Gawker: valleywag, hasbro

Most Infuriating Monopoly Yet, for Google Maps

Ryan Tate — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:38:12 EDT

Monopoly is a terrible, depressing board game; as one expert famously said, it's all about "grinding your opponents into dust" while you cackle. But at least the gouging and economic ruin has been confined to cardboard. Until now.

Hasbro has announced the creation of a "live worldwide game of Monopoly using Google Maps as the game board;" the involvement of Google, which lets anyone mash-up its map using a public API, is unclear. What is known, per the Guardian, is that you get three million virtual dollars with which to "buy" actual land, knock down buildings, erect skyscrapers, construct prisons, or pay "rent" to some jerk looking to bankrupt you. At least when he does, you won't have to see the smug look of victory on his face. (Until version 2.0.)

Scrabulous brand sentenced to death in India

Jackson West — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:40:00 EDT

Mattel, owner of the Scrabble brand outside of the United States, brought suit against brothers Jayant and Rajat Aggarwal, creators of Scrabulous, for copyright and trademark infringment. Delhi High Court judge S Ravindra Bhat has ruled that while Mattel couldn't claim copyright on the board design, it could defend its trademark. The Aggarwal brothers must not use the name "Scrabulous" in any form, including in links or source code.

The popular Facebook application version had already been banned by the social network, both in the US and in India, but a new version called Wordscraper appeared, but now competes with official versions from Mattel and US rightsholder Hasbro. (Image by k1v1n)

Scrabulous returns wearing fake moustache, calls itself Wordscraper

Jackson West — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:40:00 EDT

Wordscraper is the latest Facebook game that looks remarkably like Scrabble from developers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla. The new name and new look will hopefully be enough to keep the law dogs from Hasbro and Electronic Arts from running it out of town like they did to Scrabulous. Besides the new name and the new color scheme, players are allowed to modify the board and futz with the rules.

If it ends up looking like Scrabble, it'll be the users who are infringing on copyrights, not the creators. One problem Wordscraper might have in becoming as popular as Scrabulous once was? Scrabulous has completely disappeared from Facebook profiles, meaning members will have to look for and re-select Wordscraper. When searching apps for "Scrabble," finding the official version is much easier, and Facebook has made it harder for apps to spread from user to user on the social network. So, anyone up for a game of Attack?

Facebook disables Scrabulous, forces white people to play Scrabble instead

Paul Boutin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:20:00 EDT

According to a Facebook spokesmonkey, "In response to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice." Let me help you with that blog post you're writing in your head: First they came for the Scrabulous players ... [CNET]

Hasbro sues Scrabulous creators, who could have gotten away with it

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:20:00 EDT

Hasbro, maker of board game Scrabble, has filed suit in a New York court against Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the brothers who created Scrabulous, a Facebook-app version of the game. Hasbro also filed a DMCA notice with Facebook, asking that the company remove the game from its website because it infringes on Hasbro's copyright. I'm not a lawyer, and neither is Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman — but he has managed to get away with his own bit of copying other people's games, turning Tetris into Blockles and Pictionary into Draw My Thing, for example. Forman tells us that the Agarwallas would be totally in the clear if they'd only copied Scrabble's rules in building Scrabulous. Game rules can't be copyrighted, argues Forman. But since the Scrabulous guys also copied the physical appearance of the Scrabble board — which can be copyrighted — Forman thinks they're screwed.

Electronic Arts wants its games on Facebook

Mary Jane Irwin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:57:11 EST

Electronic Arts is learning to ask questions like "What is your sex song?" and "Hottie" requests. That's right, the videogames giant is leaping into the world of Facebook applications. Former EA Los Angeles general manager Neil Young is in charge of a "stealth division" believed to be EA Blueprint, which will develop and publish games to social networks. At least someone who knows what they're doing will be making games for the network. But if these rumors pan out, this at least sheds a bit more light on the threatened shutdown of Scrabulous.

EA has the rights to make digital copies of Hasbro games, of which it announced a slew this morning. It's also stepping into Scrabulous's ultrapopular arena. As EA Hasbro general manager Chip Lange told me late last week, Electronic Arts wants to get each Hasbro title onto as many platforms as possible. Even if that means sticking us with more useless application requests from friends.

Addicted to Scrabulous? This might cure it

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:00:10 EST

Facebook applications aren't useful — except perhaps as fodder for Fergie parodies. Here's "Scrabulous," the inevitable music video, which reminds you, "L,T, S and R / ain't going to get you very far / J, Z, Q, "Dub" / That's the stuff you gotta love." Slant rhymes are hott. Hurry up with the lawsuit, wouldya, Hasbro?

Hasbro wants to shut down Scrabulous

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:27:50 EST

Starting a 12-step Scrabulous-recovery plan may be a lot easier than all you addicts think. Hasbro wants to make it impossible for the Facebook app's 2.3 million users to fall off the wagon by shutting down the Scrabble copycat. It sent a notice to Facebook two weeks ago. Jayant Agarwalla, half of the two-man team behind the Web and Facebook apps, says he doesn't get Hasbro's deal. It obviously wouldn't have anything to do with using its intellectual property to score "over $25,000 a month."