Slashdot Mirror
Claims of Apple Games Just PR Fluff?
GameSetWatch is running an editorial written by Alex Handy, the former editor of Game Developer magazine and a well respected figure in the games journalism business. Today he's discussing the recent show of support from EA and id Software for the Apple platform, essentially saying that he doesn't think much of it because it's all been said before. "We've been here before. I've been here before. Waaaaaaaay back in 1999, id was right there at MacWorld, with Carmack talking about how rad the OS was, and demanding that a multi-button mouse arrive. And this was Mac OS 9! People applauded. Those, like myself, who covered the Macintosh gaming world for a living saw a bright future ahead. EA wasn't there, but Activision was, and Aspyr was bringing Madden to the Mac anyway. MacSoft was bringing Unreal Tournament over, and StarCraft was still on the Mac, and still kicking ass. And then, nothing happened. There was a little while there when Mac game companies were expanding, and the best PC to Mac game porting house, Westlake Interactive, was barely able to keep up with all the demand for its services ... By 2001, the brief flash that was the Mac game boom was gone."
No one cares, because Mac users don't suffer the kind of desperate, crushing loneliness that drives you PC users to video games in the first place.
You see, we Mac users have these acquaintances we call our "friends," with whom we can "go out" and "socialize," maybe having a drink or three, or shooting speedballs, or even stealing a casual fuck in the bathroom of Union Pool. Meanwhile, in your mother's basement, you're sobbing into your macaroni and cheese while trying to convince yourself you actually enjoy your video game hobby.
I'd write more, but I have to get ready for a show. Ta!
Yeah, Macs are still clearly identified as "PCs," even though Apple uses the term "PC" in their ads to define the competitor. Nobody has used the term "PC" to identify a Mac in the past 15 years. Dumbass.
Have we come full circle yet? Back in the late 80s/early 90s many folks regarded the Macs as a "toy" and PCs as a "workstation", neither of which were very accurate, yet this was the accepted generalization. Nowadays, I really consider the Windows PC to be nothing more than another gaming platform, and the Mac is where I get real work done (video/audio/photo editing, main browsing machine, file serving, other Unixy things, etc.). Don't tell my employer though, they still believe that a Windows box is what everyone needs on their desk to get work done. Bullshit, I say. I get way more done on my Sun Ultra 25 than my silly Windows Craptop.
;)
I guess we have come full circle now that Apple has decided to finally embrace the video game industry and lure developers to the platform.
Furthermore, Apple went out of their way in the late 80s/early 90s to distance themselves from the gaming industry and try to slough off the "toy computer" image. That was a big mistake as many of the future performance boosts to computers in general were and are driven by cutting-edge game development. Welcome back to gaming Apple. Seriously.
This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
"Yes, Fox news has discovered that by adding a question mark, you can say fucking anything! 'Is your mother a whore?' WHAT? I'M JUST ASKING!"
/. space when they don't know anything of what they speak of.
Take the question mark off of the article title, and you've got yourself a genuine biased article!
Anyway, you can go out and buy a god-damned high end video-card, and it will fit in the PCI-E slot of a newer Apple system. What, you thought that the slots in a Mac were some kind of mysterious apple voodoo proprietary crap? You idiots whining about Macs probably haven't ever even touched the inside of one.
Anyway... I'm no Mac-fag. I don't even own one, I just don't like seeing people getting attention or