Nobody needs a degree in quantum physics to understand that customer feedback is key to the business of selling. Yet, Mattel's response has been pedantic. And, it has refused to reinstate its earlier scrabble version
What’s in a gameIJ Plenty, going by a massive, million-man campaign that has been launched on Facebook, has spread like wildfire to other social media like Twitter and has stirred up enough attention for media houses in the UK, South Africa and Australia to report it. Incensed people around the world have declared an indefinite boycott of all products by US gaming giant Mattel and of the popular social media platform Facebook itself, if the loved online game is not restored.
Till last month and practically since the inception of Facebook, its users could play Scrabble Worldwide, a free online version of the recreational and educational word game patented by Mattel. The interface of Scrabble Worldwide was traditional, subdued, and advertising — admittedly, a necessary evil — was restricted to the beginning of the game, the shortest version of which can stretch up to 45 minutes.
Given the many time zones of the English-speaking world, the game was always active (except, due to copyright issues, in the US and Canada), players could log on round the clock and always find someone online and willing to play. They could choose, depending on the time on their hands, between two-minute, five-minute, day-long and week-long games; and also between beginners, intermediate and advanced players.
Over the years, players not only clocked up impressive statistics but learned to recognise familiar faces and befriended many of those who were logged on — in England, in Europe, in Africa, in the Gulf, in South Asia, in South East Asia, in Australia, in New Zealand. A typical player breakfasting in India would play Australians at tea, Filipinos at lunch, Africans over a drink and England after dinner.
Even as delegations of foreign ministries travel around the world forging ties and improving relations often strained by cultural myopia and a lack of understanding — especially between Britain and its former colonies around the globe — the game brought together 3.5 million people day after day in a global village of understanding, peace, tolerance and acceptance. In that sense, Scrabble Worldwide certainly beat some heavyweight foreign policy initiatives to the post.
There were players with serious health issues: Manic-depressive disorders, chronic shyness, autism, terminal illnesses. There were cancer patients whose hair loss and ‘chemo-brain’ made them inclined to stay at home but interact happily and unseen with millions of others over a game. Those who shied away from human contact in their vicinity for various reasons could reach out and chat with someone in cyberspace, knowing that their fears and secrets would be safer so far away. The game was a boon for some dyslexic children. And yet, its design kept out child molesters and other Internet criminals by giving users the choice to turn off chat facilities or exit the game.
It gave working people a quick fix in place of the cigarette, a speedy game at any time and day of their choice. The old and lonely did not have to wait for someone to make time for them. Out there in the etherzone, there was always someone. Even some visually challenged played user-friendly Scrabble Worldwide with enthusiasm. For several years and even to the technologically-challenged, Scrabble Worldwide became a private world, a comfortable space to enjoy an entirely harmless pastime.
last month, players woke up to Doomsday. Mattel had shut down the game without warning. In its place, was a new, disastrous, dumbed-down and alien version. Old names, old players, old statistics and, therewith, old friendships simply vanished into thin air.
The new interface is cluttered with and ruled by, advertising — after every other move, in between each game. To restrict advertising to every 10 minutes, a player must pay. To restrict it to every 15, he must pay some more. There are bright and useless icons all over the board: Dollar signs, bags of money and other symbols of profiteering. The new game is a copious and brazen onslaught of hardsell. A single game can neither be abandoned nor shut down, and can carry on for an indefinite period. There are regressive primary colours, new dictionaries which only spell, not explain a word. Perverts on the chat line can neither be ignored nor switched off.
The user-friendliness of the board has been largely scaled down, making it impossible for those with arthritis or other related problems to ‘drag’ and ‘drop’ tiles.
The battle for the restoration of Scrabble Worldwide, the old game, has been launched all over Facebook, Twitter and every other available social media platform. Demonstrations have been held in Yorkshire and several planned in london, Australia and South Africa. Scrabblers are going on radio and television chat shows to express their rage. There are countless online protest groups with tens of thousands of members, demanding that Mattel restore the old game or offer both the old and the new version on the Internet, so that players can choose.
Users have been begging, pleading with the US game company to reverse its draconian and arbitrary move and the majority have expressed their willingness to pay, if the old game is restored. The company’s own social media pages are splattered with sharp condemnation which has been mounting by the day.
Nobody needs a degree in quantum physics to recognise that customer feedback is the most crucial indicator of all for anyone in the business of selling. Yet, Mattel’s own response has been to mechanically dish out the usual customer service gobbledygook (“We appreciate your passion...We take your suggestions very seriously”, etc) and steadfastly refuse to reinstate the old game.
Despite some welcome introductions in the new version like the option to play in other languages, Mattel’s stone-walling about restoring the old game has only enraged users further and spurred them to carry their battle to the highest echelons: Mattel’s shareholders and CEOs, international television and film stars who played the game, and even Facebook CEO and reported Scrabble-lover Mark Zuckerberg himself. Other gaming companies, industrialists and moneyed names like Richard Branson, too have been approached.
Several million players of the old Scrabble Worldwide are in India, a burgeoning consumer market with 33 million English speakers. Mattel sells its popular Barbie and other toys here. But astonishingly and despite its eagerness to please the giant Indian market, the company has turned a blind eye and deaf ear to Indian Scrabblers too. “I resent the new version”, fumes senior freelance writer and avid Scrabbler Mitali Saran. “Mattel: Wake up, smell the coffee and restore our old game”.