I remember playing here years ago and the words were much easier when I played with friends. Now, the wordlist is US and my friends and I who play for fun find them much more challenging. This results in us skipping quite a bit which isn't as fun.

Is there a way to play US easy with my friends? I also noticed a VIP room but couldn't get in.

Hey cakecake and welcome to the forum :)

I've also noticed the wordlists contain a few more harder words than usual. I gather the idea is to introduce more players to drawing these harder words by using syllables like this (http://www.isketch.net/instructions/gfx/a_incompetent.gif), for example.

It may take a bit of getting used to, but I find "syllabifying" words makes these words easier to draw. Also you could use the definition button. This appears next to the iSketch logo when it's your turn to draw. At the moment I don't think there's any way of playing "US Easy" or "UK Easy", but why not try something a bit more challenging ;)

Also, VIP rooms are only accessible by registered players. There have been discussions about registrations, but as yet registrations aren't generally available.