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Let's look at the real picture here - Do we really NEED Game Center?

Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,062
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
To me, Game Center is like what we all hate on Facebook - The Mafia Wars and Farmville notices that everyone complains about. No one wants to know that you just bought a bush, no one wants to know that you regained health after that big fight in the middle of the freeway. No one REALLY wants to know that you're on level 23 on Angry Birds.

Notifications take A LOT of battery life if you think about it. People don't want to see if they can beat their friend's high score on a game when they're busy doing actual work. Nor do people REALLY want to send these notifications because it looks like they don't have anything better to do. It's a phone, not a device that's centered on just gaming.

I don't see Game Center surviving. Sure, it was something that a lot of companies started making their own versions of, but people pretty much hated it in the first place. It pushed our data into other people's hands without having any other choice other than to not play the game. We'll see less of them now, but still, Apple is pretty much forcing us to have it on our devices now.

And I'll tell you another thing. It doesn't help that Game Center is going to get more bloated as it goes on. A lot of the games that came out for the App Store opening haven't been updated for the 3.x or 4.x firmware. Angry Birds could be here for 5.x, but be gone after 6.x comes out.

Ping on the other hand, I think it will grow to be successful. It'll take a bit of time, but at least it has room to expand. Game Center, pretty much can't add anything, it's more of games having to change to adapt to a multiplayer environment later on.

And to be honest, I don't see iOS ever being good for replacing handheld consoles. Yes, they've sold more, but it's less of the gaming aspect and more for the other applications. I mean, having onscreen controls takes the whole beauty of the screen because your hands end up crowding the whole thing. You can only make so many games with tilts and shakes too.
 
Jessica Lares said:
Notifications take A LOT of battery life if you think about it. People don't want to see if they can beat their friend's high score on a game when they're busy doing actual work. Nor do people REALLY want to send these notifications because it looks like they don't have anything better to do. It's a phone, not a device that's centered on just gaming.
Click to expand...

And this is why there is a switch that lets you turn off notifications from Game Center or everything.

The fact is that most popular games were already trying to achieve many of the same effects as Game Center, either through OpenFeint or their own systems. Game Center just unifies everything and makes it easier for developers to include this functionality. It is very easy to not use it if it doesn't interest you.
 
I didn't read the whole thing, but if you really look at it, most people who have an iPhone don't really NEED it. Many will disagree and don't get me wrong, I love mine just as much as you do, but I'll admit I don't need it.
 
Matthew Yohe said:
Yeah, because putting them all in a folder isn't a solution...?
Click to expand...



Not when the folder only holds 12. Besides, I like a nice clean 1 page interface. There's a lot of crap of apple that I don't need or want. But I don't want to jailbreak. Frankly, I see the standard crappy apple widgets on my phone just like that crap that shows up on a new pc when you buy it. You just can't delete it on the iphone.
 
The fact of the matter is, not a large percent of people use their iPhones as "gaming devices" but for the people that do, this is exactly what they want. Obviously it's not for you, but its for me, its for my friends. I think your flipped, Game Center will grow and thrive, Ping will form a small niche.
 
Jessica Lares said:
To me, Game Center is like what we all hate on Facebook - The Mafia Wars and Farmville notices that everyone complains about. No one wants to know that you just bought a bush, no one wants to know that you regained health after that big fight in the middle of the freeway. No one REALLY wants to know that you're on level 23 on Angry Birds.

Notifications take A LOT of battery life if you think about it. People don't want to see if they can beat their friend's high score on a game when they're busy doing actual work. Nor do people REALLY want to send these notifications because it looks like they don't have anything better to do. It's a phone, not a device that's centered on just gaming.

I don't see Game Center surviving. Sure, it was something that a lot of companies started making their own versions of, but people pretty much hated it in the first place. It pushed our data into other people's hands without having any other choice other than to not play the game. We'll see less of them now, but still, Apple is pretty much forcing us to have it on our devices now.

And I'll tell you another thing. It doesn't help that Game Center is going to get more bloated as it goes on. A lot of the games that came out for the App Store opening haven't been updated for the 3.x or 4.x firmware. Angry Birds could be here for 5.x, but be gone after 6.x comes out.

Ping on the other hand, I think it will grow to be successful. It'll take a bit of time, but at least it has room to expand. Game Center, pretty much can't add anything, it's more of games having to change to adapt to a multiplayer environment later on.

