*S'plosion*

GameCenter. It sounds childish, really. Xbox Live and PlayStation Network are rather successful platforms for multiplayer gaming, and definitely showcase what you can do with millions of people and some games. It would seem, then, that the mobile device with the most games would also get a network of some sort. Well, with iPhone OS 4.0, the iPod touch and iPhone will. 

Working with the rather enormous amount of applications offered on the iPhone OS devices (around 185,000), “GameCenter” will show leaderboards and achievements, along with an active friendslist. 

Sorry for some reason I’m writing this like it’s an article and that’s immensely boring if you ask me. 

Okay so basically the whole idea of this thing is basically some type of Xbox Liveish program for the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. Now, if you ask me this whole idea has rather double edged. First of all, I really like the idea of having any sort of friendslist or leaderboard. Keeping track of your friends progress in Tap Tap or whatever game it is that you like could really be interesting, because everyone knows they’re lying when they tell you what they have in person. Achievements are also a great idea, giving you some incentive to play more, but also allowing developers to get deeper with their games and eventually create larger, more unique experiences. 

But in all honestly who really needs this?

I really like the idea of an online network, but maybe I just want a phone? Sure, I’m playing devil’s advocate here, but it’s an important point to consider. Look at the iPhone like… iTunes. iTunes used to be very simple. Music, iPod, music store. Now it does way too much. Hook up with this and run this and view that and update this and buy that and scroll through this and make this look nice. Maybe I just want to play my music and sync my iPod. Now the iPhone is the same thing. With the app store it became the do everything device for productivity, mobile gaming, and communication. But now it’s becoming something larger. Connecting every single phone on some sort of gaming network takes the iPhone from a device that can play some cool games to a gaming device which can get really competitive.

That just seems a bit over complicated. Why does it have to be so… interconnected? Keep it simple? Does that make sense? 

Playing devil’s advocate is dangerous, I’m beginning to switch over. 

As far as I am concerned, creating a new mobile network is a good idea that will make you get more value out of your applications, but at the same time it will only create a mess in the long run as people struggle to maintain standards.