Like it or not, social networking has taken over video games. Oh, sure, we antisocial introverts had it pretty good for a while, but as the Internet slowly creeps into every single aspect of our lives, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Actually, the idea of games being a solo pursuit is a much more recent one and a deviation from the norm. After all, most games require more than one person to play them. Ever try to play chess or checkers by yourself? It’s not a lot of fun. Even on the extreme end of the geek spectrum, pen-and-paper games like “Dungeons & Dragons” require at least two players to work. In short, it’s hard to be a gamer and remain antisocial; at some point, you’re going to have to actually talk to someone. Likewise, video games require a bit of socializing. Well, thankfully, not a whole lot.
Very recently, Apple rolled out Game Center, a social network for gamers on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Like Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and Steam, you can see what your friends are playing, join them or challenge them to unlock various achievements within certain games. Also, it features a matchmaking service that allows you to play games with perfect strangers at almost any time. What makes Game Center unique, however, is that it’s the first service of its kind on a mobile platform. The Nintendo DS doesn’t have anything like this, and while the Sony PSP does have some access to the PlayStation Network, it’s not nearly as robust.
Previous attempts at a similar service on the i-devices came in the form of Plus+, Open Feint and a few others, however they come from competing sources. In other words, OpenFeint and Plus+ don’t get along. Game Center at least offers the ability for all games to come together under one standard. It’s hard to say what will happen to these other networks as more and more games come with Game Center support built in, but I’d wager to say the writing is on the wall.
So far, my favorite game to feature Game Center compatibility is “WordsWorth” from developer 99Games. In “WordsWorth,” your goal is build words out of concentric tiles with letters on them — something like the classic word game “Boggle.” At the end of a set number of rounds, the player with the highest score wins. With Game Center, it’s dead simple to find a match with random users or invite your existing friends to play with you. Seeing where you stand among your friends on the leader board is another way of encouraging the competitive spirit, adding plenty of replay value onto an already extremely addictive game. While there are some aspects I don’t like about “WordsWorth’s” multiplayer experience, the ability to find available matches is not one of them. It works beautifully.
Game Center works pretty well for what it’s supposed to do, but is pretty light on features. Its success will depend on the number of games that use it, whether or not gamers will decide it’s worth using and whether or not it offers some advantage that other networks don’t currently provide.
Anything Apple could do to improve Game Center would certainly help a lot, as it barely even outshines its competitors. It’s good to see that Apple is taking games on the i-devices seriously, however. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has mentioned in the past that he’s never really taken games seriously, especially on the Macintosh platform, but this can only be seen as a step in the right direction.
Game Center is a free download from the app store and requires iOS 4 to run. You will need either an iPad, an iPod Touch (generations 2 through 4) or the iPhone (3 GS or 4). Unfortunately, it does not run on the iPhone 3G.
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