Sometimes change is not good

Sometimes change is not good

I’m back to playing tons of Scrabble. Although after my four-five month absence, I find myself wholly out-classed these days. However, it isn’t the losing that has irritated me the most, it’s that Hasbro has changed the game. Not the rules or anything, but the color scheme. Triple word scores, which used to be easily identified as red are now orange. Double word scores, once pretty in pink are now some form of putrid red. Even the board itself is no longer a gentle beige, but an absurd blueish thing. It was so horrifyingly distracting.
And now Hasbro has started its own version of Scrabulous on facebook. I was invited by the company to Beta test it because of my blogs, but I have to say I haven’t found anyone willing to complete a game with me on it because, well, it sucks.
First off, you cannot play in the challenge mode, which is the only way honest, God-fearing, red blooded Americans play Scrabble. Second, the graphics and animation are terrible. I believe Ugarles’ comment when we first started our game was “does Hasbro think we’re retarded.” Indeed, the bells and whistles are so overpowering they make it difficult to play your word or see clever hooks. It also makes it impossible to load at work – and dude, what’s the point of having a game on facebook if you can’t play at work.
So I don’t know what the outcome of this lawsuit will be, but I hope they come to some agreement whereby EA just agrees to buy Scrabulous - or take it by fiat, and we get the same Scrabulous interface without the copyright infringement guilt. Oh, but I am having a wicked awesome game against the poor Flying Pink Unicorn, who is explaining his current three hundred point deficit by saying that he’s taking it easy on me. He then promised to kick my arse at 80s Mets trivia…to which I responded with a hearty…bring it.