'Scrabulous' debate may rewrite the rules of the game
"I'll go on a hunger strike!"
So said one adamant Facebook user in the wake of the news that game manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel were trying to do something about the wildly popular, unquestionably addictive online game known as Scrabulous.
The game, which rose to fame when its creators turned it into an embeddable Facebook application, is a word game that's a whole lot like the classic board game Scrabble. It uses a playing board with "bonus" spots just like Scrabble. In fact, the rules are identical to Scrabble's.
The companies in charge of the "real" Scrabble, for obvious reasons, aren't happy.
Game companies Hasbro, which distributes Scrabble in North America, and Mattel, which is responsible for its overseas trademarks, have reportedly asked Facebook to remove the game from its application directory. And you can tell it's a serious legal matter because nobody's talking.
Facebook declined to confirm the report, and it said that it has not yet issued any kind of statement about Scrabulous; representatives from Hasbro did not respond to calls for comment.
The similarities between Scrabble and Scrabulous are crystal-clear, and it's a no-brainer to see why Hasbro and Mattel are miffed. To add to that, Scrabulous serves up advertisements, which means that its creators are making money off the concept. But what the game companies really ought to do is take a step back and realize that they can use Scrabulous to their advantage--without removing the viral game from Facebook.
Fans of Scrabulous, for one, aren't happy about the takedown news. On Facebook, an unofficial group called "Save Scrabulous" is growing fast, with more than 7,000 users at last count (and 5,000 hours before.) Its members, including the aforementioned "hunger striker," are livid.
"Leave Scrabulous alone!" one of them posted in the group's message board, a thinly veiled allusion to the "Leave Britney Alone" viral video.
Others were more visceral: "I've burnt my Scrabble board in protest!" one exclaimed.
A game of Scrabulous on Facebook.
(Credit: Scrabulous)Scrabulous is the creation of two brothers in India, Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, who founded Scrabulous.com in 2006. When Facebook launched its developer platform in May, the Agarwallas soon transformed their Scrabble spin-off into an application designed for the social network, and it caught on like wildfire. More than 2 million Facebook members are active Scrabulous users, and several hundred thousand of them play the game each day.
It was a catch-22 for the Agarwallas. The "Scrabulous guys" became Facebook celebrities, but the exposure meant that they were much more visible--and so were the obvious similarities between Scrabble and Scrabulous.
"It wouldn't be an issue if Scrabulous weren't so popular, right?" observed Darren Herman, director of digital media for marketing firm The Media Kitchen. It's the sheer mass of Facebook Scrabulous users that have made it a high-profile case as well as an inevitably ugly situation, if the game is indeed taken down. "We're seeing the power of social media in its early days. Since we're still trying to figure out the rules of the game, no pun intended, these types of issues are bound to arise."
In other words, according to Herman, the debate over Scrabulous is indicative of the fact that the world--or at least certain mainstays of the game industry--still hasn't quite figured out that a traditional course of action just doesn't always work on the Web.
"I don't think they are crazy to think this way," Darren Herman said when asked if Hasbro and Mattel are totally off base. "Scrabble came out in a time when everyone guarded their (intellectual property) tightly."
In the old order, a takedown notice may have been the only route. But this is the Web, and plenty of people have pointed out that Hasbro and Mattel are sitting on a marketing gold mine with Scrabulous. They have a gleefully addicted fan base, a machine for viral buzz (Facebook's platform), and the deep pockets to offer to buy Scrabulous outright--or at least strike an innovative advertising deal.
There's also no direct competitor. Neither Hasbro nor Mattel operates a Web-based, ad-supported version of Scrabble; video game manufacturer Electronic Arts owns the rights to electronic versions of the game, and it currently sells a PC game of Scrabble for about $20. (EA was not available for comment on the Scrabulous issue.) With Scrabulous, all three companies may be sitting on a marketing treasure trove.
Hasbro and Mattel might not get it. But the members of Save Scrabulous think that they do.
"Do these greedy fools not realize that they should be paying the creators of Scrabulous for all the damn fans of the game they created?" one angry Scrabulous fan from the United Kingdom asked on the group's "wall." He brought up a further point--that this is getting people excited about the musty old board game in a way they haven't in years. "It's like the music vids put on YouTube. It makes me buy tracks I never would have done, and frankly, before this game emerged, Scrabble was just something for rainy days in my childhood."
