Game Center: the good, the bad and the bonkers
So I just installed iOS 4.1 on my iPhone and started farting about with Game Center. Like Ping, it does make me wonder if Apple understands that when it comes to social networking, it’s best not to avoid the ‘social’ and ‘networking’ bits.
The good
Game Center has a pretty straightforward interface that shows up the likes of OpenFeint as being even more of a mess than you originally thought they were. I can take or leave (well, if I’m honest, leave; well, if I’m really honest, set fire to) the casino-like gambling table green-fuzz and wood visual appearance, but at least the navigation is fine.
The bad and the bonkers
In the case of Game Center, ‘the bad’ and ‘the bonkers’ are both the same thing. Currently, most of my social gaming happens on Facebook, but via iOS games that happily connect to my Facebook account. I sign in, and immediately I have an arcade-game-style high-score table, populated with my friends’ scores. It’s great, and it’s simple (one click and a sign-in).
Because Apple hates relying on others, it’s eschewed this approach, instead forcing you to go through a protracted set-up to get your Apple ID talking to Game Center, followed by an invite system that’s either by known username or by email (seriously).
The modern web and online services are entirely based around networking, and are successful when these services all talk to each-other. By sealing itself off from the rest of the world and existing social networking (be it Facebook, Twitter or other services), Game Center irks. I don’t doubt it’ll be a success—there are too many iOS gamers and excited developers for it not to be. But it is awkward, unwieldy and unnecessarily time-consuming to deal with, and these are direct opposites to the things Apple has historically been known for.
Update: Game Center also cunningly provides usernames only with friend requests. I’ve already had a request from someone who I’ve no idea who they are. Gnh.
Update 2: ‘The Rev’ writes in the comments: “It’d be nice if it worked, too – the Flight Control leaderboard is showing my first score today, not the better score from my next attempt and not my best score from before Game Center launched.” Oh dear. Follow-up-o-tron: “It’s actually my FIRST since GC – not best since. I’ve done better today and it’s not uploaded. Other people okay, though.” Fire up the Bug Kill Machine, Walter!
It’d be nice if it worked, too – the Flight Control leaderboard is showing my first score today, not the better score from my next attempt and not my best score from before Game Center launched.
I think I’ve worked it out, or I at least had a theory.
I installed Flight Control on my iPhone, played a game and scored 20 points. This score was uploaded to GC. I then recovered my old scores from their online service, so my high score is showing as 69 in the app. This wasn’t uploaded and it looks like it’s not going to upload a new score until I beat my old high score – which the app thinks is 69, but which GC thinks is 20.
If that makes sense.
I scored 22 on the first map and my high score in GC didn’t change – but I scored 36 on the second map (which I’d never played before) and the score uploaded to GC fine.
The only way I’ll be able to prove this, though, is to score seventy points or more on the first map, which may prove tricky.
If that’s the case, it’s totally batshit crazy. I have scores on FC of 500+ on some maps, and I’m unlikely to beat them again.
I would assume you’d be fine unless you do exactly what I did –
1) Reinstall Flight Control after having deleted it months ago.
2) Play a game.
3) Recover scores from Firemint’s server after playing one game.
Just a guess though.
Okay, the game just crashed to a white screen, so I had to shut it from the “task manager” and when I restarted it uploaded my high score.