PART III

Diving Into Software

• Chapter 9 Game On with Game Center
• Chapter 10 Useful Productivity Apps
• Chapter 11 Best Not-Exactly-Productive Apps
• Chapter 12 iMessage and the Wide World of Push Notifications

Chapter 9

Game On with Game Center

In This Chapter

• Understanding the setup process
• Keeping notifications under control
• Mastering the art of game discovery
• Locating (and keeping) friends
• Tracking your progress
• Discovering multiplayer possibilities
• Going beyond the game

In May of 2010, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that Apple was their primary “enemy of the future.” That was stated shortly after Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata said that the battle with Sony was “already won.” A decade ago, Apple was the laughingstock of the gaming universe. The company’s platforms were so underutilized by the mass market that the vast majority of developers didn’t even bother porting their Windows and console titles to Mac. ‘Twas a sad, sad state of affairs. Now, iOS has completely transformed Apple’s position in the gaming universe, and in many ways, Apple is now the company to catch. Mobile gaming has shifted dramatically in recent years, with mobile phones and tablets becoming powerful enough to handle the gaming that was once reserved for portable handhelds. Game Center is Apple’s first major foray into the gaming universe, but the company doesn’t go to great lengths to publicize its features. This chapter discusses the ins and outs of Game Center and shows you the ropes to getting connected, staying engaged, and keeping tabs on your progress. Yes, I show you how to be vain. Only kidding.

Getting Jacked In

Although Apple has received a stunning amount of praise and credit for its innovations of late, it doesn’t do everything right. In fact, the company has missed seriously when it comes to social networking; its Ping music network went nowhere after popping up in iTunes. But unlike Ping, Game Center has traction and all of the pieces are in place for it to see the kind of growth that people expect from Apple. Check out the app’s understated motif in Figure 9-1.

Figure 9-1: A look at Game Center on the iPhone

In a nutshell, Game Center is a gaming social network. If you’re familiar with console gaming, it’s most akin to Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network, but only for iOS devices. Game Center, in a way, is like a newsstand, acting as a unified portal for your Game Center-enabled titles. Furthermore, it allows users to locate and track friends, start or join a multiplayer game, track achievements, see where they stand globally, and easily find new titles to try.

Understanding the Setup Process

Game Center is quite unlike any other built-in app on the iPad, or within iOS 5/6 as a whole. It’s one of the few places where Apple actually asks you to register; for the most part, an iTunes ID is enough to get you around in iOS. Although I do recommend using your iTunes ID to sign up for Game Center, you can create a different username than the associated e-mail address—useful for privacy reasons. As you can tell, my birth name and my gamer tag are different in almost every respect.

I strongly recommend creating a username that’s nothing like your e-mail address and reveals nothing about your personal identity. I’ve never been one to don a tin foil hat, but there’s just no compelling reason to let strangers in multiplayer game sessions know precisely who you are.

After you’ve created a username, you can click the stock Photo icon to the right of your username in order to select a new avatar (see Figure 9-2). That’s shorthand for a photo that represents your online profile; you can either select a shot from your image gallery or use the iPhone’s camera to capture your mug on the spot. Of course, you can use the Change Photo button to do the same. Just above that, there’s a space for you to input your status. Oddly, Apple provides no predetermined lines—messages like Online, Away, BRB, or Ready would make a lot of sense. At any rate, a tap of that button will pull up the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, where you can input any status you want. Folks who have you in their friends list will see your status as you update.

Figure 9-2: You can choose a photo of your pup, a photo of your mug, or anything in between.

New to iOS 6 and Mountain Lion over on the desktop side is Challenges. Now, you can challenge opponents on their Macs to play against you on your iPhone, assuming the title is available for both platforms. Fancy!

Navigating the User Interface

Apple includes but four main tiles to sift through: Me, Friends, Games, and Requests. I’ll start with the third. The cluster of icons dotted across the top isn’t there just for show. Tap ‘em and they’ll take you into a windowed view of the App Store page for the respective apps. Basically, these are game recommendations based on rankings and ratings from Game Center users. It’s a great way to get your feet wet when you’re overwhelmed with possible options. These selected apps tend to be highly played, polished, and well regarded, making them great no-brainer options if you’re unsure where to start. Not every one is free, however, so be careful about jumping into each one and installing.

Moving back a notch, you should visit the Friends tab as soon as you get a couple of titles in the stable that you’re interested in playing. If you’re online (and you’re always online, right?), the iPhone will scour your Contacts list in order to find acquaintances that also have a Game Center account. Given that Game Center accounts are assigned by e-mail address, it’s pretty easy for the system to put two and two together. This is a good reason to ensure that your Contacts app is stuffed with e-mail addresses, and not just phone numbers (see Figure 9-3).

