copies to his language-buff sisters for Christmas (one lives in Brooklyn, NY; the other in Santa Fe, New Mexico).

[Mootguy: It's great to hear that language-buff brothers have language-buff sisters. I betcha they have language-buff parents.]

Greta Perleberg (at cox.net)

Thanks! I have received your weekly questions for years (although I can't open the answers at school because they are blocked by our filters that block games so I frequently am forced to ponder until inspiration strikes.) This year your game is what I've selected to send to my siblings for Christmas. I also am buying one for myself. I teach struggling readers in 7th and 8th grade. PS - - My old Smith Corona and I used to argue because its built in dictionary did not have the word "moot." Happy Holidays!

Mary Lange

Before Christmas I bought your game on-line and soon after you asked for a response as to how I came upon your game. It's pretty simple really. A friend and I were discussing a topic and I was looking for the exact use of "moot" when I Googled "Moot". You were about 6 or 7th place in the list. I'm very pleased to have found the site and the game. It is very humbling and a good game to play with my English major daughter (masters, of course). She calls it "daunting". True. Thanx for all your work.

Hap Watkins (at GMAIL)

I think you'll appreciate the story behind this order: I bought Moot for my father for Christmas last year. Just a couple days ago, my brother and his wife asked for Moot for Christmas this year, but since it was already so late in the season and given that they live abroad, we decided we would send them my dad's copy from last year, and that I would order another copy to replace his.

We love this game! I'm thinking of ordering other copies for friends, so you may hear from me again. I ordered MetaMoot just so that we don't start to remember the answers from the original Moot game... but I was wondering, is it really that much harder than original Moot? If it is, then I should probably have ordered regular Moot. If not, then great! Thank you and happy holidays!

Allyson Gretz

Hi Mootguy: My daughter (42 years of age), loves words, and asked for the game for Christmas. I told her I hoped she can find someone to play with, as I do not have the wit for it; so, I decided to get a second game for her brother (44 years of age). Maybe I will open one of them and practice before driving to California with gifts. By the way, I was not surprised to learn that a witty Canadian thought this up. Congratulations.

[Mootguy: Note: The non-witty Canadians invented hockey and poutine.]

Joan Morse

Good morning! I teach 10th grade English at a high school in Alabama. I was "googling" the words "grammar game" and clicking on websites that I thought would be of interest to my students. I had finished teaching a lesson, and had about 15 minutes left in the block and was looking for something fun to keep my students occupied. I have a projector where I can project the image from my computer on the wall, so that we are able to play these types of games as a class.

Your website is great and very, very addicting! The students really enjoyed it and I think they may have learned in the process and that is always a bonus! As a suggestion, it would be great if you could have the board game as an online type of game available for purchase for a certain amount of time or even for a certain amount of "plays".

J. McIntosh (Alabama)

If I remember correctly, I bought MooT at a wine store during a trip to the Okanagan (I live in Vancouver.), and have already had hours of captivating fun with friends playing it. One of them asked where she could buy a copy for herself, so I looked it up online, sent her the weblink, and signed up for your mailing list.

Johann Gevers (Vancouver)

I heard about your website from the week-long The New Jersey Writing Project (Grammar) at the Education Service Center 14 in Abilene, Texas. Thanks again!

Robert Bailey, MA, MEd

I have bought two other games from you and given them awaqy to my children who love language. I need another one for myself.

Heather Horning

Our kids started playing MooT while living in Vancouver about 5 years ago…and now we all know too many of the answers! Best game ever…any chance we can get more questions? We’re game to buy a new set, if such exists.

Debbie Abramowitz (Jerusalem, Israel)

I'm on an archivists' listserv and it was mentioned there as something wonderful and fun. I'm looking forward to receiving it.

Jaci Spuhler (Archivist)

I played Moot with some friends a couple of years back and fell in love with the game... it's Great!

Nadean Schryer (Wildlife Biologist, Southern Science and Information, North Bay, Ontario)

Thanks - I've ordered a bunch through PayPal - I received MooT for Christmas from a friend and fellow writer and I love it. I've decided to give it to all my friends. Cheers.

[Mootguy: This is a very good policy. I encourage it.]

Amy Schrader (New York)

Hi! My order arrived in California...thank you! To answer your question...I was at a dinner party a couple of weeks ago (at my boyfriend's bosses house)...there was six of us there and they pulled Moot out after dinner. I'm a huge Trivial Pursuit fan (I'm terrible at it but always have a ton of fun!) We played boys against girls and the boys kicked our butts (we have since challenged them to round 2). Anyway...my mom and dad live in Santa Cruz, California and are big Jeapordy, Trivial Pursuit and cross word buffs...I know that they will love playing Moot with their friends! I had you send it directly to them but told them that it is a share mothers/fathers day gift for them. Thanks for the game and I look forward to checking out MetaMoot when it arrives! Take care.

Jill Hooper (California)