Scrabblers comments
Mick:
E A has introduced a so called new version of online scrabble which is nothing like the old game its garish layout is awful to say the least no consideration was given to the millions of people who played this game world wide, and the humanitarian view should have been looked at, to many people the old game house version was more than a game especially if they were disabled or housebound , it was a therapy, a sanctuary , a reason , a way to meet friends all over the world, all this has gone now. Also EA has removed Pet Society another well loved game played by thousands of loyal customers without any real explanation , please reconsider your actions and a least communicate with us Bring Back The Scrabble We Love group and Pet Society because we have no intentions of stopping protesting untill you do.
No money was involved there revenue came from advertising.
Vivienne Maynard: I am long term disabled and often housebound. I really loved the traditional Scrabble game and made many friends through playing. I have now lost touch with these friends, most of whom had a lot in common with my present circumstances, and we encouraged each other. How anyone could just come along and change a truly beautiful game into the awful thing it is now is mind boggling and beyond belief. The inventor of the original game must be horrified. I can't express enough how much I miss it, as now my days and nights are long with nothing to look forward to (though I did have a dream once that I was playing scrabble). What a let down after I woke up!!) I hope that Mattel/AE will have a change of heart and realize how much damage their actions have had on so many people, and will re-instate the old Scrabble, either on it's own or alongside the new one. I wouldn't even mind paying for the game, if that is an option.
EA took a perfectly good game and ruined it all in the name of monetisation. They changed the board from the subtle and subdued traditional board to a casino style monstrosity that is not at all conducive to the studied thought that a game of Scrabble involves. There are so many ads that the game is unplayable, I believe this is intentional because of course removal of the ads is one of the optional upgrades that they can charge for.
What used to be a dictionary is now a word list which means that what used to be an educational game now has all the education factor of a jigsaw puzzle. You aren't building words to beat your opponent, but simply assembling letters in a random order until the light turns green. THAT'S NOT SCRABBLE
Chris Hewitt: The new board is garish. The definition of garish is crude, tastelessly colourful, showy and elaborate. The traditional Scrabble board game is cultured which means polished, and refined. Scrabble is and always will be a game for players who love words.
Julian Daffern Writes.......
The Scrabble Rebellion
On May the twenty seventh of this year players of the Gamehouse version of online Scrabble were shocked to find that the game they knew had been changed almost beyond recognition. They had been informed for several weeks previously to this that there was going to be an “upgrade” to the game, but were given no details of what this would actually mean. Mattel own the rights to Scrabble and prior to this licensed out the online rights for the game to Hasbro for the United States and Canada and to Gamehouse for the rest of the world. The changes to the game for the rest of the world were a consequence of Mattel awarding the online rights to Electronic Arts (EA).
What EA did was not an upgrade of the Gamehouse version of Scrabble; instead they completely replaced it with what many players found to be a far inferior version of the game. Immediately after the change, new pages and groups began to appear on Facebook set up by disgruntled players of the old version. After a few days there were dozens of pages and thousands of members began talking to each other in order to coordinate the protest. The largest of these groups is “Bring Back the Scrabble We Love” with over three thousand members, https://www.facebook.com/groups/492649110806594/. Complaints began to flood into the Mattel and Scrabble fan pages but were completely ignored apart from a patronising statement from Mattel about change being frustrating. What angered players more was when Mattel and EA began deleting many negative comments on their pages and also barring many people from their pages altogether, even though they had always been polite and never abusive. A week or so after the campaign to restore the old game started there were several articles in the media including the BBC, but still only a copy of the initial standard response came from Mattel who had also received hundreds of emails from players and yet, had not answered one complaint apart from an automated response.
One of the initial problems with the replacement of the old version was the fact that players had contacts on Scrabble who they played and chatted with regularly, sometimes for years and sometimes supporting each other through difficult times in their lives. These people were not always friends on Facebook and were only identified in the game by their first name and the first letter of their surname, so when the changes took place, people lost these contacts without warning and with no way of finding them again. Many illustrations of this point can be found on the page “Scrabble the Game with a Heart”: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scrabble-The-Game-With-Heart/137294323135332
Functionality was also a major problem with the new game, in the old Gamehouse version players had the ability to choose games with various timed turns; the new game does not have this feature. Players could view prospective opponent’s stats before choosing to play them; the new game chooses a random opponent. The old game auto refreshed; in the new game you have to “poke” your opponent to let them know it is their turn. There was a display of tiles remaining in the bag; in the new version players have to pay for this feature. The Gamehouse version was played on a traditional board, whilst in the new game there is an option to pay for playing on a traditional board or else play on a cartoon version of the game.
Mattel and EA have continued to ignore Emails, block comments and delete comments by people with a genuine concern and a love of the game of Scrabble. This is not good customer service and we will continue to campaign for the restoration of the old game.
As a result of Mattel continuing to ignore us we have set up a central address for people not happy with this situation to post letters to and an email address for those who can’t send letters. A delegation will deliver them to Mattel's office in Australia on September the 11th. The address is 27 Robertson Street,CASTERTON,Victoria,Australia 3311 and emails to scrabbqueenpp@outlook.com. Come on Scrabblers and fight for our game!
Scrabble
MATTELL/EA EMPLOYEE:
ooooh I am so excited, I've been given the opportunity to ruin a perfectly working game of Scrabble, which was enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people. Plus I have been given a huge bonus and increase in pay, and after all I am perfectly equipped to do this because I have never played a game in my life.
I realise that I need a huge team of people to help to do this, and I am going to make a real job of replacing the game.
I know what I can do, i will get EA to help me.
1. I will get rid of timed games, they had too much fun with this, and in any case i couldn;t think of a word to put down in less than two minutes, how can they?
2. Why do they need the old board, I'll given them a new brighter one, Las Vegas style, It won;t matter too much that it will cause physical problems for some.
3. Give them the option to play without ads, as before, I don;t think so, make em pay for a game to be played ad free.
4. Oooh dear me there are so many different things, maybe they will just shut up or put up with it. (I am really looking forward to my bonus later this year)
5. when the error report comes, up plus other things, I'll just chuck in an "OOPS" that should shut the players up.
6. Why do they need to see specifically which tiles have been used and which are left at the end of the game, I DON;T SEE THE POINT, so I will demolish that aspect.
7. why all this fuss, when I have made it available on "hand held devices" and in different languages.
anyhow, all I am concerned about is my new project and my future.