And APB's closed beta stage is upcoming, with alpha testing completed in the middle of September, says Realtime Worlds. "Initially this will be a very core, select number of trusted friends of employees, but does mark the start of what can be considered the ‘Closed’ Beta stage of APB," said Chris Dye, community relations manager.

There were no specifics given on exactly how Facebook will be a part of this. Develop Magazine points out that APB will use social music site Last.fm for its in-game audio, Realtime Worlds has shown a willingness to use existing online services rather than create its own.

The release date is still TBA.

APB to Use Facebook as 'Major Community Tool' [Develop]

Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures is a Facebook app that lets you create a character, equip them with potions and weapons and them set them off on a (hey!) Tiny Adventure.

Your character will send you regular updates from your chosen quest, and because FB is a Social Networking site you can ask your friends to buff them up by throwing potions and other kit your way. Success in the various game events is determined by dice rolls modified by your initial choices.

The game server is down at the moment due to heavy demand, but should soon rise again, stronger and more powerful than ever.

D&D Tiny Adventures [Facebook via Tor]

The real question here is “Why the hell are so many people wasting their entire day playing games on a social networking site?” How is anything getting done, anywhere?

Scrabulous is Back! Its New Name is Wordscraper [Mashable via CNET]

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.

"Here" leads users to an email form where they can subscribe to receive updates on the app's status.

The legal battle comes as Hasbro claims patent infringement on the game, right after the toy company, through its partnership with EA, launched its own, competing version of Scrabble for Facebook.

Yes, game violence. On Facebook.

If you're already a Facebook user, then you already might know about SuperPoke. If you don't, it works like this: you basically send a greeting message and icon to your friends — "give flowers to," "party with," generally nice things like that. They have "pokes" that are themed around holidays or events like popular movies, too. Some of them are a little bit offensive or silly. It's game-like, in that the more pokes you send your friends, the more you unlock, and it really doesn't get much more complicated than that.

So what's to rail against?

MarketWeek reports that Urban Concepts, a group of "anti-knife" campaigners, dislike that one of the pokes that has apparently become available invites you to "shank" your friends. You know, knife 'em prison yard-style. According to MarketWeek, the group believes the app is "targeting" teenagers with violent themes.

The knife poke seems to have since been removed from the app. You can still spank, fling a thong at, or give restraining orders to your friends, though. You can also "go Chuck Norris" on them, leaving little doubt that Urban Concepts is correct about the target audience, at the very least.

Facebook slammed for "knife" game [MarketWeek via GamePolitics]

The game starts you off with a batch of selected tiles, and then players have to make up as many words as possible, as quickly as they can, from the available letters. Friends can compete against one another live, and the person to use up all his or her tiles first is the winner.

Facebook users can play alone or with up to eight friends at a time. The single-player mode provides a timed race for users to try and beat their own best time.

Full announcement after the jump:

MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES "BANANAGRAMS"
GAME FOR FACEBOOK

Award-Winning Word Game Coming To
Popular Networking Site
EDISON, N.J., July 24, 2008 -Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced that the popular anagram game, Bananagrams, will be available August 18 as a free Facebook Application. Developed by Large Animal Games, Bananagrams ignores all the rules of traditional board games in favor of an every-player-for-themselves approach that delivers lightning-fast puzzle play guaranteed to get the mind moving and drive players "bananas."

"Casual gaming applications have exploded on social networking sites like Facebook and Bananagrams is an ideal fit for the demographic," said Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations, Majesco." With its fast-paced action and addictive but simple gameplay, we believe this game has potential to become one of the most popular gaming applications on the site."

The object of Bananagrams is to create as many words as quickly as possible from an initial batch of selected tiles. Unlike other turn-based games, Bananagrams has players simultaneously playing to form interconnected words. Once the tile pile is depleted, the player who is able to use all of his or her tiles first wins.

Facebook users will have the option to play alone or online against up to four or eight friends. The game will offer two single player modes - Banana Solitaire and Single Player Banana Café - in which players compete in a timed race to place letters in order to beat their own or their friends' best times. After honing their anagramming skills in the single player modes, Facebookers will be able to compete against friends in one of two multiplayer modes — the Classic Multiplayer Game, with up to four players, or the Banana Café, where they can race against time and up to seven other players to take first place! All game modes will let players chat online during gameplay and compare their results against each other via the Bananagrams Leaderboard.

