role

A full-fledged MMO on the iPhone? In this week's Tap That App, I take a look at Order & Chaos Online, the massive online multiplayer role-playing game from Gameloft. Featuring a look that very closely resembles Blizzard's World of Warcraft, the game provides a sweeping world in which you'll be able to create a character, choose a class, customize your look, and set off on an adventure.

If you've ever been a fan of online MMOs or just want to see what the fuss is all about, check out this week's Tap That App.

Farkle is an old dice game in which two or more players each roll five or six dice, with various scoring methods determining the winner. Tam11's Farkle is a free software version of the venerable game, which also goes by many other names. You can play Farkle alone or online via the developer's free Lobby application. Since you don't need the Lobby to play Farkle, we opted just to install the game.

The Farkle interface is a simple, colorful affair displaying virtual dice, a scoreboard for up to six players, scoring rules, and a chat screen that … Read more

Rimelands: Hammer of Thor is a fantasy dungeon-crawler RPG with turn-based combat, grid-based movement, and charming art and sound.

The first in a planned Rimelands series, Hammer of Thor puts you in the role of Rose Cristo, the heroine of a Norse-themed, fairy-filled, post-apocalyptic steampunk storyline. Using experience points and a system of branching skill trees, you can advance Rose's abilities down three different "paths": Barbarian, Assassin, and Shaman, corresponding to melee, ranged, and magical combat. Each path has its own "talents"--active skills and passive boosts that make you deadlier. The game gives you … Read more

You don't even have to ask: Of course she has a pink laptop.

Earlier on Friday, toymaker Mattel announced the results of an online contest to name the profession that the latest edition of Barbie dolls would have, and ultimately two were named: alongside "News Anchor" was the popular-vote winner, "Computer Engineer Barbie." Yes, she has a Bluetooth headset, a pink laptop, a smartphone, and hot-pink glasses. Oh, and she wears sparkly black leggings and a neon green shirt patterned with binary code, the sort of outfit that was probably only acceptable among Burning Man attendees in the late 1990s who liked to talk about "cyberspace." Actually, judging by that outfit, a Pets.com sock puppet would make a great accessory for the new doll.

According to a release from Mattel, the unveiling of Computer Engineer Barbie--she'll hit stores this fall--coincides with "a year-long, global brand initiative to inspire girls of all ages." The social-media-centric "I Can Be" poll that pitted Computer Engineer and News Anchor alongside Surgeon, Architect, and Environmentalist (over half a million votes were cast) is a big part of some image repair for the iconic doll, which has often been decked by feminists for promoting unhealthy body image, materialism, conformity, and the pigeonholing of women into traditional roles.

Some of the other options in the "I Can Be" series that were already in stores at the time of the contest are "Ballerina," "Bride," and "Babysitter." Enough said. But, to be fair, the two newest entries are the 125th and 126th careers for Barbie throughout her five-decade history, so there have been some more interesting ones in the mix over the years: numerous U.S. military officers, astronauts, chefs, diplomats, and um, wedding stylists.

The fact that there is a "Computer Engineer Barbie" is notable not only because it's a legitimate new "professional" entry into the series, but especially because computer science is a field in which women continue to be dramatically underrepresented--way more so than among, say, news anchors or architects.

There are, obviously, two sides to this.… Read more

There was a time when role-playing games were the domain of geeked-out obsessives overly concerned with stats, percentages, and the rolling of virtual 20-sided dice--or else fans of ornate, absurdist Japanese RPGs (such as the Final Fantasy series). For the coveted mainstream gamer, it could be very unfriendly territory.

For that reason, the original Mass Effect (EA, 2007), was something of a revelation, keeping much of the strategy and complexity of a traditional RPG, but wrapping it up in an action-packed third-person shooter, with a compelling (but digestible) storyline, and massive set pieces straight out of a big-budget Hollywood sci-fi epic.

Developer BioWare seems to have cornered the market on this new breed of RPG, following up with the very similar Dragon Age: Origins (a sword-and-sorcery take that managed to overcome the staleness of its genre), and now Mass Effect 2--which has quickly become the first critical darling of 2010.

Dan: Mass Effect 2 nails that elusive mix of highbrow and lowbrow (as the terms apply to game mechanics). There's still a complex plot, and characters with intertwining motives and methods, plus the flexibility to approach tasks in whatever order you choose. At the same time, most of the actual RPG stat-counting takes place behind the scenes (weapons stats no longer need to be pored over, the game simply defaults to the best guns you have), and the physical actions of running, shooting, and taking cover are much closer to what we expect from the current generation of highly polished third-person action games.

The focus on traditional duck-and-cover shooting is a clear indication of Mass Effect's console origins. Sister game Dragon Age was originally developed for PCs and ported to consoles (instead of the other way around), so it feels slower and more strategic (plus, that game lets you travel with three companions at a time, rather than Mass Effect's two).

The game definitely has that elusive 'X' factor that draws players in, perhaps partly by presenting a greatest hits melody of pop-culture highlights, from the thinly veiled political subtext of 'BSG,' and routinely shifting alliances of '24,' to the Star-Wars-reminiscent design, such as the Coruscant-like planet of Illium. For whatever reasons, the game is simply impossible to put down once you start playing, leading to many late nights of galaxy-saving (and resource mining on random planets).

And yet, despite racking up 25-plus hours of in-game time over the past week, there's still a nagging feeling that we've hit something of a wall in terms of game design.… Read more

Everybody loves a bargain. With the iTunes App Store, it's getting to the point that apps go on sale almost every week. Of course, app sale prices can be either good or bad, depending on your perspective. If you bought that fancy game for $9.99 a few weeks ago only to find out it went on sale later for $1.99, you can't help but feel a bit cheated. But it also gives you the opportunity to swoop in and grab apps you wouldn't ordinarily buy.

This week's apps are both games and are both … Read more

There are always a number of ways to get out of sticky situations. In the action role-playing-game Alpha Protocol, you must decide the best course of action. From Sega, developed by Obsidian, Alpha Protocol is set to be released later this year for Xbox 360, PS3, and the PC.

SEBASTOPOL, Calif.--By day, Silicon Valley's young elite were scribbling frenetically on whiteboards in the conference rooms at O'Reilly Media's corporate complex here, with executives and engineers from normally competing companies working together to tackle problems from open-standard implementation to social-network privacy. But in the evening, their dark sides emerged.

The occasion was Social Web FooCamp held here last weekend, a relatively new offshoot of the annual invite-only "unconference" that Tim O'Reilly started throwing in 2003. And the after-hours activity was Werewolf, a strategy game that has been a craze among the Web 2.… Read more