Not to downsize my love for Of and ++, but I really like many games on both AGON and ScoreLoop. Both networks have many hit titles on board, which can be viewed here http://community.scoreloop.com/ and here http://www.agon-online.com/ Junde & Chem7 really have a nice set up going with ScoreLoop, especially with the points Kevin highlighted. However, I'm not really a fan of the caricature avatars. Agon has a clean interface and unobtrusive design, imo.
And Prez, that is great actually; I am a huge fan of choice, if OF is the one for you it is the one for you. The reality is, is that while I like Choc/SL and you might like Vanilla/OF, it there are going to be a lot of folks that like both. That is why I love gaming, you can date, but you do not have to marry. I am basically for anything that makes better games @Phago thanks for the encouragement, SL is a gaming company made by gamers, all we want to do is create a great community. To be honest, I am personally willing to bribe, I am currently in possession of a Apple Struddle and for devs that go with SL, let's just say, I am willing to share. Message of the day: Don't dis the struddle OK I am not willing to bribe, it is good cake so go get your own
Hello Kevin and Junde, welcome to TA. Kevin that was a great first post, lots of really good information. I'll admit that I don't know a lot about Scoreloop, even though I have a few games that use it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to like it. After reading your explanations my interest has definitely perked up quite a bit. I'm most partial to OpenFeint at the moment, but as long as you're making ice cream analogies, I think it's safe to say there's room for plenty of different flavors. I really like that SL is open platform. Your service seems the most socially based, and so the more players the merrier. As popular as iPhone games can be, sometimes there's just no one to play games online with, or the player base fades out a couple months after release. Plus, like you, I don't know a lot of people with iPhones. Thanks again for the info, hopefully you will become a regular visitor of TA. It's a good community, with plenty of developers and customers interacting with each other for the greater good. I'll be sure to post back here with my impressions of SL after I've played around a bit. I actually didn't know that Parachute Panic had Scoreloop, I haven't played it for a while. I love that game, so maybe that can be my jumping off point into familiarizing myself with your service.
@Chem7: Glad you joined the discussion and your opinions are very much appreciated! I'm not sure if we've already spoken via email but I started this thread to get a "gamer's" perspective about these choices after my talks with reps from the 3 companies behind each of the options mentioned above. I must admit that as a developer, we're not only looking for a social networking system that will add more value to our games but will aid us in "marketing" and "cross-promoting" our titles. I reckon it will be impossible to achieve that if there are only a handful of "known" titles that carry Scoreloop. Having said this, do you guys have plans of getting the word out about Scoreloop more aggressively?
For the simple fact Scoreloop have visited these forums, I will implement Scoreloop into my game at the weekend! I was tossing a coin between the two anyway, the fact I will be porting my titles to Android means the cross platform and white label nature is a big plus
OpenFient is my choice. I like their standalone app a lot and there are so many more games for OpenFient right now (500 plus). That makes I have a greater chance of comparing my gamerscore with my friends. Agon is nice, but you can't search within a game for any of your other games, achievements, score, etc. Only recent achievements and/or that game your playing achievements (if I'm making any sense). Otherwise I think OF and Agon are similar in features. I've never even heard of Scoreloop so they are out of the running. I actually don't like that there are so many of these services popping up. I had thought there was only three (Plus+ rounding out the former two) but now I see there is another? How many do we need? Where these services shine is when they inimate Xbox Live. You have a universal gamertag and gamerscore. You can see which of your friends is online, compare your achievements/score or chat. But this loses something when there are 4 or more services you need to sign up for. With a gamerscore spread out between them all and no way to see your friend online when he is playing and OF game and you're playing a Agon game. My vote is always going to be for OF because they have the numbers behind them and as such are closer to XBL (as we can get at the moment). While not perfect I think they are the most committed to the service (with all the developers using them and creating a standalone app and updating the service). If there is going to be a "winner" when all of this is said and done, I would go with OF.
It's a matter of choice guys so please be kind with Scoreloop. @venasque: I highly agree. The numbers give OpenFeint the edge. We'll try and integrate the 3 systems and find out which one stands out on the small screen. Thanks for all your feedback!
Honestly, the biggest problem I see is that the longer multiple systems live, the more divided the game base becomes. And the sad part is that with the advent of systems like Chillingo's Crystal, we're not even done yet.
