Hasbro must die

I have been playing online games for quite a while now. And obviously, some of them do close down from time to time. Normally when that happens, I simply shrug my shoulders and then go surf some porn.

So it was rather out of character for me then that, when news of Bogglific’s closure reached my horrified eyes, I lay down and had a good weep. I simply adore this game. First, it’s a word game which automatically makes it fun. But more importantly, there’s a rating system which ranks your score against that of every other player (I was 92nd out of 41,000 at the time of closure) meaning that you constantly have the urge to get better and better and better. In fact, the only thing I can think of that could possibly be more addictive would be snorting cocaine off Jessica Alba’s naked body.

Unfortunately, Hasbro has decided to stick its nose into things. It claims that Bogglific violates copyright over the original Boggle rules and that therefore it must be squashed. Roger Nesbitt, the developer of Bogglific, for whom I have the utmost non-sexual love, posted this on the Bogglific page a few days ago:

“I’m no lawyer, and can’t see how it violates copyright. But I have neither the time nor the money to fight this, and Facebook has given me a grace period of 48 hours to shut the application down voluntarily.”

Clearly, this is a tragedy. With Bogglific gone and Miss Alba apparently busy being pregnant, I have been left twiddling my thumbs. By now, you might be thinking: “Ah, so that’s why the fool hasn’t blogged in three months.” And I would have to politely point out that you’d be right.

But that’s beside the point. What really irks me is this. For a company that developed Scrabble and Boggle, two games that no one has been able to better in almost 60 years, Hasbro is incredibly shortsighted. It is obvious that the web is the next step in bringing these games to the masses. It is even more obvious that when someone’s already done the pesky programming and even the marketing for you in some way, you don’t go and step on their throats.

Surely, Hasbro’s marketing department could’ve come up with a way of using these online variations to their benefit. Advertising, licensing, subscriptions, a world Bogglific championship event. If nothing else, at least they’d gain the goodwill of the (rather sizeable) playing community. Perhaps, the folks at Hasbro should be sent for this seminar. At least they’d learn a thing or two.

Thankfully though, Bogglific might yet be saved. A petition has been launched and it seems there’ll be an announcement on Bogglific’s fate on the 24th of this month. Till then, I’ll just have to make do with Noggin’.