Figure 9-3: It’s the App Store… inside of Game Center.

Start by tapping the Recommendations banner at the top; in there, you’ll find recommended additions. Once you’ve sent all the requests you’d like from in there, the + button enables you to manually search for new pals via e-mail address or username. (See the interface in Figure 9-4.)

Figure 9-4: Got a friend? Add ‘em!

Keeping Notifications in Check

Starting with iOS 5, Apple completely overhauled its notification system. In fact, it was one of the most notable, visible, and fundamental changes to iOS since the platform’s inception. Aside from taking a few cues from Google’s Android, Apple has also enabled some fairly specific controls for notifications. Rather than just giving users the option of having them on or off, or giving users the option of customizing how they appear, Apple has enabled both of those for pretty much every major (and in some cases, minor) facet of the system.

Regardless of how you have your Notifications arranged for other portions of the operating system—be it Messages, e-mail, FaceTime, Reminders, Facebook, Twitter, or Calendar—you can tweak your Game Center notifications to make them more useful and less annoying. How? Simple. Head to the Settings app within iOS. Tap the Notifications icon and select Game Center. From there, you can toggle the Notification Center, choose how many notifications to show (I recommend five or ten unless you’re a hardcore gamer), and choose an alert style.

The alert style is the most important. I recommend using Banners. Alerts are the typical pop-up notifications that troubled so many users in earlier builds of iOS, interrupting whatever it was you’re working on and forcing you to respond immediately in some form or fashion. The three options beneath that (Badge App Icon, Sounds, and View in Lock Screen) are most useful if left on, but those who’d rather disable Sounds can certainly take a hint via the visual cues available in Alert Style. Have a look at what you should be seeing in Figure 9-5.

Figure 9-5: Tweak Game Center’s notifications before they tweak your nerves.

If you end up amassing a load of friends—and given just how stunning you look, why wouldn’t you?—notifications can easily get out of hand. In that situation, head to Settings Notifications, and turn the Alert Style to None and Sounds to Off. That’ll leave only badges on, which are the least invasive way to keep track of other events going on within Game Center.

Discovering and Downloading New Games

Truth be told, Game Center is nothing without games that are compatible with it, and the functionality is severely limited without an Internet connection. Remember, this is a social network for games. Without the social aspect, it’s just another hub for games. The Games icon along the lower edge is where I recommend starting. Tap Game Recommendations from there. The games that tend to be most addicting (and rewarding) are those with Achievements. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, Achievements are any number of accomplishments that toss “points” into your account once you reach a certain goal. The more you play—and the better you are—the more points you acquire.

Not all Game Center games support Achievements. It’s pretty easy to spot, though. When you click into any title in the Recommendations grid, you’ll spot a Leaderboard and Players tab; on occasion, you’ll see an Achievements tab in the middle. By tapping there, you can see what goals lie ahead, and you’ll know ahead of time what you need to strive for in order to rule the roost. As you play a particular game and hit those achievements, you’ll see them “unlocked” in this panel. The great part about having your entire account tied to the cloud is that those achievements translate between iOS devices; as long as you’re signed in with your iTunes ID, you’ll have all of those statistics saved and visible.

Given the “social” aspect, it’s no surprise that Apple provides a way to invite your best buds to download (and hopefully play) any title that you’re fond of. But as of now, the suggestion feature is a bit spartan. Rather than being able to tap into your address book, invite via iMessage, or just send invites to folks who are already in your Friend list within Game Center, you’re given the option to send an e-mail. Thankfully, you can pull addresses from your Contacts here, and with iOS 6, you can pull ‘em from your Facebook friends list.

In an effort to quell any confusion from hopping in and out of apps, I want to point out that downloading games from within Game Center isn’t exactly the same as downloading one from the App Store. Let’s say you tap the price (or Free) icon; from there, you’re taken to a windowed App Store, where you then have to tap the price or Free icon again. If you aren’t signed in to your iTunes account, you’ll need to type in a password. Then, the app will download to a home pane on your iPhone, effectively exiting your Game Center session. Once you hop back in, however, your new title should be sitting there, desperately longing for attention.

If you’re looking for a broader range of apps, or perhaps a more simplistic way to find games that the masses deem awesome, you can do so within iTunes. Once you’ve opened the program, pay a visit to iTunes Store App Store, and gaze over at the right rail. There’s a box there entitled App Store Quick Links. A few lines down, you’ll spot the Games Starter Kit, an oft-updated catalog of the highest rated, most played Game Center titles on the entire App Store. If you’re the type who prefers a higher power making decisions for you, this is absolutely the place where your discovery should begin. (And don’t worry, it’s okay to get ideas of what you might or might not like using a total shortcut like this.)

