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Apple Offers Huge Prizes For Video Game Ports
Oculus Habent writes "In an attempt to increase Apple's market share in the home sector, Steve Jobs announced today that he would personally fund prizes for ports of popular gaming titles to the Macintosh platform. Citing the common complaint of lack of game availability for Mac OS X, Jobs suggests that work in this area could seriously improve Macintosh acceptance. Said Jobs, "We've got incredible, stylish computers and an insanely great operating system. The Mac mini made has a huge impact, but it is only the tip of the iceberg." Prizes include Steve's yearly salary for the first ten ports, and twice that amount for "hot new titles" with a simultaneous release." Update: 04/02 18:02 GMT by Z : April 1st hoax story.
Yes.
Likely? No.
I'm sitting on top of a first post opportunity with nothing to say. Wow.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Are there going to be any real posts today?
Nice Marmot
This one is almost believable. If they want to make an April Fools joke, they should post a story: "Slashdot Institutes New System to Prevent Dupes."
English is easier said than done.
/. April fools day begins.
$1 to the first editor that stops posting April Fools articles. One i can handle, all of them is rediculous...again.
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
The joke is in NOT READIBLE THE fscking ARTICLE BEFoRe POSTING.
:P Jokes on me. :)
Gawd I'm lame.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I have no idea what they will do with all these millions of ports everyone will mail them. I suppose we will get some sort of iMac in the future bristling with all kinds of game control ports.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Really.. The rest is just options...
Every day is Apple Fool's day!
b) Steve Jobs makes $1/year as CEO.
c) This is getting gay.
Hmmm...no link to an actual news story about the announcement...yet another April Fools story, and if you RTFA you will discover Steve's yearly salary is $1.
Since "$1" is pronounced "one dollar", is "1$" pronounced "dollar one"?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Huuuzahhh!
Anybody wishing help playing the game or finding decent servers to play on are more than welcome to contact me. My friends and I love this game and are always willing to help new blood.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Then no one would believe it. At least the rest of the year anything said on here is believed. ;)
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I think they should add an April Fool's section for this day. That way we can laugh at any joke post, but not have to wonder if it is real or not (Though it seems today all that I have seen have been fake posts)
links to examples:
http://www.google.com/googlegulp/
http://homestarrunner.com/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/icopulate.shtml
The one day of the year I don't read /.
{got ya!}
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
...is Duke Nukem: Forever within 60 days of the PC release.
Steve job's salary for the first 10 points. $10!
Pretty nifty april fools
Business Voyeur
You know, Apple really OUGHT to do this. I was a Mac fanboy for a long time, until all my friends started playing Windows games that weren't released on the Mac or were released 8 months later, when nobody I knew played them any more. Sure it's a stupid April Fools' joke, but if they actually DID this it might be the smartest thing they've done since ITunes.
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
Even though it may mean a huge increase in market share, I don't think Apple will ever want their computers to be known as "good gaming platforms".
Mac = time spent "productivly"
Windows = playing video games, downloading pr0n
Of course the two are not completely mutually exclusive, you can be productive on Windows and waste time on a Mac, but this is the general path of their evolution.
Windows evolution = appeal to the masses, give them what they want, get huge market share
Apple evolution = damn the popularity race and bottom line and stick to a specific vision, a vision of what computers can and should be in our lives
Of course I know you can get A LOT of good work done in Windows. It's just that, by windows trying to be a "jack of all trades" and Apple being more focused in one direction, I see Macs being used more and more for the things their focused on, and Windows being used more and more for the other things, the non-productive but fun things we all generally waste too much time on but couldn't live without.
I think Steve Jobs is great for letting his vision be his guide, but yet we're seeing Apple also be a bit more practical lately, by introducing low price-point macs (MacMini) and other marketing tactics (marketing/price/cost manipulation with the ipods) in order to increase the market share and bottom line. This is also a good thing, to find a balance between ideology and practical concerns, but in the end to keep the balance from tipping too far one way, I think they'll maintain the Mac image as a sophisticated computer for those who, at least sometimes, are serious about getting some actual work done, and they will continue to shy away from trying to be a big gaming platform.
So those of you thinking "man if I could just play all my cool l33t new games on Mac it would be perfect, I could totally switch!"... I think you should forget it. If you want gaming keep a pc or a console to go along with your Mac because that's not what a Mac is or will ever be about.
As a disclaimer, I'm a total Quake 3 Arena junkie and I'm not putting down gamers at all with this. ;-D
Then, what is Shift-4 on the UK keyboard? Is it still $ like on the US keyboard? Also, if there is nota # on the UK keyboard, what do you use for number-sign, like if you want to type "#1, #2, #3"? Do you have to type "No. 1, No. 2"? Or nothing at all?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Because this actually falls into Apple's unfortunate historic pattern of aborted game support. Every once in a while, Jobs announces a huge game initiative, how it will be the new center of the Mac plaform (remember Game Sprockets?). Back in the day when I worked in the industry, we met Apple's new game evangelist for the new G3 three times, great things were prophecied and big plans were laid. Less than 6 months later, the guy was gone, and less than a year later I think the position was eliminated.
Unless the office is out of control and people are playing games all the time, I really don't think it makes sense to say Macs are more productive inherently simply because they have fewer games.
