The board game Scrabble is now officially on Facebook. It has a decent interface and it's a valid time waster, however it's so tied up in nasty legal issues, it might as well run against the competition with it's laces tied together.
Digital Journal -- It's a case of corporations dragging their feet while at the same time tickling the public's throat with a finger full of nauseating legalese: The official game of Scrabble is now available on Facebook, as long as you don't live in North America. Oh, and as long as you don't already use the competing "
Scrabulous" that has been online for years.
In 2005 Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla of Calcutta, India, launched a Scrabble-like game on the Internet called Scrabulous, bringing it to Facebook two years later. It has been an enormous success with millions of people looking for triple word scores on the Web. On Facebook alone, there are more than 600,000 daily users of Scrabulous.
Screenshot by Premkudva Scrabulous is an online game similar to Scrabble. It has become enormously popular on the social networking site Facebook.
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But like everything big, it becomes a target and in January
Hasbro threatened the company with a lawsuit if it didn't take the application down. Hasbro argued the layout, rules and number of tiles in Scrabulous were far too similar to Scrabble and infringed on the ugly c word: copyrights. Rather than launching their own free online version years ago, Hasbro was knuckle-dragging in today's webcentric world and it's no real surprise someone else came in to fill the void. Despite the take-down notice, the program still flourishes on Facebook after its users banded together to form groups to petition and save the app (including one group with 14,000 members).
Now, the "real" Scrabble has finally stepped into the online ring. RealNetworks is behind the online version of Scrabble, until now staying eerily quiescent (19 points, thank you) on the whole issue of copyrights online. It has launched its version on Facebook called "Scrabble by Mattel." Yeah I know what you're thinking: It's a word game and that was the best name they could come up with?
Screenshot by DigitalJournal.com RealNetworks has launched Scrabble by Mattel, and application on the social networking site Facebook that lets users play Scrabble online. Drawbacks: Because of licensing issues you can't play if you live in North America.
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And here comes the kicker: Because of licensing issues it's only available to users outside U.S. and Canada.
As the New York Times reports, however, it relies on the honour system and asks users to be truthful about where they live.
The rights for Scrabble are beyond complicated, and launching an online version crippled by rules and boundaries is pointless. It's like skating out on to the rink against its biggest competitor with skate guards on (if you've never done this, don't try it -- it'll put you on your butt faster than you can say "ouch"). The honour-system safety net is laughable, but if it gets the company around the legal tape it works.
Scrabble's legal troubles stem from problems with owning rights; Hasbro owns the rights in North America and Mattel owns it everywhere else. Wait it gets better: RealNetworks has a "digital deal" with both companies but gaming giant Electronic Arts also has a digital deal with Hasbro. Wait a sec, not done yet: RealNetworks is reportedly not involved in any legal issues against Scrabulous, while Hasbro and Mattel are. In today's webscape, getting things done under such an arrangement would be messier than a Paul McCartney-Heather Mills divorce settlement.
The whole time the big boys sumo wrestle over rights, Scrabulous continues to move forward in cruise control. Not surprisingly, as of Sunday the official Scrabble by Mattel on Facebook had 2,000 daily Facebook users while Scrabulous sails along at an average of 600,000.
RealNetwork's version of Scrabble is also still in Beta, so a buyout or partnership with Scrabulous still isn't totally out of the question.
As ABC reports, RealNetworks spokesman Ryan Luckin said:
Although the new official application could be construed as a Scrabulous replacement, Luckin said that RealNetworks is still in talks with the Agarwalla brothers; he declined to reveal details of those discussions.
"At the end of the day no matter what game is out there with a Scrabble trademark on it, it has to be approved by Mattel and Hasbro," he said. "So no matter what happens we want to work with them ... and also make this work for the Scrabulous guys as well.
The official game is designed well, easy to use and fun, but it can also be slow to load and doesn't always quickly update an opponent's move.
The whole ordeal should be a lesson to old dusty corporations still struggling to figure out the Web: Get your pieces out on the board and don't hold back for that big powerful move. By the time you can spell your lunch, your competition has already eaten it.
