I agree with everything Jim Miller said. (I know we hear that all the time on cgp, but it needed to be said.) I had a friend who was CTO at one of the biggest gaming sites on the net. He constantly bemoaned the difficulty he had with the Scrabble lawyers despite his honest attempts to engender good vibes and do things "their way." After a few years of trying he gave up, and now sends me trip reports from Fiji. (Intenet gaming did just fine without Scrabble, thankyou.) The thing is with a little effort, the corporation could parlay their spirited trademark protection into one kick-ass site with even a small allocation of resources. AND this would be a great opportunity to cross-promote these things with their biannual real-life promotions. Maybe the corporate decision makers have a fear that the z-generation is going to move to virtual games and not buy their products. Newsflash: not making Scrabble a virtual offering isn't going to stop this; it will only limit the visibility of Scrabble in a market that has no shortage of options. Maybe there is an official corporate site coming "just around the corner," or maybe there already is one, but it's so low on the radar that I missed it. Maybe that's my fault, but I doubt it. Either way, the trademark holders are squandering a magnificent marketing opportunity. As I've often said to idiot poker-room managers on the gambling newsgroups, give me a monopoly, and I'll show you what to do with it.
Seriously.

Last Modified 2/22/01

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