D&D Game Table not Mac-Compatible at launch

[Horacio]

So you are saying that most Mac users can boot to windows, and use the new digital initiative stuff, they just don't want to?

I simple refuse to pay a $200+ to Microsoft to get a license only to use D&D Insider.

I know I could easily get a pirated version, and use dual boot or virtualisation, but I'm a software developer by trade and I am strongly against pirated software, I am a pro open source developer.

Besides, I find rather rude to force people to reboot in another OS everytime they want to use D&D insider. Imagine Mac or Linux users, wanting to spend some free minutes five or ten times a day with D&D Insider. They should reboot 10 or 20 times a day?

So yes, I refuse booting with Windows

 

[Mistwell]

Some Mac users can dual-boot, but that requires a separate partition, and buying Windows at full retail price ($300 or so).

And while so booted, you can't use any of your regular Mac programs.

Not terribly convenient. :\

Cheers, -- N

I'm not really addressing the issue of convenience. The cost of making something compatible for a second platform gets added to the general cost of a product. To make it work on both PC and Mac, I as a PC user would have to subsidize you as a Mac user when I pay the cost of the product. Which is obviously not terribly convenient for me - or the 90% other PC users out there.

If Mac users actually cannot use the product, I have sympathy. But if most Mac users can use the product, and just don't want to because it is not as convenient, or they had a bad emotional experience with windows systems in the past (no sarcasm intended), or they have political-like objections to windows systems or Microsoft, or they don't want to learn how to use a Windows system - then my sympathy is diminished.

So I am just trying to get to the bottom of the question: Can most Mac users use the DI by booting their Macs with a Windows operating system (even if that is not convenient, or against their principals, or emotionally painful, or they are not familiar with the Windows system), or can't they?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

So you are saying that most Mac users can boot to windows, and use the new digital initiative stuff, they just don't want to?

Most mac uses cannot boot windows. That would require purchasing an Intel mac. There are countless perfectly capable G5/G4 macs. After an Intel PC it would also require purchasing a copy of Windows. How much is a non-OEM copy of Windows?

While an Intel mac could use the free Boot Camp software that allows a mac to boot into Window, that would not allow swapping between both boots. You are either in the Mac or Windows. So instead you are looking at purchasing virtualization software like Parallels or VMWare's Fusion that lets you boot both OSs at the same time. Using virtualization software does not allow programs direct access to video cards, and if some of the DDI features are graphic laden then likely those features are going to be bog slow through the virtualization software.

It is really only an option for the dedicated gamer who will has no limit to how much they will spend.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Since I'm not interested in D&D Insider, I guess my thoughts on it don't really matter that much, but for what it's worth, I consider it unfortunate that the system architects chose to use a Windows-only technology (i.e. DirectX/Direct3D) for the client when other professional-grade options (e.g. OpenGL) are available.

(I have an Intel Core Duo Mac, two PowerPC/G4 Macs, and a CentOS Linux system.)

 

[Mistwell]

I simple refuse to pay a $200+ to Microsoft to get a license only to use D&D Insider.

I know I could easily get a pirated version, and use dual boot or virtualisation, but I'm a software developer by trade and I am strongly against pirated software, I am a pro open source developer.

Besides, I find rather rude to force people to reboot in another OS everytime they want to use D&D insider. Imagine Mac or Linux users, wanting to spend some free minutes five or ten times a day with D&D Insider. They should reboot 10 or 20 times a day?

So yes, I refuse booting with Windows

Fair enough. But I have very little sympathy for you. You are asking me to pay to subsidize your personal choices. It's not that you can't use it, it's that you have objections unrelated to WOTC that hangs you up on issues that make you choose to not use it. That's on you, not the 90% of users you are asking to subsidize your choices.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

How much is a non-OEM copy of Windows?

If you go to Frys and buy a non-OEM copy of Windows XP it is $199.

 

[Maggan]

So you are saying that most Mac users can boot to windows, and use the new digital initiative stuff, they just don't want to?

Nope. Most users of new Macs might be able to boot into Windows, if they buy a license for Windows. The overwhelming majority of Mac users in the world have not yet upgraded to the new Intel-based Macs, though.

/M

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

That's on you, not the 90% of users you are asking to subsidize your choices.

The problem I have with it is that viable cross-platform choices are availabe that would have satisfied nearly 100% of the market. I'm not surprised, though. I have very little confidence in WotC's ability and judgment when it comes to technology.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I'm not really addressing the issue of convenience. The cost of making something compatible for a second platform gets added to the general cost of a product. To make it work on both PC and Mac, I as a PC user would have to subsidize you as a Mac user when I pay the cost of the product. Which is obviously not terribly convenient for me - or the 90% other PC users out there.

If Mac users actually cannot use the product, I have sympathy. But if most Mac users can use the product, and just don't want to because it is not as convenient, or they had a bad emotional experience with windows systems in the past (no sarcasm intended), or they have political-like objections to windows systems or Microsoft, or they don't want to learn how to use a Windows system - then my sympathy is diminished.

So I am just trying to get to the bottom of the question: Can most Mac users use the DI by booting their Macs with a Windows operating system (even if that is not convenient, or against their principals, or emotionally painful, or they are not familiar with the Windows system), or can't they?

For me, the added cost of putting Windows on my Mac, as well as the technical hurdles and the problems it would undoubtably give, put it into the realm of "can not". Not enough money, lack of technical computer ability, a real desire to avoid anything potentailly damaging to the efficient operation of my Mac, etc. To put it simply, I would much rather put hundreds of dollars and that much time into my other hobbies (videogames, anime, playing D&D at the tabletop, etc) than into getting some PC program to work on a perfectly good Mac. I don't appreciate the "lack of sympathy". It is arrogant and rude.

And what is with the "subsidize" argument? If they support Macs, Mac users will pay for it. It is not like we are asking PC users to pay money while Mac users get the program free. And there is no reason the price for an individual user would change.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm not really addressing the issue of convenience. The cost of making something compatible for a second platform gets added to the general cost of a product.

And yet Blizzard makes it work just fine with WoW. You assume PCs users subsidize the cost of making it mac compatible. That is the case when macs are an afterthought. It is not the case when it is planned for from the start.

That WotC is not planning for it from the start tells me that the DI is practically a bootstrap effort not much better than their current online/software efforts.