Bananagrams will be available August 18 as a free Facebook Application. After the initial launch, new features will be introduced on a regular basis. For additional information about Majesco's exciting line of products, please visit: www.majescoentertainment.com.

In January when Hasbro first began to fuss about Scrabulous, many were perplexed — wasn't the prolific Facebook board game an homage to the original, arguably even a sort of viral marketing? But today's infringement suit announcement comes just after Electronic Arts, through its partnership with Hasbro, launched its own official Scrabble game on Facebook, a launch no doubt complicated by the existence of an unlicensed, competing game.

Hasbro says Scrabulous infringes on its intellectual property rights, and is suing creators Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, while requesting that Facebook pull the application immediately.

Full announcement follows the jump.

Hasbro, Inc. Files Infringement Suit Against Creators of Scrabulous Game Application
Suit Filed in Southern District of New York Centers on Application’s Infringement of Hasbro’s SCRABBLE Intellectual Property Rights in the U.S. and Canada

PAWTUCKET, R.I.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS) today filed suit against the creators of the Scrabulous game application, which infringes on the Company’s SCRABBLE intellectual property rights.

In addition, Hasbro has delivered to Facebook, which hosts the Scrabulous game, a notification of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (or the “DMCA”) requesting that they remove the Scrabulous application in the U.S. and Canada as soon as possible.

“Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties,” said Barry Nagler, Hasbro’s General Counsel. “We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our SCRABBLE intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the SCRABBLE brand.”

The suit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York earlier today, names Scrabulous creators, Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, and RJ Softwares as the defendants.

Hasbro has a strategic alliance with Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) to create digital games based on a huge array of Hasbro’s intellectual properties. As part of this alliance, Electronic Arts launched a legitimate version of SCRABBLE for Facebook earlier this month. This represents the first of many Hasbro game properties slated to launch on social networking sites later this year.

“Hasbro and Electronic Arts are very pleased to offer fans an authentic SCRABBLE experience on Facebook, which is complementary to EA’s full-range of SCRABBLE offerings — from the cell phone, to the iPod, and now, social networking,” said Mark Blecher, General Manager, Hasbro Digital Media and Gaming. “Hasbro and EA have worked diligently to provide a great game play experience on Facebook, and we are confident that fans of the game will welcome a genuine experience highlighted by top of the line graphics, strong technical support, and of course, classic SCRABBLE game play.”

“After playing with EA's version of SCRABBLE on Facebook, I have no doubt that SCRABBLE players in the U.S. and Canada will absolutely love the authentic game play and overall experience,” said John D. Williams Jr., Executive Director of the National SCRABBLE Association (NSA). “I am particularly pleased that EA's version of SCRABBLE offers such a simple and intuitive interface which will allow players to jump right in and start playing. Between the classic board game, Facebook, Pogo, the iPod and the iPhone, our members can now play their favorite game virtually anytime, anywhere.”

Hasbro, Inc. is a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time products and services with a rich portfolio of brands and entertainment properties that provides some of the highest quality and most recognizable play and recreational experiences in the world. As a brand-driven, consumer-focused global company, Hasbro brings to market a range of toys, games and licensed products, from traditional to high-tech and digital, under such powerful brand names as TRANSFORMERS, PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, TIGER, CRANIUM and WIZARDS OF THE COAST. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at www.hasbro.com. (C)2008 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Regardless you can play the Pogo.com version, should have you have the patience for it. As much as we'd like to impress the Scrabble bot AI with our vocabulary, we're probably going to pass in favor of reading the press release for the third time. It's full of words!

EA AND HASBRO DELIVER AUTHENTIC SCRABBLE WEB FUN TO FACEBOOK PLATFORM AND POGO.COM

Redwood City, Calif. – July 7, 2008 – Sign in and start playing the most renowned word game, as Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Hasbro Inc. (NYSE:HAS) deliver the latest in SCRABBLE games in the US and Canada on the Facebook® and online at Pogo.com™. EA’s first Hasbro-based Facebook application launches later this month and the Pogo.com SCRABBLE game is available now, extending the presence of EA SCRABBLE games across two new platforms in July.

SCRABBLE from EA on Facebook Platform will be the first EA Hasbro-licensed property to go live on a social networking site, with many more Hasbro game properties in development and slated to launch on social networking sites later this year. SCRABBLE on Pogo is the initial HASBRO title in a suite of free online games slated to go live on Pogo in 2008. EA SCRABBLE games currently are available on mobile phones and the iPod® in the US and Canada.