And to be honest, I don't see iOS ever being good for replacing handheld consoles. Yes, they've sold more, but it's less of the gaming aspect and more for the other applications. I mean, having onscreen controls takes the whole beauty of the screen because your hands end up crowding the whole thing. You can only make so many games with tilts and shakes too.
Click to expand...


You do know that if you don't log into it the phone doesn't use it.

It's called choice. You want to use it you log in and exchange names, you don't want it then just ignore it, simples.;)



simple20 said:
Not when the folder only holds 12. Besides, I like a nice clean 1 page interface. There's a lot of crap of apple that I don't need or want. But I don't want to jailbreak. Frankly, I see the standard crappy apple widgets on my phone just like that crap that shows up on a new pc when you buy it. You just can't delete it on the iphone.
Click to expand...

You do know that you can enter those apps in restrictions and the icon disappears.;)
 
Hey I just remembered that the OP is the same one that complained about the retina display being too fuzzy and hard to read.:eek:
 
Jordan921 said:
Game center might not be for you. But I bet you there are tons of people out there that love it.
Click to expand...

Sorta on the same page. I checked it out, wasn't interested, and dumped it into my junk folder. It's not something I currently use, but I think it it a cool idea for the game junkies.
 
Anyway. I think all gamecenter is is a take on the whole social game place that every console has nowadays. Think of it, since the xbox 360 came out with the achievements system, everyone else has copied that. (I know, kinda strange that people have copied microsoft for once and not vice versa :p) But I think thats all game center is. Just an iphone version of xbox live to try and get the iphones and ipod touch's further into this gaming market that apple are aiming for. Of course some people just want a general gaming experience without the need to show off your achievements to your friends, whereas some people love that.
 
Squid7085 said:
The fact of the matter is, not a large percent of people use their iPhones as "gaming devices" but for the people that do, this is exactly what they want. Obviously it's not for you, but its for me, its for my friends. I think your flipped, Game Center will grow and thrive, Ping will form a small niche.
Click to expand...

It's not just iPhone users though. It's iPod touch and iPad users as well.
 
Let's look at the real picture here, do we really NEED iPhone at all?

I think we all know the true answer to that query.

Still I'm enjoying mine, and I noticed that you can turn Game Center off!

My life has been so much easier since I discovered that game center off switch. :p
 
Well, I like Game Center, and I think it was a smart move for Apple. I've already bought a few games I didn't have that a few of my friends had. As someone else mentioned, it's a good idea to have all of that game info in one spot and not spread out. Hopefully, more games will add multiplayer. It's all about what you like and how you use your phone. If Apple hadn't released Game Center, people would complain.

I see Apple added a Game Center icon to the App Store pages of applicable games. I wish they would do a retina display icon as well. I don't want to waste time and money on blurry games. (/offtopic)

I think Ping's a good idea also if you don't take it seriously. I still think iTunes needs to be rebuilt. As long as some feel iTunes is bloated and a hassle to deal with, Ping won't catch on. They should've partnered with someone like last.fm. That would've been awesome.
 
The problem is that Facebook is not the appropriate place for this information. I use Facebook to see how my friends are doing, not to see automated score postings. On the other hand, Game Center is about spurring competition and assisting in match-making. The information is presented in an appropriate context. I also like this function being consolidated within the OS instead of have to deal with logging in to every game seperately via Open Feint or Plus.
As for the spamming of unused Apple Icons, well that ship already sailed. One more app in your Apple junk folder hardly makes a difference. But I agree Apple needs to provide a way to hide these apps. BTW, they cant really make the Game Center installation optional like they did with iBooks, since it's a framework used by third party apps.
 
Game center hasn't showed it's true colors yet. The point of it is to allow iphone users to match play multiplayer type games in the future.. Ie u can challenge someone to Chess or Scrabble that aren't in your immediate area.

And I'm sure at some point each game that has the abiliy will have its own lobby where you can be matched with a random user ect.

In general I agree that most people don't care about leader boards.
 
simple20 said:
Not when the folder only holds 12. Besides, I like a nice clean 1 page interface. There's a lot of crap of apple that I don't need or want. But I don't want to jailbreak. Frankly, I see the standard crappy apple widgets on my phone just like that crap that shows up on a new pc when you buy it. You just can't delete it on the iphone.
Click to expand...

Same issue with all phones. My work phone is a Droid and I have crap on there I will never use... a Blockbuster app?? :rolleyes:
 
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