Scrabulous No More?

[swestrup]

It looks like Hasbro is suing Scrabulous for using the Scrabble game without paying a licensing fee. It seems unlikely (to me) that Scrabulous will win the suit, so it may get shut down.

Comments

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

Suspicious. Games.com has a version of Scrabble.

[kinra.livejournal.com]

If it's called "Scrabble" then it's probably licensed. If it's called "jovial word-crossing game" then it may not need a license.

Anyway, Scrabulous is kind of annoying, but they've certainly put together a successful online implementation. With their ad revenue I'm surprised they didn't pursue a license.

[pythonian.livejournal.com]

Not so. The board is also protected. No doubt the tiles (shape and font), letter distribution and even the tile racks are too. The only thing not protected by Hasbro is the velvet Crown Royal bag that several families ended up using as the tile bag. :-)

Other sites, such as "It's Your Turn", avoided the issue by renaming the game, changing the board and offering a different letter frequency distribution. Some claim it is a more realistic and therefore superior distribution but I'll leave that for each player to decide.

As far as being annoying, that is one opinion. Personally, I find it one of the best parts of Facebook and would have played on the home site had there not been a Facebook application. The only problem I see is that it keeps running into server limitations. Too popular for its own good I guess. :-)

[ellenk.livejournal.com]

It's been running smoothly ever since they upgraded their servers from what I've seen, and I play it a LOT. I'm addicted; I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself if they shut it down!

(Well, I guess I do; I'll do all that stuff I should have been doing while I've been playing Scrabulous)

[pythonian.livejournal.com]

Yes, for now it is. However, the most recent upgrade was the second in about 3 months or so. Clearly it is popular.

I too play it way too much and will miss it if it goes. :-)