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OS X Mountain Lion: Game Center for Playing with Friends

Jul 26, 2012

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Game Center is an app that manages your collection of Mac games, keeping track of them and giving you an easy way to boast about your prowess to others. But it’s much more than that. Use Game Center to connect with friends, and see what games they’re playing and how well they are doing. In this excerpt from OS X Mountain Lion: Peachpit Learning Series, Lynn Beighley shows you how to use it.

From the book 

OS X Mountain Lion: Peachpit Learning Series

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Goals

Set up your Game Center account
Manage your Game Center profile
Find and buy games
Find friends to compete with
See your friends’ scores

You’re getting used to using your Mac to make you incredibly productive. Calendar, Contacts, Preview, and TextEdit save you lots of time. They might save you too much time. Perhaps you now have a bit of free time, and you’re not sure what to do with it. Or maybe you’re ready to have a little fun.

Lucky for you, there’s Game Center. Game Center is an app that manages your collection of Mac games, keeping track of them and giving you an easy way to boast about your prowess to others. But it’s much more than that. Use Game Center to connect with friends, and see what games they’re playing and how well they are doing. Let’s play.

The Game Center Window

Open Game Center from the Launchpad. The first time you start it up, you’re prompted to enter an Apple ID and password. You’ll need an Apple ID so that Game Center can keep track of your accomplishments in Game Center–enabled games and also to help you connect with friends.

To get started, enter your Apple ID and password and click “Sign In.” Or create an Apple ID by clicking “Create Apple ID.” There’s nothing else you can do with Game Center until you’re signed in.

Figure 1

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