Hi Guys, Sorry for the late response, I have been traveling and just got back home earlier today. On a side note, I still have no idea why they stopped giving peanuts out, that pretzel crap tastes terrible. Let me just say ahead of time, I am REALLY sorry for the long post. Anyways: @BOARDUMB Dude OpenFeint is a great platform and if it really suits your needs you should stick with it, believe me; I would love to put the hate on OpenFeint but the kids did a great job. I have worked with a lot of platforms and I could easily sit here and pick holes in their platform, but it is pretty futile because the simple fact remains that they have done an amazing job to cater for their market. My main point is, is basically devs need to look at their games, some games will be suited for OpenFeint, some will be tailored to Plus -btw I am still lost on that one, do I say plus plus or just plus? Regardless it is a solid platform and they did a great job also. All platforms have their flaws, the motto I live by is this: You can please some of the people some of the time You can please most of the people most of the time You can't please all of the people all of the time @egarayblas The real question is why does there need to be a choice? Let me say that again for dramatization OK so we have contacted all of the main platforms and said "hey why don't we have a shared log in?", i.e. the player posts their user name, our platform will recognize it once we share data bases. Here is the thing, they all said "no" or let us think about it. Right now, today, this minute, Scoreloop is willing to state: We do not care about dick, wallet or whether you were on the cheerleader or football team, it really isn't about us. It is about the gamer, I remember the first "social" game I played, it was Delta Force 2 -great game, but lots of Haxxors - it had a button "online gameplay" -yes I know that is two words, but that's what it said. I clicked it and today I still have about 21 guys I chat will once a month. On side note number 2 WTF ICQ sux. My point being that there was a player called Grunt45, I wanted to smash his head in whilst playing, but my god that dude could snipe me from 2 kim out. However, when we were on RW it was like "hey how are the kids" etc. Actually that is one of the main reasons we/Scoreloop do not have realtime chat, because if you do the "man" i.e. the cops that can monkey hump you via interpol can and will go after you just for political points. From that day on I have embraced multiplayer games, it isn't like I let them take over my life and I play them everyday! egarayblas are you saying I am an addict? OK I hate you @kgutteridge Thanks man, that is really nice. @derek420 Mom stop stalking me on the net. @venasque Now here is the angry/Oscar from Sesame St post: Choice is the thing that gamers want otherwise we would all be playing CS 1.5! "Hey dude I don't need another MP FPS, I loves des pongs", see what I mean? Choice=WTF I'sa bee'sa lovin diz shiz! I do not care if the shiz is DF2 or CS 1.5, once it gives the end user a great gaming XP. Here is the thing, you do not really have to make a choice, Scoreloop are willing to give your customers a chance to play against one another regardless of the platform the first chose. As a gamer, guys; I do not want to have to choose! I was to bring your players a great experience, that means swallowing my pride and saying to the two main other platforms: Dear Niel (NG -Moco- and (OF) Danielle, You guys did a great job, why ask the gaming community both on the dev and player side choose, if your platform is good they will choose you and the players will adore you for it. We have designed out platform to embrace the other great platforms out there, why should the end user have to go with plus, AF or the current price of a health plan in the USA -side note number 23485, I am getting screwed. The fact remains that we all have a user-base and either you want to add value to your gamers experience or you do not. Let's be honest, a lot of the devs that visit these forums are gamers and they want their customers/other gamers to experience a great game. Why not let them? Our platform is pretty agnostic and will be able to help you. Actually for the devs we are willing to help you also, if you want to go with our platform also -and yes, you can go with us too; I honestly do not care if you went with OF to date, I do not care if you went with Plus to date, I am willing to integrate you guys TODAY and the other platforms. More users=more money. I know for a fact that Plus+ and OF are viewing these forums, so my contention is this, why not make the end user experience better with a single sign-on? You keep your users, but the gamers keep their experience. I am 1000% certain that I will not get a reply from this post, but mainly because: 1. They want to control the revenue and make the investors rich. 2. They never played a game in their lives. 3. They are yet to hit puberty. Love/Kisses/Hugs, Kevin @drelbs Hi Daniele/Jason, please see farther down the post. @PointOfLight Great post, I will buy your games. Finally to be frank, I am not saying we have the best platform, I am not saying gamers will love us, but I am saying that we are the most open platform out there today...................ok besides mighty putty.
Hey Guys, Jason from Aurora Feint here... First off, it's very unprofessional for Scoreloop to have their business and sales people making personal attacks. Kind of a shame. Nothing more I'll say about that. To the question... it seems that this idea of "cross platform single sign on" is a big deal for you guys. The truth is almost no one owns an Android device AND an iPhone/iPod so having a single sign-on across devices is a bit pointless. I agree that having a unified community is a good idea -- my friend may have an Android device and it'd be really cool to play against him. But the truth is, right now, Android devices are just not that popular (20k Nexus One sold on day one?). So, for now, we're going to continue focusing on improving the user experience for the platform where all the gamers are --- the iPhone and iPod Touch. This topic came up at a panel I spoke on yesterday at the Mobile Games Forum. You can read more of my thoughts here on pocketgamer Anyway, feel free to follow up with questions and I'll chime in or hit me up directly on twitter or email (jason at aurorafeint dot com).
Jason, relax and have a box of juice, I think you misunderstood my comments, I will call Peter G next week to make sure we are all on the same page, again I think you guys have a nice platform as I have stated in this thread. As pretty much everyone said at MGF a single sign on would make life easier for the end user, if you guys don't want to engage in that, it is 100% your choice and I honestly respect your stance, you guys put the blood, sweat and tears into your platform, it is up to you how you move it forward. Peace man, for clarity; as I said from the outset, I am not going to get into a mud slinging contest as that is just not going to do anyone any good really is it? So I think it is best I leave the Touch Arcade community to you mate as I am not much of a flamer and I really don't like confrontation. So I think it is best if I don't post here again. Cheers and good luck with everything, Kevin
C'mon guys, I started the thread hoping to ask gamers about their experiences with the 3 social networking platforms, let's all be friends here. Why not share your experiences as a "gamer" as well? Was there a specific gaming experience that drove you why you made OpenFeint and Scoreloop that way? As a developer with only a few games, we figured its about time we decide which one to adapt so we can integrate it in our upcoming games as well. Part of our decision will include the "players" perspective and opinions. We would like to listen to them because they are, after all our end users. Please feel free to express your opinions and experiences everyone! And thanks for making this a healthy discussion!
