Scrabble babble
One of the Web’s most popular games — an online version of Scrabble — has been removed from Facebook. The social network site was under pressure from Hasbro to take down the Scrabulous game. More than 1 million Facebook users played the word game.
However, some business experts believe Hasbro’s attempt to protect its intellectual property is an example of a marketing opportunity lost.
Peter Fader, co-director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, believes Hasbro’s action is an “incredibly bad business decision.” There is no evidence the Agarwalla brothers were doing “something absolutely disparaging” to the Scrabble brand, he says. In fact, Scrabulous “has been such a fabulously good thing for the Scrabble franchise [that] Hasbro should have been celebrating.”
A Business Week debate on the topic is here.
Hasbro has launched its own version of Scrabble as a Facebook application, but it hasn’t yet caught on with users. Meanwhile, the Scrabulous creators have devised a game called Wordscraper, which is so flexible that users are able to recreate the Scrabble online experience.
Scrabulous fans also can find the game at Scrabulous.com.
If you’re just looking for some tips about how to improve your Scrabble skills, there’s a great discussion at Ask Metafilter.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
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