Facebook is a social networking platform on the internet, designed to allow people to interact with friends across the globe. People can send notes, post pictures, play games and more with people they add as friends (often relatives, coworkers, friends, and long-lost school acquaintances). There are over 90 million Facebook users, and over two-thirds of those are here in the US.
Scrabulous is an application loaded into
Facebook by brothers
Jayant and
Rajat Agarwalla. They wanted a way to play Scrabble against each other, so developed this application to play online. They loaded it into
Facebook, and it has since become a social phenomenon. The game is essentially Scrabble; the board, the tiles and the rules are all identical to traditional Scrabble. In this online variation, you can take your turn whenever you want, minutes,
hours, days or even weeks apart. There are over 2 million people who play
Scrabulous on
Facebook. Yes, over 2 million. Over 500,000 people play
Scrabulous every day. (I am one of them!)
Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in the US and Canada. Mattel owns the international rights to Scrabble. Hasbro struck a deal with Electronic Arts to create an electronic version for online use. Mattel struck a deal with
RealNetworks to create an international version. Hasbro last week filed a lawsuit against
Scrabulous for copyright infringement. They waited a long time to file this suit, waiting until EA was ready to
lauch their version of Scrabble for
Facebook users, attempting to give
Facebook users an alternative.
And now for my superfluous opinion...This is a very foolish move on the part of Hasbro. They have a world-renowned game called Scrabble. People played it occasionally when I was growing up, but I haven't seen anyone pull out their Scrabble board in decades.
Scrabulous put this game back on the map. I have seen countless stories of how people have gone out to buy the board game after getting hooked on the
Facebook version. In fact, I myself had considered going to purchase one until my lovely wife informed me that her family has some Scrabble games in Michigan, and we may take one.
Now there are millions of
Facebook users who woke up yesterday morning to find the following notice when they
attempted to load their
Scrabulous games: actually, I went to grab a picture of the notice, and they have removed
Scrabulous entirely from
Facebook. Wow! All gone. At least this morning it still appeared there was some glimmer they would come back. Well, anyway...
Literally thousands have jumped on the bandwagon in anger at Hasbro, joining online petitions, groups, etc. Some have called for a boycott of Hasbro. Will any of it do any good? Probably not. Hasbro has every right to file a lawsuit against
Scrabulous. They have every right to demand removal of the game from
Facebook's site. In fact, many wonder how
Scrabulous endured so long. Perhaps it was only because Hasbro wanted to tap these
Facebook users for themselves, and waited until their own
Facebook application was ready for launch. Unfortunately for them, that was a catastrophe. Many couldn't load the new application, probably because Hasbro/
EA's app wasn't ready for the onslaught of 500,000 people that Tuesday morning. Those that were able to load the program were
extremely disappointed in the quality. I myself went to the app home page and said "forget it" after reading only horrible review after horrible review. I even refreshed the page and found only more anger from users. I had several games (probably 10) going at the time.
The
Agarwalla brothers, creators of
Scrabulous, did not originally create the game to make money, but now earn about $25,000 a month on advertisement revenue through
Facebook. Do they deserve this money? Maybe not. However, getting your product to an online market, and having it be such an addictive product - that's pretty valuable, especially in these days. Hasbro has missed this. Or perhaps feels they can just grab it, as if it was their idea all along. I'd be ecstatic if I could get 2 million people to see my product once, let alone have 500,000 trying to use it daily. Did I mention that
Scrabulous is the most-loaded game application in
Facebook? It is. Hasbro should have struck a deal with these brothers, and I predict they will regret this move. Using heavy-handed (but clearly legal) tactics was a poor decision. Even if this turns into profit for Hasbro, I submit to you that it would have been more profitable to work out an amicable deal with
Scrabulous. I may never be able to prove it, though. Hats off to Hasbro...Way to blow a big opportunity and ruin your potential relationship with millions in this new generation!
Syndi went to Camp Barakel this summer.
Here Syndi is embarking on her journey.
Here Syndi doesn't appear too sure about all this, as she waits beside the bus in Flint, MI.
Here Syndi is embarking on her journey.
Here Syndi doesn't appear too sure about all this, as she waits beside the bus in Flint, MI.
Syndi looks ready to go now!
Syndi looks ready to go now!
Syndi adjusted to camp life quickly.
She made friends with Becca and many others.
Syndi was part of the Orange Tigers Tribe during her week at Camp Barakel.
Syndi adjusted to camp life quickly.
She made friends with Becca and many others.
Syndi was part of the Orange Tigers Tribe during her week at Camp Barakel.
They met to say the pledge of allegiance to the American flag each morning.
This is Syndi's cabin, Arrowhead #4.
Syndi's cabinmates, Sam and Ashley.
Syndi said that during her free time she and Becca went out on the lake in a canoe.
Thursday night they had a campfire cookout, where they roasted hot dogs.
Here she is with her tribemates.
They had to make the best mascot.
They met in chapel every morning and every night.
The official Orange Tigers Tribe photo.