“SCRABBLE is one of the best social game brands in existence and we’ve worked diligently with the Hasbro team to ensure that regardless of the platform you’re playing, you’ll be able to enjoy a world class version of SCRABBLE with friends or family,” said Chip Lange, General Manager, EA Hasbro Games. “We’re delighted to be bringing communities everywhere access to one of their favorite games.”

“Hasbro, together with EA, is eager to share our expertise and technological know-how by bringing a genuine SCRABBLE experience to fans throughout the US and Canada whenever they want and wherever they go,” said Mark Blecher, General Manager, Hasbro Digital Media and Gaming. “We understand the current popularity and potential of web-based and social network gameplay for a wide range of our toy and game brands. EA and Hasbro are committed to providing SCRABBLE fans with a great digital game experience.”

“After playing with EA’s social networking and Pogo versions of SCRABBLE, I have no doubt that SCRABBLE players in the US and Canada will absolutely love the gameplay and overall experience,” said John D. Williams Jr., Executive Director of the National SCRABBLE Association (NSA). “We have seen the SCRABBLE brand grow in popularity in so many different ways, including this year’s School SCRABBLE Championship and the current interest in SCRABBLE for social networking. I am particularly pleased that the Pogo and Facebook EA SCRABBLE games offer such simple and clean interfaces that allow players to jump right in and start playing.”

SCRABBLE on Facebook Platform

The SCRABBLE application built on Facebook platform provides an intuitive interface that allows head-to-head challenges with family, friends or anyone accessing Facebook from within the US or Canada. Players can choose to play a real-time turn-based game or pause and pick up to resume playing at their leisure. With easy tracking of scores and statistics, players will always know where they rank against competitors. While playing SCRABBLE on Facebook, gamers can enjoy built in chat and dynamic animations. They can also get help from extensive word lists and choose one of the several flexible speed levels to customize their level of difficulty.

SCRABBLE on Pogo.com

Play SCRABBLE for Pogo alone or with up to three friends in real time. Players can choose one of five customizable skill levels that match the dictionary and opponent accordingly. Pogo offers several “rules” including: house rules when playing with family, traditional rules to follow the style of the board game and à la carte rules for those who want to make up their own. Timed games allow for fun competition, but the integrated hints, tips and tricks allow every level of player to hone skills and become a champion in SCRABBLE on Pogo. As a bonus, Club Pogo players will be able to unlock extra SCRABBLE features including their own set of NSA tournament rules, the ability to play rated games modeled after the National Scrabble Association’s rating system, a choice of three different SCRABBLE boards and a NSA room, exclusively for NSA tournament players to compete online.

For screenshots and assets, please visit www.info.ea.com. For more information about the mobile phone version of SCRABBLE, please visit www.eamobile.com. For more information about Pogo.com visit www.pogo.com.

Yesterday, the very same thing happened. I was "lunching" with a "colleague" from my AP days, she works for CNN now, and of course she mentioned the John McCain Facebook app "Pork Invaders." In it, you maneuver your Campaign Yard Sign back and forth, firing off vetoes at the flying pigs who spend taxpayers' money and hurl heathen inverted crosses at you (it's the subtle imagery that appeals to the conservative Christian base). Complete a level and get a fun fact about the candidate. And a perpetual come-on to sign up for another Facebook app. God, I love it when with-it parents try to get hip with the kids. How is this not a top 20 app?!

Well since we're using Space Invader metaphorics for campaign issues, I've got a few questions: How do you win against this relentless pig insurgency? How exactly is victory defined, and logically, doesn't the present policy require an indefinite, if not permanent, military presence holding back the porkers? If we say we're defeating the pork invaders, then say we'll lose if we quit, how is victory possible?

Also, notice there is no sound in "Pork Invaders." Probably because, after campaigning to Call of Duty tunes, McCain learned his lesson and didn't want to piss off the Taito composer who arranged the original Space Invaders theme.

Pork Invaders [Facebook, via Joystiq and numerous others]

Which Grand Theft Auto Character Are You? [Facebook]

As you may have noticed, many of the devs to which we turn for our hardcore fix seem to be making full-tilt sprints for social networks like Facebook and the casual space. In today's ultra high-risk game development environment, Threewave also thought it'd be prudent to get on the burgeoning social media train, founding Gnosis Games, a casual subdivision with titles like Paparazzi, which according to the studio is a chart-topper on RealArcade, Gamehouse and other casual portals.

Now, Threewave's Gnosis has turned to Facebook. In this case, though, there's a surprising and interesting ulterior motive that's more in line with the hardcore audience than you might guess.