Protecting Your Privacy

Given that we live in a world full of connected devices, GPS hounds, and location-based deals, it’s not surprising to hear of a privacy outrage related to this app, that program, or [insert company here]. Apple has certainly been at the center of a few of those, and although there’s nothing tremendously worrisome about Game Center, I do want to point out one recommendation that most folks would probably never see without a fair bit of digging.

By default, your Game Center profile is “public.” What that really means is that your profile—including your real name—is visible to other players. The upside to allowing this is that Game Center will recommend you to other players using your real name, and your nickname will be used on public leader boards. Not surprisingly, I’d strongly recommend disabling your public profile.

In order to do so, hop into Game Center, visit the Me pane, and click your Account banner. Once you enter your password, your full account pulls up; the Privacy slider should be set to Off, disabling your public profile. Once this is complete, only your added friends will be able to see your real name, although keep in mind that Game Center will no longer recommend you to other players and your nickname won’t be shown on public leader boards. My opinion on this is clear: I’d rather not be on a leader board if it means my full name is widely available to the entire iOS universe.

Keeping a Handle on Restrictions

Game Center’s a joyful place, sure, but the fees can add up if your youngster gets in there and starts purchasing in-app additions at will. If you’re planning to allow your children to tap into Game Center in order to pass the time (or keep ‘em quiet on the long trip to grandmother’s house), you should absolutely set a few boundaries beforehand.

I recommend heading to Settings General Restrictions. From there, you need to create a Restrictions PIN code, which allows only the owner with that four-digit code to make changes. Once you’re in, you can scroll down to Apps in order to disable access to apps that are rated for a certain age category (or disable apps altogether), and beneath that, you can disable in-app purchases altogether. If In-App Purchases is flipped to Off, you and yours will be unable to ding your linked credit card from within an app. Plenty of games offer in-app purchases; if you aren’t careful, it’s quite easy to slip a game update into your iPhone with a subtle charge.

If you’d rather your kids keep the gaming to themselves (but you still want to allow them to track achievements), glance down to the Multiplayer Games section and flip that toggle to Off. Not a bad idea if you’re not keen on having perfect strangers play games with your own offspring. (Yeah, this may sound extreme to some, but it’s great that Apple has included the option here for the overly paranoid.) Taking things a step further, you can disable the Adding Friends option if you’d rather your kids not be able to accept unsolicited friend requests.

Going Beyond the Game

You may be wondering if there’s a second level to Game Center, or if beauty truly is skin deep. Without getting into any philosophical conversations, I’d like to point out that app developers are making Game Center into something much more robust than Apple likely intended. In fact, the name “Game Center” may not even be applicable if the trend continues. Fact is, there are quite a few titles in the App Store that tout Game Center compatibility, yet aren’t games at all. These apps simply tap into Game Center’s use of achievements and social networking, but aren’t “games” in the slightest.

One of my favorites is 100 Cameras in 1, a $1.99 app that acts as a cross between Instagram and Foursquare. In essence, this camera app allows users to add filters and tweak photographs taken on their iPhones, as well as unlock certain achievements based on the location of their photos and which filters they use. It’s a clever way to encourage the continual use of an app, and sure enough, it aids in the discovery of the app’s sizable feature set.

The honest truth is that the vast majority of Game Center titles available today are indeed games, but there’s a burgeoning market out there for non-games. Even if you aren’t into gaming, it’s worth keeping an eye on new apps that land with Game Center support. Every so often, one filters in with a category not named “Games.”

Summary

Perhaps surprisingly, gaming has become not only an integral part of iOS, but the iOS has actually become a leader in the portable gaming space. Companies like Sony and Nintendo are now paying attention to a new enemy, and the introduction of Game Center acts as proof that Apple is taking this initiative seriously. Before you dive into Game Center too deeply, it’s best to set up your account, establish your privacy limits, and set any restrictions on in-app purchases. If the idea of downloading new, unheard-of titles sounds daunting, don’t worry—Apple’s Recommendations portal helps you ease into what’ll likely become the addiction.

Unlike most other apps on iOS, Game Center is prone to tossing out dozens—if not hundreds—of notifications, particularly for those who have a significant amount of friends. Calming that storm is fairly easy if you know how, though. Game Center is most beneficial (and enjoyable) when you take advantage of the social aspects; tracking achievements, watching your friends move up and down the leader board, and inviting contacts you haven’t touched base with in a while to a few friendly bouts of Touch Tanks.

Game Center is primarily used for games today—not surprising given the title. But there are non-game titles being published with Game Center support. Even users with little to no interest in gaming can find something useful in Game Center, with 100 Cameras in 1 being an excellent example of how the Game Center functionality can spread to other genres in the App Store.