New Scrabble - A Re-examination

When the new Facebook Scrabble game was foisted on us, my first reaction was shock. It looked butt-ugly, had problems loading, and was plagued with bugs. I quickly resigned or forfeited all my active games, even though I was winning most of them. Since then, Electronic Arts (EA) has made some adjustments to the game. Once the game came back this week after a four day long server crash, I decided to play through a complete game to put it through its paces.

The first thing you see is a panel that tells you to invite your friends to the game. Unfortunately, there seems to be no clear way to get past that panel. I ended up clicking on the "Board Size" button. That brought up a new dialog, one that had a clear exit button, and I could then begin play.

Regarding the "Board Size" dialog, if you click on the buttons labelled "+" or "-", you might be surprised when nothing happens. The dialog simply tells you how to resize your browser content using the keyboard. (This is a function of the browser, not the game.) Worse, once you're done your game, you have to resize your browser content back to its original size. This was a later change to the program based on user feedback, but a hack solution at best.

Next, look at the text at the bottom of that panel. That's just one of several examples of text that overflows the intended area. Other examples are the "Create New Game" button and the 2-letter word list that ends at "RE" on my computer. Mind you, not everyone has these problems. But it does show that the designers have not taken all browser and operating system combinations into account.

Three words into the game, my opponent sent me a chat message asking me to move. I replied that I made my move about five minutes earlier. She clearly had problems with her game not refreshing when it should. During the game, she often had to manually refresh in order to continue. Another time, she had to restart the game before she could continue.

There were other nuisance bugs. But I'll spend the rest of this epistle discussing the user interface. When I first saw the new game, I was shocked by the busy graphics, distracting animations, and gaudy colors. Supposedly, EA made some adjustments to the graphics in the meantime. However, the only difference I could see was that the board had lost it's 3-dimensional look. Elsewhere, pretty much all the colors and graphics are the same. Overall, the effect is jarring and hard on my eyes.

Other aspects of the user interface are inconsistent. Compare the graphics on the left for your turn and your opponent's turn. When it's your turn, the "My Turn" box appears above the "Suggested Players". However, the "Their Turn" box renders below "Suggested Players". Further regarding the "Their Turn" box, note that the box lists the last word you played, not the last word your opponent played. Is that confusing, or what?

Overall, there are a lot of elements that are too prominent and too distracting, such as the "Suggested Players" box. Why should I care so much about starting new games while the current one is in progress? The old game allowed us to do that, however, in a much less intrusive manner. Likewise, the ratings box at the bottom is way too big and too distracting. In the old Scrabble game, the chat dialog was certainly too small. But in the new Scrabble game, the chat area is overkill. And too cartoonish. Clearly, the designers of this game wanted to squeeze a lot of content into the game. The scroll bar at the left shows that they had too little screen area for what they wanted.

Another post-release change based on user feedback was to make the count of your opponents letters during the end game more prominent. Unfortunately, this message obscures part of the board, and you have to explicitly close this dialog. Again, yet another poorly designed afterthought.

Clearly, the designers of the new EA Scrabble game failed to understand the needs of their loyal Scrabble players. Scrabble is a quiet, contemplative game. Flashy effects and distracting animations just do not serve the game well. After my game ended, I had little desire to continue playing. EA has promised a new version of the game with a choice of user interface, including the old "classic" look and feel, a gesture that I certainly appreciate. But will we get the real old game? Or just an old-looking skin on the new program? If it is to be the latter, then will we still have to endure all the bugs programming defects in the game?

There's one more difference between the original new game and the current new game. When the new game was first released, it wasn't called "Scrabble Beta". Sometime after the initial release, after all the complaints starting pouring in to the EA support forums and Facebook groups, they added the word "Beta". As if that makes our Scrabble playing experience any more enjoyable. It may well be beta quality, but obviously, EA didn't think so when they first released it. Which begs the question: Where was EA's quality control department while the game was under development?

Before the new game came out, I used to enjoy playing the old Facebook Scrabble game. However, I think I'll wait a few more months before trying out the new EA Scrabble game again. EA has simply taken all the enjoyment out of the game.

Cheers! Hans

Scrabble - How To Piss Off Your Loyal Players

How many months has it been since Electronic Arts (EA) released their new Scrabble game on Facebook? It's been almost two months now since EA put their new "improved" game into open beta, even though the testers from their closed beta test gave them all they needed to know at the time, that the new game was severely flawed. And did EA explain why they released a new game? No. Even now, EA is saying little in response to the continuing litany of complaints.

To be fair, EA has announced that, in a month, they will release a new version of the game that has the old look and feel as an option. But that gesture has largely been ignored, while more and more people clog the Scrabble Facebook pages with complaints. (See ScrabbleEA and Scrabble, as well as Bring Back The Old Scrabble.)

