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On the subject of fun on-line games, I recently discovered FreeRice (www.freerice.com) and I maybe one of the last people on Earth to have heard about it. See below.
Me: btw, here’s a game that i think you’ll like www.freerice.com
Cousin: ahh i love that site, i got addicted to it a few months ago
Me: haha, am i really the last person to jump on the bandwagon?
Me (in my head): damn.
But for anyone who yet to hear about this site, allow me to make the introductions.
About: FreeRice is charity site aiming to eliminate world hunger and improve English vocabularies everywhere. Launched on October 7, 2007 by John Breen, a computer programmer from Indiana, FreeRice is the sister site to thehungersite.com, therainforestsite.com and Poverty.com.
The Game: Upon entering FreeRice, visitors are presented with an English word (usually a very sophisticated and rare word often found in old novels or in SAT books). The user must then decipher the word’s meaning and pick from four options presented. If correct, twenty grains of rice will be donated through the United Nations’ World Food Programme. If you keep playing until you reach a donation of 100,000 grains of rice, you will be presented with the following message: “You have donated 100,000 grains of rice, may you have a lifetime of happiness…..” Afterwards, your donation reverts back to 0 grains of rice.
Who pays for all this rice? Advertisers, whose banners are located at the bottom of the site. When I read this detail, I thought that FreeRice is truly ingenious to have created a viral marketing campaign for world hunger awareness and on-line advertising opportunities that then successfully provides an actual charitable donation. More companies that engages in cause marketing and PR agencies with specialties in on-line outreach should take note and start brainstorming.
Possible Scam: For the skeptics and cynics out there that might be inclined to think that this site is a scam, please read the verdict by Snopes.com (an Urban Legend myth buster site).
PR Notes: For anyone that doubts FreeRice’s connection to the United Nations, it should be noted that the press contact for FreeRice is the international team of communications specialists (aka PR people) from the World Food Programme.
Additionally, for anyone wanting to know how to gauge the success of a viral marketing/on-line PR campaign/blogger engagement program, I would say that generating coverage in top-tier print, broadcast and radio is a good sign that you’re doing something right. As the team behind FreeRice can attest, they have been pretty successful so far:
- The Washington Post
- BBC News
- Christian Science Monitor
- Los Angeles Times
- USA Today
- NPR National Public Radio
- CBS Evening News
Special thanks to my former colleague from The Agency for introducing me to FreeRice and to everyone else whose been offering me story ideas and feedback. It’s nice to be on the receiving side of the pitch for once.
For a “simple gamer” like myself (which means that I rank several levels below a casual gamer), Scrabulous has been god-sent. It’s the next best thing after Brain Age 2’s Sodoku and Tetris DS, both of which are available for the Nintendo DS Lite.
But I confess, I am but a Newb (aka newbie, aka newcomer to an on-line game) having only recently started to play. I was first introduced to Scrabulous when Hasbro began its now infamous campaign to shutdown the popular Facebook application. After reading the “horrified” reports, first from PR Squared (a public relations blog I frequent) and then from Entertainment Weekly, my interest was piqued. I booked the next ticket on the Scrabulous bandwagon to see what all the fuss was about and I never got off.
This “unofficial” on-line version of Scrabble is ingenious, the brainchild of two brothers in India, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, who just wanted to play on-line for “free.” Problem was, Scrabble belongs to Hasbro, the corporate toy-maker that owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark in the U.S. and Canada, with Mattel holding the trademark everywhere else.
Interestingly enough, The New York Times found that many Scrabulous players believed Scrabble to be “public property” like Chess or Checkers. It’s a misconception that’s easy to make, considering that there are many other unofficial on-line versions of Scrabble available, though none were as well designed, nor achieved the same rabid popularity as Scrabulous. Examples include Internet Scrabble Club, Let’s Play Scrabble, Online-Scrabble and Scrabble by GameHouse.
From a public relations perspective, it’s just an unfortunately legal move on Hasbro’s part that has left many PR professionals shaking their heads in disbelief, especially since Target and Ford spurned the blogosphere at more or less the same time. Instead of embracing these new-found fans, Hasbro brought forth their wrath–creating a viral nightmare.
With over 500,000 to 700,000 daily users and nearly 3 million registered users, many of them playing multiple games at once, you can only image what has ensued……
- Save Scrabulous Online Petition
- Facebook “Save Scrabulous” Groups (About 30 groups found)
- Many, many bloggers protesting in thousands of posts (too many to link)
- Reporters wrote to rally the masses and admit their own addictions to the game. Here are some journalists who broke from their usual neutral stance to plead for Scrabulous’ life:
- YouTube protest videos:
While Scrabulous has yet to be shut down, it is unlikely that it will remain in its current state on Facebook. A few recent reports, indicate that RealNetworks is planning to buy Scrabulous and work out a deal with Hasbro. Also notable, Electronic Arts is planning to create an “Official” Scrabble game with Hasbro as well. While some analysts and commentators say that this may be the only way to save Scrabulous, it feels like an unfortunate solution for fans. But, at the same time, this new development may also mark the beginning of a new golden age for classic board games everywhere.
Hasbro, Here’s an idea - On another side note, Hasbro should most definitely reallocate its marketing funds to its research & development team. It would be money better spent to create something brilliant like Scrabulous than an unfortunate boardgame-inspired Hollywood flop.
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