By Brad Cook

How would you like to visit a place where you can hang out with thousands of fellow Mac users, make friends, chat, and play Mac games any time you want? Oh, and it won’t cost you a dime!

Sound too good to be true? Then you haven’t been to GameRanger, GameSmith, Battle.net, EA Sports, InstantAction.com, or the many other free multiplayer online gaming options found on the Mac.

GameRanger

The latest iteration of GameRanger, 4.9, builds on improvements GameRanger Technologies owner Scott Kevill made when he released version 3.0 in 2002. “GameRanger 3.0 is a complete rewrite of the previous versions,” Kevill explained in 2002. “I designed it from a fresh slate, taking care to address many aspects [of the service] that new users had difficulty grasping before.

“[I was able to] integrate all the existing features in a much cleaner design, while at the same time laying the foundation for an amazing line-up of new features that will blow people away.”

GameRanger currently boasts over 260,000 active worldwide members (Kevill himself is located in Australia), with a growing list of more than 180 supported games to choose from, nearly 30 of which are cross-platform, which means you can also frag your PC-using friends. Both numbers constantly increase, of course. All you need to join the fun is a copy of the game you want to play, which will allow you to either host your own contests or join sessions started by other players. (Check the GameRanger site to make sure the service supports the game you want to play.)

If you want more options in your online gaming, check out GameRanger’s premium membership, which lets you compete with friends via ladder rankings, communicate with other players with voice chat, and organize pals in buddy lists. In addition, you can host personal chat rooms and access premium-only chat rooms, customize the application’s appearance, and more.

“GameRanger 3.0 lays the foundation for an amazing line-up of new features.”

- Scott Kevill, GameRanger Technologies

Whether you like to play board games, Colin McRae Rally Mac or Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, there’s a game for you on GameRanger. (For a complete list, see the sidebar “So Many Games, So Little Time” on page two, where you’ll also find lists of the games offered by the other services covered in this article.)

And look for highly anticipated new releases to be available on the service as well. “GameRanger is the de facto standard,” Kevill explains, “and just as nearly all existing [Mac] games support it, pretty much every new game will as well.”

GameRanger and Mac OS X

The newest iteration of GameRanger takes full advantage of Mac OS X with a stunning Aqua interface that’s simple to use, just like your Mac. There are six chat rooms where you can trade tips and discuss gaming in general with people from all over the world, and above that window is a series of folders containing all the active games. You can join a game in progress or start your own with just a couple clicks.

Kevill points out that GameRanger also takes advantage of Mac OS X with multi-threading, “which leads to the advantage of not having the chat pause while you’re holding down the mouse button.”

GameRanger isn’t the only online service available to you, however. Freeverse’s GameSmith lets you play the company’s puzzle, card, action, and board games against opponents online. Available titles include Big Bang Board Games, Airburst Extreme, 3D Hearts Deluxe, and over 20 others. Mac and Windows users can go head-to-head with the service.

There’s plenty of warfare on Battle.net

Another free service that’s a popular gathering place for Mac gamers is Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment’s home for Warcraft III, StarCraft and other exciting real-time strategy games. Simply purchase a copy of the game you want to play online and create a free Battle.net account. (All of Blizzard’s games — except World of Warcraft, which is online-only and doesn’t use Battle.net — also feature in-depth single-player campaigns that you’re sure to enjoy too.)

Battle.net will find a game for you based on criteria you provide or even match you up against a comparable team if you want to go online with a few friends. The service also features ladder rankings for all Blizzard games so that you can see who the top dogs are. As you play, you can chat with other gamers and coordinate attacks, taunt the defeated, or even plan secret alliances.

“The interface [in Battle.net] is simple to understand while being more powerful for our advanced users.”

- Bill Roper, vice-president, Blizzard North

“We have simple-to-use ‘Friends’ lists and a host of community functions for finding people you commonly play,” explains Bill Roper, a vice-president at Blizzard North, who adds that the service received a face-lift for the release of Warcraft III. “The interface is simple to understand while being more powerful for our advanced users, which gives Battle.net players the best of both worlds.”

