I have joined the dark side

[ozron]

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that this discussion left me in the dust long ago. (He said, confidently typing away at his ten-year-old, Windows 98-equipped Gateway PC) My experience in this debate is purely anecdotal.

The decay of my marriage can be traced to the day my wife bought her first Mac. Suddenly, I found myself in a mixed marriage, like a Mormon married to a druid. Her new circle of friends was strange to me - insular, elitist, superior and not a little stand-offish. Their commitment to this equipment bordered on fanaticism. I was baffled. It was just a computer!

Suddenly she and I spoke different languages. She had extensions. She was unimpressed by my ability to right-click. We rarely interfaced. The whole experience left me with an undeniable axiom.

A PC is a tool. A Mac is a lifestyle choice.

Damn cult.

(I now remove my tongue from my cheek before I hurt myself )

[Kevy Baby]

The funny thing is ozron, is that what relate is not too far from the truth

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Chicken and egg scenario. Because it's historically not a game system, no one is spending much time, money, effort to develop for it

I disagree with the poultry assessment. Back in the old days, Apple was deliberately game un-friendly. They were directly responsible for the lack of Apple games and it's only snowballed since then.

I too am a gamer and have no use for a Mac. In addition, I absolutely despise the way Macs handle mice/cursor acceleration. Yes, I know it can be adjusted, but no amount of tinkering has ever helped.

But what I really hate about Macs are Macolytes. The religious-like fervor too many Mac users display makes me want to gag!

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by SzczerbiakManiac

...makes me want to gag!

And you want to gag on Wally.



ETA: Interesting thought: what if Wally was a Macolyte?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by SzczerbiakManiac

I disagree with the poultry assessment. Back in the old days, Apple was deliberately game un-friendly. They were directly responsible for the lack of Apple games and it's only snowballed since then.

Hmm, that's an interesting perspective to put it in. I'm not sure I agree that choosing to gear all graphic hardware and software optimization towards the design end of things necessarily constitutes a deliberately hostile move towards gamers. Certainly deliberately not catering to them, but it was no more "deliberately game unfriendly" than PCs are "deliberately graphic artist unfriendly". Simply a business decision to target different markets.

Maybe "chicken and egg" isn't a perfect analogy, but I can't think of one any closer. I conceded that it's precipitated by Apple's non-game focus in the architecture, but, as NM points out, with the introduction of the Intel chipsets, that becomes a far less concrete barrier. So at this point, it's a matter of software developers saying, "There's no market on Mac for games, so we're not going to rewrite everything to optimize for the new Mac architecture...besides, it may be closer to a PC, but it's still not a PC." While Apple says, "No one's writing game software for Mac because no one wants it, so we're not going to bother taking advantage of the gaming optimization available with the Intel chipset because it's not worth our time."

[katiesue]

I worked at a gaming company from 1990-1998. We did port over a few titles for the Mac but really the sales were very low so we quit doing it.

In the office we started out all Mac as we were doing more graphic design at the time than game stuff. Once we bought the game company and that was our focus we had to switch over eventually because of various compatability issues.

Actually when I started we were doing bundles for the Amiga.

I stand corrected. According to their website they currently have one Mac title avaliable. For a title that was first released on PC in 1997. There were two additional verisons of the game released for PC but apparently not on Mac.

[BarTopDancer]

I am a reformed gamer who likes the opportunity to play games if I want to. Now, I haven't touched a game in close to 4 years, and despite attempts by co-workers, boyfriends and friends, I have no interest in playing WoW, or the SIMS or any other game out on the market. But I like knowing that I could if I want to. Does that stop me from wanting a Mac? No. Will it sway things more in that direction if they become gamer friendly? Sure. Would I start gaming again if Mac was conducive to it? Highly doubt it. My interests are elsewhere now.

I agree with GD completely. It is all about the market segment that they choose to go after. They don't need to go after the gamers. PC and Mac will compete until pigs fly, but they cater to two different markets, and until one can do what the other does, better, they will both be around.

On the topic of Macolyte's, I find that they aren't around as much, or as vocal as they once were. I used to swear I would never own an iPod, or buy a Mac (BE can attest to this), however, times change, market segments change, people change and the economy changes. A Mac, or an iPod is no longer a "status" of sorts. Sure, there are people who define themselves by their machines but that falls on both sides of the "war". Macs are now available to the "common man", and are being marketed to them as such (see Mac vs. PC commercials). If one stops looking for the Macolyte's, they pretty much cease to exist.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

(see Mac vs. PC commercials)

Funny that you bring up the commercials. Those were actually kind of a risky move on Apple's part as a similar tactic many years ago, in the early days of the Mac vs. PC war, really backfired on Apple. The year after the now famous "1984" commercial (directed by Ridley Scott, featuring Anya Major as the heroine), Apple put out a commercial during the next Superbowl showing IBM users as lemmings, which promptly pissed off the business world.

Doh!

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Funny that you bring up the commercials. Those were actually kind of a risky move on Apple's part as a similar tactic many years ago, in the early days of the Mac vs. PC war, really backfired on Apple. The year after the now famous "1984" commercial (directed by Ridley Scott, featuring Anya Major as the heroine), Apple put out a commercial during the next Superbowl showing IBM users as lemmings, which promptly pissed off the business world.

Doh!

I remember those commercials and hearing about the fallout. I think the difference between then and now is this: the "lines are drawn". Those businesses that deal in graphics and graphic art gravitate towards Mac. Those who don't gravitate towards PC. Office for Mac helped bring Mac's into the business world, although it doesn't seem that Mac will ever replace PC. But who really knows what the future holds.

*I* didn't take the new commercials to be targeted at businesses (even though some used business as a backdrop). I took them to be targeted at the person who still has a hard time with a PC (getting viruses, blue screen of death, etc...). We're a pretty tech savvy group and we associate with a lot of tech savvy people. But there are a lot of people who can barely figure out how to turn their computer on, or get online.

[Kevy Baby]

Actually, a fair amount of SMALL businesses (not creative types) are buying Macs. If I had more time, I would find the article that talked about that.

Apple has been experiencing a good growth by having people come into the Apple stores to buy an iPod and walk out with an iMac.