Also in Realtime Worlds' newsletter for fans, which went out this week, is word that Facebook will play a large role in building the community for APB, the long-awaited cops-and-robbers MMO.

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]

Wizards of the Coast's Tiny Adventures has me a little confused. Sure, it's a neat little distraction, but it makes me wonder if WotC's online dudes have lost sight of the bigger picture:

The most galling aspect of the game, from a pen-and-paper player's perspective, has nothing to do with its mechanics at all. The mere existence of the app raises the question: Why is WotC's online team taking time to code a Facebook game, when the promised DM and player tools for 4th Edition remain in a state of limbo?

Play day: D&D Tiny Adventures [Playwrite]

Dungeons & Dragons-mongers Wizards of the Coast have come up with an uber-casual version of the venerable role playing game that just might make it worthwhile signing up for privacy-siphoning office time-sink that is Facebook.

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]

Facebook word game fans rejoice! Scrabulous, pulled from Facebook only two days ago due to a lawsuit from Scrabble creators Hasbro, is now back up in the form of Wordscraper. The makers of Scrabulous have given the game some graphics and mechanics tweaking to help differentiate it from the Hasbro original. This is when we get to see if Hasbro's lawsuit had any real merits. Will people stick with the reincarnated Scrabulous, or will they hop on over to Hasbro's official Scrabble Facebook application, currently being enjoyed by over 50,000 players?

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]

Amid Hasbro's lawsuit over the Scrabulous Facebook game, the social network has pulled the application, as it was asked to. Scrabulous users who log in are now greeted with the following 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.

"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.

With some calling Facebook the new frontier for gaming, it's unsurprising that it keeps making headlines. After all, it's not part of the gaming industry unless someone's complaining about excessive violence.

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?

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Majesco's getting on board the Facebook game craze with Bananagrams, an anagram game hitting the social networking site for free on August 18th.

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:

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Hasbro is suing the creators of the popular Scrabulous Facebook game, after a request the toy company made to the social network earlier this year to pull the game went unanswered.

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 unlicenced, 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.

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If you're not quite ready to turn your back on Fallout 3, you could always put your name down on a couple of petitions. While their effectiveness is questionable, every little bit counts. Heck, even if one person unaware of the issue takes an interest and agrees with our position, then it's worth the effort.

I've spotted two petitions so far - one on ipetitions.com and another over at Gameplayer. Give them a look-see, add your signature, and feel a little happier in the knowledge you've done something positive.

Alternatively, if you're on Facebook, reader Kent Dempsey has started an R18+ classification group on the social-networking site. At last count, it had over 600 members. Nothing like uniting for a cause!

Michael Atkinson, No R18+ For Games In Australia: Why It Hurts Children [Kotaku AU]
It's Official: Fallout 3 Refused Classification In Australia [Kotaku AU]

You now have two more ways to get your online Scrabble fix, as EA and Hasbro have announced the release of Scrabble on Pogo.com with a Facebook app to hit the social networking site later this month. Wait, you say, I'm already enjoying Scrabble via Facebook, Kotaku! No, that's Scrabulous, an unofficial Scrabble clone that Hasbro attempted to have pulled. It's still up.

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 favour of reading the press release for the third time. It's full of words!

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