Online Rock Gods

In the old days, forming a band was a local activity: you found a few like-minded folks in your area and started jamming in your garage, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. Today, however, aspiring rock ‘n’ roll stars can go online in Guitar Hero World Tour to form a band or find one to join. You’ll need a bass player, guitarist, drummer, and singer to fill out a complete group and start testing your collective mettle with MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams,” Nirvana’s “About a Girl,” and other classic tunes.

If you’d prefer to test your axe-slinging with an old-fashioned head-to-head contest, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock lets you take on online opponents in Guitar Battle mode. Battle Power replaces Star Power in these shredfests, allowing you to break your opponent’s guitar strings, overload her amplifier, or throw out other dirty tricks that will keep her from hitting the right notes. Of course, she has access to the same arsenal.

If It’s in the Game, it’s on the Internet

When Electronic Arts returned to the Mac, the company ensured that we could play Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 online against opponents through the company’s EA Sports service. You can join public and private clubs, peruse the leader boards, and go head-to-head with other players in match-ups that will affect your online rankings, unless you specify otherwise.

In Madden NFL 08, you can also play mini-camp and two-minute drills against the computer for high scores that will be displayed for all to see. In addition, the game allows you to join tournaments and leagues, giving you the chance to guide your favorite NFL team through multiple games against human opponents, with the promise of fame and glory waiting you at the end.

If sports games aren’t your thing, EA also lets you race online against other players in Need For Speed: Carbon, frag opponents in Battlefield 2142, and test your strategic skills against live opponents in Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars and Command & Conquer Red Alert 3. Battlefield 2142 features a mode called Titan that is not available when playing offline; it’s an objective-based game in which one team tries to destroy a massive flying battleship while the other side defends against the attack.

All online gaming has a sports-like element to it, however, and the Command & Conquer games dive into that area by allowing others to watch multiplayer matches, complete with the chance to listen to a running commentary, similar to a sports broadcaster’s play-by-play. A commentator can even use the game’s telestrator feature to point out areas of interest during the match. To ensure observers can’t communicate with participants and skew the game, you can broadcast a match with a delay of up to 120 minutes.

A Browser-Based Future

For a variety of multiplayer gaming options that require nothing more than a web browser, head over to InstantAction.com and Quake Live. The latter brings id’s classic first-person shooter to Safari and other web browsers, with plenty of maps, weapons, and power-ups at your disposal, along with powerful stat filtering and social network building. A test match determines your skill level and puts you in sessions against similarly-equipped players — if you’re good enough, you might earn an invitation to join a clan.

In InstantAction.com, you’ll mix it up with the competition in the futuristic sport Rokkitball, the aerial first-person shooter Fallen Empire: Legions, the action platformer Marble Blast Online, the third-person shooter ThinkTanks, and the retro arcade shoot-‘em-up ZAP! (Zero All Productivity).

While there, you can lead games, join sessions hosted by others, maintain a friends list and trade messages with buddies, and more. Customized, avatars, new Rokkitball uniforms, new ThinkTanks, new marbles, and more are available by spending the ActionTokens in your account.

If you want to hone your skills with some solo play before taking on live opponents, Marble Blast features a single-player option, while ThinkTanks, Rokkitball, and ZAP! allow you to compete against computer-controlled opponents, known as “bots.”

It’s All in the Chat

If you tire of typing into chat windows to communicate with other players during gaming sessions, look into a voice chat solution like Ventrilo. You can engage in idle chitchat during a card game, bark out orders in the middle an intense first-person shooter firefight, or plan a course of action with teammates at the start of a strategy game session. Maybe you even want to discuss the latest changes to your favorite MMORPG.

Ventrilo runs on Mac and PC, so you can easily engage in cross-platform conversations. All you need to do is make sure someone in your group is running the server version of the software; everyone needs to connect to it in order to distribute their comments to the other players.

And if you’re looking for the perfect headset for those sessions you might want to try the Creative Fatal1ty USB Gaming Headset, which features comfortable enclosed earcups and a noise-cancelling microphone. It was co-designed with Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, who is one of the top professional gamers in the world.

Have fun, make friends

So if you haven’t decided to take the plunge into online gaming, do so today. Not all online games are of the “frag-or-be-fragged” variety; there are plenty of card, board, strategy, and sports games being played on the Internet too. And online gaming is as much about joining a community as about playing games. In fact, you’re sure to make a few new friends during your adventures into the online realm. Have fun.