We can only speculate why EA foisted this new game on us, knowing full well the feedback from the beta testers. Some argue that they wanted to push out more ads to the players. However, they tried that before with the old game and backed down after getting an earful from its players. Others suggest that they wanted to encourage players to invite more of their friends to the game. But heck, it's already one of the most popular games on Facebook. Surely everyone on the planet knows about the game.

Here's my theory: I suspect EA had to make a change because they had to. Maybe there were some incompatible API changes that caught EA off guard, forcing them to rush out a poorly written replacement game. After all, the old game still had problems of its own. I often had to use a different browser just to play the game. But it just made no sense to make such a drastic change. If there were impeding API differences, why couldn't the old game be modified?


EA hasn't been forthcoming with explanations, while the revolt among Scrabble players grows. Who knows how many have left the game with no intention of returning? Many people complain about opponents who have just abandoned their games. EA is now in a difficult situation. What do they have to do now to regain the trust of its Scrabble players?

First, EA needs to understand that Scrabble players in general are fairly intelligent people. By its very nature, the game attracts people who like to play with words. You can't easily dismiss such a group.

Second, EA needs to be forthcoming, and honest in its communications with its Scrabble players. They need to acknowledge the problems in a way that's not condescending. Scrabble players are not happy. EA staff need to accept that, and plan appropriately.

Third, EA needs to explain honestly why they made the change. Public relations experts have learned long ago that people can easily sniff out BS, and that sincere honesty is really the only way to handle PR nightmares, such as this. If the reason was an API change, then tell us. If the reason was that someone within EA thought that the new game had a better user interface, then tell us. Or, if the reason that that EA thought they could make more profit, then that must be admitted as well. EA has already lost the trust of its players. It's up to EA to do the right thing to bring them back.

And of course, fourth, EA needs to fix the problems with the Scrabble game. Offering the "classic" look and feel is part of that. But the bootflow errors, loss of scores, incorrect scoring, slow loading, etc. all need to be corrected. I know many programmers like to call them "bugs", implying that somehow tiny six or eight-legged creatures are somehow responsible. But the more correct term is "defect". These are all example of defective programming that never should have gotten out of the programming shop.

Whatever EA says publicly now, it will be picked apart by a group of extremely upset people. As I wrote before, Scrabble is an emotional issue for most players. EA needs to understand how best to make a public apology. Probably the worst thing EA could say now is "just get over it, get a life!". For many Scrabble players, Scrabble is an important part of their life.

Cheers! Hans

Scrabble - It's Emotional

We love Scrabble. Lots of people do. It's certainly one of the most fun board games around, and one of the most popular. There are also a number of on-line implementations of the game. One of the most popular was a version hosted on Facebook provided by Electronic Arts (EA). Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, EA changed the program.

The new Scrabble program went through a beta test. And even though the new program was almost universally panned by the reviewers, EA went ahead and foisted the new game on more people. The stream of complaints has been almost steady ever since. Now, they are pushing the program to everyone, and the complaints continue.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two programs:

Image by Russ Nemec.

The program on the left is the old program we all enjoyed playing. On the right, the new program, with a cluttered and confusing user interface. In fact, EA even had to write a FAQ for the new program to explain how to use it. Speaking as an experienced programmer, if your program needs a FAQ to explain its use, there's something seriously wrong with the user interface.


Here's one bug I noticed right away on my computer. Note the text "Create New Game" spilling out from the button. Real professional user interface design, eh?

But there's more! The new program won't load for many people. Or it loads very slowly. There have been reported cases where your score gets added to your opponents score. Many complain that they can't move their tiles on the rack, as we could with the old program. There have been complaints about the dictionary. Some don't know how to get to the chat area. Many complain about the general cartoonish appearance of the game. People complain about the ads that pop-up between moves, and the constant request that users recommend the game to their friends. Heck, I wouldn't recommend this piece of shit to my enemies!

You could ask: Why the fuss over a simple game? The answer is simple. This is an emotional issue. Most of us who love playing Scrabble have been playing it for years. I remember playing it as a child. When planning my moves, I would use a dictionary, and I learned a lot of words that way. I'm sure most Scrabble lovers can offer their own stories of how the game has affected them personally. And so for most of us, the connection to the game is visceral. We loved playing the old version of the on-line game. We hate playing the new version.


If you want to add your voice to the complaints, there are two pages on Facebook where EA reps can sometimes be found: ScrabbleEA and Official Scrabble. Are they listening? They do seem to be interested in bug reports for the new game. But they seem to be turning a deaf ear to the flood of requests for EA to bring back the old game. What can they be thinking? Do they think the storm of complaints will die down? Do they think that the Scrabble players who have already left will return? EA needs to understand that this is an emotional issue for us. If they ever did restore the old program, we may well forgive. But we won't forget.


Cheers! Hans

PS. Check out the Facebook page Bring back the old Scrabble.