Based on my experience, in your typical office environment, the web and instant messaging are responsible for around 95% of time wasted, and games would be around 0.2%.
I know the occasional office will have gaming problems with a subset of people, but I havn't seen anything bad since the height of the boom.
I agree that if the Mac at least made a decent showing in the game department that it would increase my likliness of buying one by about ten fold, but I think a cash incentive program could never make sense.
It'd have to be a big enough incentive to practically pay for the development costs of the mac version since the reason companies don't develop their games for the mac is because it's just not nearly as profitable to spend time on doing so.
Kinda like how theatre companies close down theatres that are technically profitable, but hurt the bottom line by making the overall company not look -as- profitable in ratio to it's investments. The more a company looks like it's doing with less, the more investments it will get. Porting games to the mac would have a similar effect.
I think the best thing the mac could ever hope to do is get in on the bottom floor of some future console and share APIs. I can't really imagine which of the current consoles would want to cut into it's own hardware sales that way?
You're wrong. They've released 2 updates to Panther with the bulk of the listed features being improvements to World of Warcraft compatibility. If they didn't care about appearing to make a good gaming machine, they probably wouldn't have bothered working with Blizzard to optimize for their game, and they certainly wouldn't have emphasized those "features" over other improvements they made in the releases, some of which actually involved things that might help someone using their machine productively.
Apple would love to be taken seriously by more game manufacturers.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
We at Adobe are waiting for our check.
Sure they would. If the big gaming houses would release mac versions of all their big titles, at the same time as windows versions are released, that would probably mean more users and increased marketshare and revenue for Apple. But it's just never been a top priority with Apple to make this happen, and I don't see it being one anytime soon. It's just not what they're about.
But don't listen to me if you don't want to. It's just my opinion and I could be wrong.
because that's not what a Mac is or will ever be about.
That is correct, because the people in charge at Apple, are just as short sighted as you are. So, Mac will never be about games, that may be true, but don't whine about a single digit market share either.
BTW, do you really believe that Mac is intentionally staying away from becoming a gaming machine? Right. Just like I am staying away from becoming a bizillionaire on purpose, I just don't have the time.
I would switch away from Windows, to either Linux, or Mac, in a second, IF there was better game support. Period. Without game support, why would I go out and buy a new machine, if I still have to keep upgrading my old one to play games on?
I don't know about the rest of you, but my home machine is about 90% gaming, and the other 10% is split between work and surfing. Why Apple would ignore that usage pattern is beyond me. Not that I really give a shit if I ever use a Mac or not, but without game support, and at a higher price, I don't see a Mac in my future.
and Apple being more focused in one direction, I see Macs being used more and more for the things their focused on
What direction would that be, exactly. Away from the market? Keep thinking that you are above the rest of the Windows world, keep telling yourself that you are more productive with your mac, if your lucky in ten years you will still be able to buy Apple products. But you will have to be very lucky.
I love fanboys like you. I actually would switch tomorrow, if there was game support. But there isn't. So I won't. So I go back to my PC, running WinOS (that I HATE), and all the other M$ shit, that I hate, simply because these supposed "home computer visionaries" are TOO FUCKING STUPID TO SEE A MASSIVE MARKET FOR THEIR MACHINES. But, hey, making money is not what Apple is about (although their "Apple premium" might lead you to beleive otherwise). So Bill G and his band of asshats get my money.
Alternative OS people: NEWS FLASH. Many people hate MS, and want another choice. However, that choice must include support for what I like to do with my computer, which includes PLAYING NEW GAMES. Not the games from 6 years ago, ported to Linux, not a half assed port done as an afterthought. If you do not have games, give up, go home.
Anonymous Coward: Thank you for commenting on my post. I appreciate any kind of feedback when I am expressing my opinions. As well as receiving positive reinforcement from like-minded people, I also highly value dissenting opinions, as they challenge me, and force me to call upon my less-than-perfect ability to see things from a different perspective.
Now, let me ask you this: Do you like giving your money to, as you call it, "Bill G and his band of asshats?" Are you satisfied by giving your financial support to the makers of an OS that you positively HATE!?
No!? Well why not? Afterall, it's M$ that listens to you. It's M$ that knows what you want in terms of gaming and delivers.
Look at it this way - Apple knows people want a choice. And they know people want that choice to include gaming. But NEWS FLASH: Apple is not trying to be the next M$! That's been done. And done quite well I might add. No, Apple is trying to be Apple, doing things differently, the Apple way. THINK DIFFERENT!!
Honestly, if you hate M$ so much, then go ahead and ditch them. Just do it. Satisfy yourself with what limited games there are available on the Mac (I hear World of Warcraft runs great on the Mac) or get yourself a console. And quit supporting those asshats in Redmond. It's your call.
Sign me up!
What amazes me is all the grumpy posters ragging about how juvenile slashdot is EVERY year. On the SAME day. Like this is some sort of surprise. Whose the April Fool here? Honestly.
If you know slashdot is going to be "lame" today, why do you bother dropping by? Isn't it a waste of your time? You can't skip reading slashdot even one day? I can't think of a worse waste of time than visiting sites where I hate the content and trolling about how lame everything is.
Personally, I look forward to April Fools day. It's a big holiday for me and mine. And slashdot's celebration of the holiday is much appreciated.
I hope to deliver the hottest new title within the next few months. I want my two dollars!
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis