According to GartnerGroup's Browning, using e-mail as a game delivery platform is unique to Hasbro. At first, I thought that they might be using e-mail as a delivery mechanism for distributing the electronic version of the game over the Internet. But it goes beyond that. Hasbro is taking advantage of the ubiquitous nature of e-mail to make it easy and fun for people to play games. Millions of people have e-mail and users can play at their convenience.
Browning has some outstanding questions regarding the technology.
According to him, sending messages and attachments over the Internet is not entirely reliable, so there is often the chance that messages won't arrive as intended. Moreover, Browning wonders whether the games will make it through the strict security systems and policies that many IT managers have set up to defend their networks from unsolicited spam and inappropiate e-mail, which can tax enterprise resources and affect employee productivity. Enterprises are getting serious about controlling inappropriate e-mail. Moreover, some executives, including Will Rhame, chief executive of ExecuSports Strategies, a Tampa, Fla.-based marketing consultancy, dispute Hasbro's notion that senior corporate executives, for instance, will want to take a mental vacation by logging on to the Internet. The last thing I would want to do is play a board game if I'm trying to relax or make contact with an associate.