Should Proper Nouns Be Allowed in Scrabble?

The horror: In an effort to appeal to younger audiences and dumb people, Mattel, which owns the distribution rights to Scrabble, has announced that they are changing the game’s rules to allow for proper nouns. (Some background for non-players: Except for a few tricky exceptions, names and places have always been strictly forbidden in the past.) Other “great new twists” to the game currently up for debate include allowing players to spell words backwards and play words that are unconnected to other pieces. Which we think sounds nothing like Scrabble at all. Poor Alfred Butts must be rolling in his grave. Is nothing sacred?