Amazing vocabularies

[ufm]

I'm curious, what do folks do when they suspect this is happening? I like playing slow/turn-based and think time limits would actually punish me far more than an anagram-user.

Give a red thumb. That is your only possible solution.
Indeed turn-based game is most prone to the solver.

I've had a game or two in Letter Tycoon or Hardback where I've had my suspicions... several unusual, exotic or technical words are played in succession, each coming from vastly different arenas of life. You begin to wonder whether you are facing a genius or a fraud. You glance at their other playing statistics and start leaning towards the latter. But you can never really be sure. If you question them directly or imply something in the game chat, you will seem a sore loser and likely meet with flat denial. You can give them a silent down vote, but there's still a slim chance the player might be innocent. So how do these players acquire their infamy? I guess in a 3-player arena game you can share your suspicions with the 3rd player and see if there is a pattern over time?

In real-time players may detect a solver by checking time spent to create a word, or throwing some questions during the game.
The one I mentioned created 10+-letter obscure words constantly within 30s. Amazing, isn't it?
But somehow didn't know the differences among Scrabble dictionaries and wondered why his words being rejected.
That player fixed other Arena games with multiple accounts (didn't join Letter Tycoon Arena), then got banned in chat and forum.
I have met only 2 surefire solvers here yet though (the dude above, and a self-proclaimed school English teacher who played 'AEDINE').
Sure there may be few more I failed to notice.
But some players (including myself, starting from last few months) genuinely study dictionaries to play word games, yes.
I personally think the strongest overall and also 100% legit word game player here is TrentonTron.
If someone plays faster than him consistently, you should suspect solver use.

The way I dealt with it was that I just stopped playing letter tycoon! Maybe i am underestimating the english vocabularies of some of my brothers and sisters for whom it is a second language, but just the suspicion ruined the game for me. And there are plenty of others to play

Once the suspicion takes root, it will never be the same.

[Tokoloshe79]

There are some legitimate good players on here with competitive Scrabble records to match it. TrentonTron who you mention is one of them; I am another, having played for UK at three World Scrabble Championships (2003, 2005 and 2011)... and another regular Letter Tycoon player here is a former World Scrabble Champion (I won't name him but take my word for it -- he's my best friend).

The problem for people who have genuinely spent thousands of hours studying words by probability, etc. for the purpose of playing Scrabble, and who would hence be very good at this game and play very quickly, is that:

1) Everyone presumes you're cheating (which I understand)
2) It's painfully obvious when other people are use word-finding tools

Unfortunately as with Scrabble itself, there is simply no realistic solution that enables successful and cheat-free online play.

[Tokoloshe79]

Continuing the above, the only thing I can suggest is having some sort of separate BGA league or group for people who can verify their real life WESPA / NASPA / ABSP Scrabble rating. I've no idea how practical or desirable that is, though.

[Billy Pilgrim]

Kudos to the scrabble champions and i shall try and be less immediately suspicious next time i play a word game