Why does WotC hate Macs?

[Shroomy]

That's because you're all smarmy college types, like that smug Justin Long kid in the "I'm a Mac" commercials!

Ironically, there was a story on the NPR show Marketplace today about Mac marketing. Listen to it here.

I owned a G3 for several years and it finally died last year. I replaced it with a PC laptop for a variety of reasons.

 

[Cam Banks]

That's because you're all smarmy college types, like that smug Justin Long kid in the "I'm a Mac" commercials!

Justin Long is my hero.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have made the transition to Safari a while ago, switching from Firefox, because I can't stand IE.

Uh, what? You left Firefox because you can't stand IE?

Safari is an outright terrible browser. I use a Mac at work, and Firefox is miles ahead of the default browser.

As a note: Safari is a free browser that works on all PCs and Macs, so denying Safari isn't just limiting Mac users, it's limiting lots of other people as well.

Calling Safari a "working" browser is really stretching things. There's a lot of sites that it has problems with, independent of WotC's goofy technical specifications for their vaporware.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just IM'd a software writing friend of mine and to add Mac compat to something like this could cost in the region of 30 to 50% more. For 10% of the market place, is big money

Mysteriously, Blizzard Entertainment has been doing it for more than a decade, well before they became a juggernaut.

It's not that hard if you plan for it from day 1. It's not like WotC is creating an FPS.

 

[jaerdaph]

No Mac support is another good reason to abandon 4e D&D and switch to Pathfinder!

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Uh, what? You left Firefox because you can't stand IE?

Safari is an outright terrible browser. I use a Mac at work, and Firefox is miles ahead of the default browser.


Calling Safari a "working" browser is really stretching things. There's a lot of sites that it has problems with, independent of WotC's goofy technical specifications for their vaporware.

When I wrote the RPGA Herald Test a few years ago, I had to borrow a friend's pc ... the Wizards site wouldn't accept Safari OR Firefox.

And while I like Firefox, I find the OS X version has insufferable memory leaks that keep me with Safari.

 

[PeelSeel2]

I am really disappointed too. They won't support my Vic20 and the one other person in the US who still uses one. I am offended. I just canceled my pre-order, and am making a web site for the 4haters.com. Really, you would think they could make a 3k interface for my Vic for DDI....

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Blizzard is WEIRD for always providing Mac support. (Weird among computer gaming companies).

Yeah, wanting EVERYONE to be able to buy your game is very weird. Good call, WotC, not making that mistake.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And while I like Firefox, I find the OS X version has insufferable memory leaks that keep me with Safari.

I'm on a very non-cutting edge Mac and I routine keep a dozen or more tabs open in Firefox, and leave the browser up all week. (I currently have nine tabs open.)

I run into memory issues only if I have Firefox, InDesign, Photoshop AND Word open at the same time, but even my gaming rig at home (PC) starts to complain at that point.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Well, they might not hate macs, but they might not be up-to-date on Safari. Each browser added with its quirks makes things even harder to test. Until recently Safari was exclusive to the Mac. While we're farther from IE only nowadays it's still the big two--Opera and Safari tend to be afterthoughts.

As far as programing goes for the DDI--really, WoTC, as far as I know, don't have a huge software budget with programmers, etc. My guess is they are using an already-built engine and working from that. I simply think they don't have the budget or time to QA it.