Another member of the group put it more concisely. "Scrabulous brought Scrabble back in style. They should be thankful."
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
Welcome to 2008, you should have built your own online versions 10 years ago.
Wake up the old men in mangement and show them what a computer looks like.
Its their game and their trademark, they could run their own ads or take the ad revenue.
Its hard to see any value that the Scrabulous guys could add to this. Why should Hasbro reward them for infringing?
Because if a company the size of Hasbro, Mattel, or EA (for that matter) tried to build something like Scrabulous themselves, it would take them a over a year, cost them millions of dollars, and probably work half as well. They'd involve Marketing, outside focus group consultants, teams of business analysts, and dozens of programmers. By the time they finished, all of the Scrabulous fans would have moved on to the next "new" thing. It'd be much better for everyone involved if they'd just buy out the Scabulous guys and admit that they didn't think of it first.
I hate to tell you guys, but this is copyright infringement.
And lastly, Scrabble has to be one of the top 5 selling board games consecutively every year. Whether the people at Hasbro and Mattle are old men, fat cats, behind the times, etc. is irrelevant. They... umm... own it.
Instead Scrabulous has opened up an interactive world with 2 million users - and still the elephant won't get off the pot. Seems to me, stupid economics on their part aside, that this is a repressive (holdback) form of patent enforcement - exactly what patent reforms were meant to eliminate. While acknowledging the primacy of the original idea - and perhaps forcing the new user (Scrabulous) to license it - let's not constrain those that develop an idea in useful, constructive directions. Otherwise the notions of "content protection" and "intellectual copyright" become narrowly punitive, as they no longer serve the inventor of the idea but the conglomerate sitting on the rights - to the exclusion of the public good.
Thanks,
John
The next line of the original article clarifies the statement which
you find incorrect. "Neither Hasbro nor Mattel operates a Web-
based, ad-supported version of Scrabble..."
The Yahoo! version is a try and buy for $19.99, not a free (ad-
supported) web version. I'm assuming you didn't mean Literati...
Scrabble's ugly cousin.
I find your last sentence to be a little harsh as well. There's no
need to be condescending.
Happy Scrabbling!
--Joe
licensed Scrabble just a short time ago. It was offered on
games.atari.com, along with a number of other classic games,
including Monopoly, Boggle, Battleship, and Yahtzee.
While it did not have some of the more helpful
networking/game-saving features of Scrabulous, it was a very
attractive and complete representation of the game of Scrabble,
playable by parties online simultaneously.
Unfortunately, now that Hasbro acquired the rights to Scrabble,
the "Atari" version disappeared. There is a statement to that
effect here: http://corporate.infogrames.com/infogramesgb/2007/07/new_
agreement_with_hasbro.php
I'd been hoping that this version would resurface, but I'll admit
to using Scrabulous in the meantime.
I'm just surprised that the very recent Atari version hasn't made
any article that I've seen.
The boat has long since left the dock on stopping infringing uses if they ever really existed past 1970. Indeed a strict interpretation of Scabble as a patent, rather than a registered trademark, would ask why they didn't claim crossword puzzles, which probably came first as infringing.
no online alternative in place. As usual, it seems that customers
matter little, only the money and reputation! They should be
quick to form a partnership with these guys to get the most out
of the new fans of the game.
We are in an electronic age, Hasbro, like it or lump it. Good
marketing on your part would be seeking to capitalise on such
innovations, not to crush them. That's ancient thinking. Just
demand a share of the profits and let them be. Think of the
possibilities across the Web! I hope this ends amicably and in a
beneficial way for everyone.
Hasbro and Mattel have every right to shut down the unofficial Scrabulous.
- by scrabulous1969 July 30, 2008 9:27 AM PDT
- Hasbro has taken all our funaway! WHY? It's not like scrabulous is making money out of this. Scrabulous is much more fun than sramble version! Ahhhh, maybe that's why, feeling a little green? You guys are too much! I will NEVER buy an other Hasbro game again and will pass that around!
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