Brad Cook has a look at the Mac multiplayer gaming scene in a new article on Apple’s Web site called Virtual Fun: Multiplayer Online Gaming.
Cook discusses some of the options Mac users have now and will have shortly to locate other gamers online and challenge them to play a variety of different game styles. GameRanger 3.0 is discussed in detail — the online service developed by Scott Kevill recently went Mac OS X native and supports more than 100 online games, including numerous commercial, shareware and freeware offerings.
GameSmith is a forthcoming online gaming service that’s a collaboration between Freeverse Software — a publisher and developer of Mac titles that already has a service of its own online called H.M.S. Freeverse — and Ideas From the Deep, a company spearheaded by veteran developer Lane Roathe.
That’s not all, either — Cook also looks at Battle.net. That’s the online service provided for free by Blizzard Entertainment for all of its games, including the new title Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, which was released last month simultaneously for Mac and Windows. Several other Blizzard titles are supported by Battle.net as well.
In fact, Cook provides a table that shows the extensive online gaming support each service offers (or, in GameSmith’s case, will offer, as it’s still in development). For more details, visit Apple’s Games site at the link above.