For someone like CEO Dan Irish, whose career in the industry began way back in the Spectrum Holobyte days and led him through Relic to Threewave, what's up with this casual migration?

Apparently, Facebook is just a hop, skip and a jump from what Irish is used to. He calls the early days of multiplayer FPS "one of the first small social networks," in that the primary draw for users was to play online with friends. The desire to stay connected with pals is also what's driving the success of Facebook and other social media spaces.

"We see the opportunity on the social networks as paralleling some of the things from the early multiplayer gaming days in the mid-to-late '90s," said Irish. "We looked at this as an opportunity where I think some other game developers are not quite sure what to do with it."

Irish's attention to the social networking space echoes recent sentiments by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who suggested the growing Facebook infestation might be a stiff competitor for his company's games: "Figuring out how to make the game experience more fun than any one of a hundred Facebook applications is going to be a challenge," Kotick said.

Electronic Arts' former chief creative officer Bing Gordon also sees Facebook-style tools as the next big thing: he recently departed the company where he's worked almost since EA's inception to pursue what he called "a new round of invention" in social media. "I realized that I really, really, really wanted to be in the middle of that," said Gordon.

Elsewhere, stirrings on the fringe of the game industry's core have taken notice of the spread of social media, but it's also clear that the industry's eyeing that space warily, unsure how to make the best use of it.

Gnosis Games thinks it has an idea, though. "We're a bit ahead of the curve, because we're bringing a new set of tactics," said Irish. "How do you monetize and leverage social network applications on the social networking platforms?"

In other words, the Gnosis Games studio is Threewave's "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy. Irish says that using Facebook is helping the company create better games - and better retail sales. Gnosis has created a series of simple casual titles that can be played directly on Facebook, and then studies the feedback and user behavior around these simple little embeddables to glean information that's useful in the creation of more complex titles.

Gnosis sees who's installing and uninstalling the games, how long they play, the ratings users give the games and other types of both positive and negative feedback, and uses that data to inform their game development. It lets the studio's developers access the huge mainstream user base on Facebook and learn from their tastes and behavior.

"We refer to that approach as a 'focused social testing,'" said Irish. "Essentially, what it does is it allows us to test game mechanics, test IPs and test characters, and integrate user feedback into a full retail product."

"For a company like us, that's great, because instead of spending $1 million or $2 million coming up with a new IP and then pitching it to publishers and hoping they like it - and then, being happy or grateful that we get a 20 percent royalty - we can do it for a lot less cost, attach an audience to it, make sure that it's fun and then take it to a publisher."

"All of that information is very helpful, and it wasn't really available to content developers like us unless we had big amounts of money and working with a publisher to do a focus group."

Games built on user feedback will not only be more enjoyable to the audience, goes the theory, but will also be lower-risk investments and permit more creativity and innovation - a formula that hopefully translates to better success at retail, something that PC games in particular especially need at the moment.

"The other benefit is it kind of levels the playing field for game developers," Irish said. "Now we have a more direct connection to the end user and the customer than we ever had before. What business is not going to benefit from a more direct connection to the customer?"

Quite a lot has been made over the past year of "Facebook as the next platform for gaming." Its viral spread and swelling user numbers are both attractive and intimidating to the games industry - but largely the social network has proven a less-than-desirable platform for the majority of final-product games. A rash of new media companies have hinged their business on Facebook games with brief fad appeal, but objectively, Gnosis' Facebook test concepts seem to reflect that there's actual game development experience behind the simple minigames, compared to some of their peers.

Leveraging Facebook's huge user base as a testing ground for game concepts is a fairly new strategic approach, and whether or not it's a successful tactic remains to be seen. But as the game industry enters an increasingly high-risk environment and looks for new ways to innovate and reach users at lower cost, it's likely we can expect to see more studios consider how best to use social media to benefit the games industry.

We had a secret test program in Europe back in 1997 on PSOne, running a black and white text-based, moderator-led community chat group with a special box called 'Net-Station' that hooked up PCs to the TV. Nick Parker ran it. The project codename was 'Moccasin 5'. I have no idea where it came from.

Then, at Sony Europe, we worked on a PS2 concept called 'Central Station' which was planned to stream its own PlayStation TV channel, back in 2002. This was four years ahead of YouTube. But uptake in broadband and wireless routers took longer to reach mass market levels than we expected, and we couldn't get other regions of the Sony PlayStation world to buy in.

It just goes to show, success isn't just about having a great idea or the ability to pull it off. In many ways, timing really is everything. And I'm guessing that actually releasing the product has something to do with it too.

Sony beat Facebook... to Facebook [MCVUK]

Blueprint games will leverage the growing online communities of social networks—to use Facebook, for example, as a pipeline to consumers. Young tried something vaguely similar with 2001's Majestic, a title that connected with gamers with the title's story through e-mail, AIM, phone, online, and fax. The subscription-based game was discontinued less than a year after its launch due to limited consumer interest.

Sources say talent agency Creative Artists Agency is also participating in the efforts of Blueprint, contributing its substantial resources of talent as well as its connections with funding sources to ramp up the division's output.

I guess this means we have more crap to look forward to in Facebook news feeds and application requests. Joy! More announcements about this secretive little division will be made at a later date, but it looks like quite a lot of talent and funding are going towards a segment of the market that is getting increasing attention from both inside and outside the industry.

Stealth EA Division Creating Games—Social Net Mash-up [Gametap]

Hasbro, the makers of the word game Scrabble, have asked Facebook to remove its popular online take on the game, Scrabulous because of copyright infringement.

"Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application," said a Mattel spokeswoman in Britain.

"Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks.

"As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries."

Hmm, while it may seem silly, I believe Scrabble is an entirely original game, as in it's not one of these throw-offs of games created in the middle ages or ancient china. I wonder if they makers of Scrabulous can get away with a name change only?

Facebook Asked to Remove 'Scrabulous' [NYT]

Webs.com Launches First Social Gaming Network, SGN Webs.com SGN Library has delivered nearly One Billion Page Views in 90 days; Today Acquired FightClub and has added Street Race to its Rapidly Growing Roster SILVER SPRING, Md., Dec. 6, 2007 — Webs.com (formerly Freewebs), the second largest web publisher in the world, today announces the introduction of its Social Gaming Network (SGN), the first gaming network designed exclusively for the development and integration of gaming into popular social networks, and the acquisition of the popular social network game FightClub.

The hugely successful game WarBook, the first game from SGN to launch on Facebook in August 2007, is now one of its most popular games. The SGN network will continue to leverage the power of the 'network effect' to build a library of games exclusively for social networks.

"Social gaming has a different emotional connection to the online world because of the incredibly viral nature of social networks. There is a totally different gaming experience - competing against friends or colleagues and comparing your rank in the broad social network - that is driving the enormous pick up of games like WarBook and Super Snake, in a way no other game has seen without powerful brands behind them," says Shervin Pishevar, president of Webs.com. "With today's acquisition of FightClub, we intend to build on this 'network effect' and the extraordinary growth rates they deliver, and will continue to make great strides in this space as we become the leading developer and publisher for social networks."

Social gaming rapidly is becoming the top application on all social networks, appealing to a broad audience and offering a high level of engagement. Social gaming is a new kind of gaming experience - a viral phenomenon, fueled by friends inviting friends to play a game - and is having an unbelievable impact on the gaming industry, one which is set to continue to grow.

Webs.com is committed to providing consumers the best social gaming experience with its library of specialist games. This month, Street Race has been added to its current arsenal of games, which includes Blocky, launched in November, WarBook, the most active game by page views and the third largest game by users on Facebook, and Super Snake.

There is a great opportunity to take EA Sports and turn it into a general sports brand that can compete not only with Take-Two and Konami and the other usual suspects in the videogame world...[but also] to look at ourselves in a different way and compete with the likes of Nike and ESPN to win the hearts and minds of a very desirable demographic group, which is the 14-to-34-year-old male worldwide.

...I think we have an opportunity to aggregate information and bring it to life with video technologies.

It sounds like Moore is fitting right in at his new job.

EA Sports' Moore Puts ESPN in Crosshairs [nextgeneration]

"Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities," James Kuai, a research analyst at Parks Associates, said in a prepared statement.

Over the last year, casual gaming has risen 79%, while social networks like MySpace and Facebook only rose 46%. Things aren't completely rosy for gaming's dominance, however, as the casual video viewing portion of the audience grew a massive 123%, which I attribute completely to Chocolate Rain.

"The casual gaming industry cannot rest on its laurels," Kuai said. "In order to counter the growing competition from other online activities, the industry needs to continue to grow its fan base and find ways to better monetize its existing audience."

Game-Playing Eclipses Social Networks, Online Video [Yahoo! News]