Apple's Game Center Social Gaming Network - The Goods and The Bads

Game Center is Apple, Inc’s entry into the online multiplayer social gaming network. The network is supported on more recent Apple iOS hardware capable of running iOS 4.1 or later. On the iPad however, Game Center is available starting from iOS 4.2 onwards. A social gaming network, Game Center allows its users to gather online friends and start a multiplayer game through its automatic matchmaking system. The Game Center app that comes pre-installed on all compatible devices features an achievement and leader board tracker, allowing gamers to compare their achievements and scores with friends.

Gaming on the iOS took off when Apple launched the App Store back in July 2008. Unlike console systems like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the iOS platform lacks a unified multiplayer system. Third-party developers like OpenFeint, ngmoco’s Plus+, AGON Online and Scoreloop tried to fill this gap by introducing their own multiplayer network. However, this actually lead to more confusion and fragmentation when iOS game developers pick and choose from one of the four networks mentioned above.

Seeing the great opportunity emerge, Apple announced Game Center during its iOS 4 preview event on April 8, 2010. Later that year in August, a preview edition was released to all Apple developers registered under the iOS Development program. Game Center was finally released on September 8, 2010 and is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 2G. Industry critics slammed Apple for not supporting the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G got its fix of Game Center when the jailbreak community released it as a hack.

As a social gaming network, Game Center had its good and bad. First of all, it allows users to connect with friends and start playing online games. As for achievements and leader boards, Game Center took centre stage and allowed gamers to compare their rankings with friends on their list. However, Game Center lacks something crucial for a social gaming network.

Game Center’s friends management goes as far as allowing users to add and remove friends. That’s it. There’s no way a user can communicate with another user, even if they have them on their friends’ list. Suppose that I want to organize a multiplayer matchup with my Game Center friends. I can only invite them on the spot, but I can’t pre-arrange with my friends.

One other weakness of Game Center is the leader boards. If you are familiar with Game Center, you’ll probably see games where the score boards are littered with scores that are impossible to attain. This serves as nothing but a discouragement for someone to try and break the highest score.

As of this writing, Game Center is evolving and many new features have been announced, pending release of Apple’s iOS 5 this fall. It is hoped that many of the disadvantages of Game Center mentioned in this article can be enhanced or fixed in future updates for Game Center.