Facebook, Scrabble and Scrabulous — Why all the Hulabaloo?

There couldn't be a better time for the intertubes to erupt in controversy over social games than the day after I post on the merits of real casual gaming in social media versus the self-proclaimed phenomenon of casual gaming, Nintendo's Wii.  I'm not sure what feeds you readers might check throughout the day, but a large group of my own feeds have been focused on the sensational Facebook game Scrabulous being shut down in the U.S. and Canada. 

I consider myself something of a wordsmith as a student of English, and do very much enjoy a game of Scrabble or speed Scrabble with friends on occasion, even if the better percentage of playing time is spent digging through the Scrabble dictionary for words that one friend we all have is sure are playable.  The magic of Scrabulous, for those of you who haven't developed full-blown addictions to the Facebook application, is that you can Scrabble your heart away with your friends from anywhere in the world with a computer.  We all understand the beauty of social gaming, so let's continue.  

The issue, of course, is that the application Scrabulous almost perfectly mimmicks the game Scrabble, which Scrabble creator Hasbro is not fond of.  Let's not kid ourselves — we aren't really playing Scrabulous, per se…we're playing Scrabble as interpreted by Scrabulous.  Scrabulous has been around since June of 2006, and since its inception, Hasbro wised up to the rave success of the internet game sensation and decided to provide a legitimate version of internet-based Scrabble back in January with gaming giant Electronic Arts.  EA never fails to spoil good games, and true to form, the real Scrabble internet application is buggy; some say, due to the bugs and problems, Scrabble online has never really gained a huge following, having only 15,000 or so daily users, according to Venture Beat.

But could it be that Scrabble really never had a chance at winning over the well-established Scrabulous fanbase?  Legally speaking, isn't it fair and just that Scrabulous be shut down so that the real game, Scrabble, can succeed for the people that created it?  The way I see it, the answer is no.  

Why should Scrabulous, a game that has taken the idea and concept of Scrabble and vastly improved upon it for the social community, be shut down so that a lack-luster and buggy version of the game can take its place (or try)?  Scrabulous went a step above where EA and Hasbro's Scrabble fell short.  Scrabulous has half a million daily users, many of which are based in the U.S. and Canada.  Why should they be penalized because Scrabulous made a game that is plain old better than the original Scrabble?

In my opinion, Hasbro needs to take a page from the Twitter buyout of Summize and purchase Scrabulous.  Why try to work with EA to bring online Scrabble up to the success of Scrabulous when Hasbro can instantaneously acquire a community of half a million daily users on an already proven platform?  Heck, if money is the issue, allow advertisers to display watermarked ads on the game board for players to hate you.  They're already peeved that Scrabulous isn't available inside the U.S. and Canada.  Act like a grown-up company and admit that someone has done what you do better, and work together in the interests of delivering users the best Scrabble application possible.  

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