Oh the horror. Users of the social networking site Facebook were greeted with devastating news this morning - the addictive word game, Scrabulous, is gone.

Folks attempting to use the application were greeted with a rather cold and lifeless message:

Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.

This really isn’t all that surprising, given last week’s news that Hasbro Inc. has sued the makers of the popular game. Hasbro owns the North American rights to the board game Scrabble. It seems the company is arguing that Scrabulous is just a little close to its own game.

Hasbro said in its lawsuit that Scrabulous violates its copyright and trademarks. Separately, Hasbro asked Facebook to block the game. In the year since Facebook began letting outside developers write Web programs that Facebook members can plug into their personal profile pages, Scrabulous has attracted some half-million daily users, despite efforts by Scrabble’s owners to end it.

Hasbro, through video game maker Electronic Arts, has even released its own version of the game for Facebook.

Don’t fret, though. At least for now, you can still play Scrabulous at www.scrabulous.com. You just can’t play it through Facebook.

One has to consider, however, the possibility that the makers Scrabulous might lose this fight in court. The game could be in its final days. How important is Scrabulous to your daily life? Can you get by without it?