Comments on: Follow the Lead-Users, Not with Cease-and-Desists http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2008/08/07/follow-the-lead-users-not-with-cease-and-desists.html Musings of a techie lawyer Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7-bleeding By: Recent Links Tagged With "hasbro" - JabberTags http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2008/08/07/follow-the-lead-users-not-with-cease-and-desists.html#comment-3840 Recent Links Tagged With "hasbro" - JabberTags Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:45:17 +0000 http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/?p=538#comment-3840 [...] public links >> hasbro Follow the Lead-Users, Not with Cease-and-Desists Saved by teeandcee on Thu [...] [...] public links >> hasbro Follow the Lead-Users, Not with Cease-and-Desists Saved by teeandcee on Thu [...]

]]> By: Bret Fausett http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2008/08/07/follow-the-lead-users-not-with-cease-and-desists.html#comment-3835 Bret Fausett Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:09:39 +0000 http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/?p=538#comment-3835 It's not entirely fair to characterize the Scrabulous team as only the technology innovators in the story. I haven't done any legal work for Hasbro in years, but once upon a time, waaaaay back in the 90s, I helped Hasbro and its then subsidiary Games.com launch a truly innovative site at, where else, Games.com. Scrabble has been online at Games.com for *years*, together with its brothers and sisters Monopoly and Boggle and Clue and countless other games. From my perspective, which is obviously biased by being a bit of an insider, Hasbro has been one of the leaders in online gaming. -- Bret P.S. I think you know my view on Cease and Desists. ;-) http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/05/legal/ It’s not entirely fair to characterize the Scrabulous team as only the technology innovators in the story. I haven’t done any legal work for Hasbro in years, but once upon a time, waaaaay back in the 90s, I helped Hasbro and its then subsidiary Games.com launch a truly innovative site at, where else, Games.com. Scrabble has been online at Games.com for *years*, together with its brothers and sisters Monopoly and Boggle and Clue and countless other games. From my perspective, which is obviously biased by being a bit of an insider, Hasbro has been one of the leaders in online gaming.

— Bret

P.S. I think you know my view on Cease and Desists. ;-)
http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/05/legal/

]]> By: Nick Kellet http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2008/08/07/follow-the-lead-users-not-with-cease-and-desists.html#comment-3826 Nick Kellet Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:38:58 +0000 http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/?p=538#comment-3826 Organic innovation and Hasbro/Mattel simply don't go. They have always acquired or licensed their major brands. That's just a fact of life. They do a great job of accepting the fact and work well with indie game designers to license/acquire their wares. As time goes by they actually shy away from creating their own brand IP and rely more and more on licensed ideas from movies and TV. Cranium and Apples to Apples are two great brands acquired last year by Hasbro and Mattel respectively. Both these brands were created in their own right and succeeded because they were innovative. Commenting as an indie board game publisher of GiftTRAP, best party game 2008, I'm happy with the fact they don't innovate. I believe they may have created a problem in Wordscaper that could come back to bite them at a retail level. Wordscraper has many facets of a "Designer" board game such as "Settlers of Catan" or "Carcassone". The whole "Designer" game category is emerging where the designers are just as important to a game player as the author is to a book reader. Random game setup as seen in Wordscaper is a popular feature in the two game I mentioned and it makes a lot of sense in a word game. Amuze Amaze is a "Designer" word game which uses random board layout - it won Mensa Mind Game of 2008 proving the appeal of such a mechanic in word games. I'd bet we'll see Wordscraper appear as a physical board game to compete with Scrabble. I don't think we've seen the end of innovation coming from Wordscraper and I'd bet the team are so determined to prove they can respond and that they will out-innovate Hasbro. Word games are doing really well right now - possibly re-ignited by the Scrabulous craze. Bananagrams is another Scrabble like game that's just won Toy of the Year is also selling really well. All the games I mention are currently on sale in Barnes & Noble. Unlike Toys 'R Us and Walmart they actively select emerging games from the designer category as a result they are actively helping expand the pool of people who love and support Designer board games. I'd agrees that Hasbro's action will have driven some players from the category. You can't dictate wisdom to the crowd. Organic innovation and Hasbro/Mattel simply don’t go. They have always acquired or licensed their major brands. That’s just a fact of life. They do a great job of accepting the fact and work well with indie game designers to license/acquire their wares. As time goes by they actually shy away from creating their own brand IP and rely more and more on licensed ideas from movies and TV.

Cranium and Apples to Apples are two great brands acquired last year by Hasbro and Mattel respectively. Both these brands were created in their own right and succeeded because they were innovative.

Commenting as an indie board game publisher of GiftTRAP, best party game 2008, I’m happy with the fact they don’t innovate.

I believe they may have created a problem in Wordscaper that could come back to bite them at a retail level. Wordscraper has many facets of a “Designer” board game such as “Settlers of Catan” or “Carcassone”. The whole “Designer” game category is emerging where the designers are just as important to a game player as the author is to a book reader.

Random game setup as seen in Wordscaper is a popular feature in the two game I mentioned and it makes a lot of sense in a word game. Amuze Amaze is a “Designer” word game which uses random board layout - it won Mensa Mind Game of 2008 proving the appeal of such a mechanic in word games.

I’d bet we’ll see Wordscraper appear as a physical board game to compete with Scrabble. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of innovation coming from Wordscraper and I’d bet the team are so determined to prove they can respond and that they will out-innovate Hasbro.

Word games are doing really well right now - possibly re-ignited by the Scrabulous craze. Bananagrams is another Scrabble like game that’s just won Toy of the Year is also selling really well.

All the games I mention are currently on sale in Barnes & Noble. Unlike Toys ‘R Us and Walmart they actively select emerging games from the designer category as a result they are actively helping expand the pool of people who love and support Designer board games.

I’d agrees that Hasbro’s action will have driven some players from the category. You can’t dictate wisdom to the crowd.

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