In regards to the $read, just use a wildcard search - $read(hangman.txt,w,$2) (will match exactly that word as the line)
Quite a few /if\'s can be removed by using &\'s in the matchtext for on TEXTs such as the first one which could be !hangman & &
There is no need for (( )) for the conditionals of the /if\'s (can use 1 or 0 () in some cases)