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<blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 4879965" data-attributes="member: 5265">In 20 years as a businessman, I've never held a position of fiscal responsibility in which executive management or shareholders accepted &quot;it's not easy&quot; as an excuse for leaving 10% of the revenues behind.Computer game studios at least have an justification: For decades, Apple actively discouraged computer game development for the platform, and the PC gamer audience was trained away from Macs. But outside of that, and the realm of some high-end business software, almost every major software package is available cross-platform. Certainly Office and Photoshop have development costs that dwarf DDI, but they somehow find it worthwhile for that &quot;negligible&quot; user base.Unlike computer game developers, WotC wouldn't be delving into the unknown by developing for the Mac. There's no question a Mac audience exists; there's no reason to believe or suspect that Mac users don't play D&amp;D, unlike with computer games. This is not a speculative audience--it's an audience that currently exists, currently plays D&amp;D, and currently wants to pay for DDI.You can quibble over percentages (and I do: I buy the 3.36% number only if you count every cash register and business server in the country as a personal computer), but the bottom line is the number of Mac users is pretty analogous to the number of women who game. Sure, they're a distinct minority, but would anybody really argue that it makes good business sense for WotC to tell each and every existing female player to go take a flying leap?Any smart businessman will tell you it costs many, many more times to regain lost business in the form of new customers than it does to keep it in the form of existing customers.&nbsp; Even if it's only 5% or 10%, the business is worth keeping, even if it costs a bit of money to keep it.I have no special insight into why DDI has gone this route. (Well, I have my hypotheses, but since that's all they are I'll keep them to myself.) I do know that I'm very seriously disappointed, and I want WotC to know it. It may not be &quot;easy&quot; to program for the Mac, but it shouldn't be easy not to, either.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CharlesRyan, post: 4879965, member: 5265"] In 20 years as a businessman, I've never held a position of fiscal responsibility in which executive management or shareholders accepted "it's not easy" as an excuse for leaving 10% of the revenues behind. Computer game studios at least have an justification: For decades, Apple actively discouraged computer game development for the platform, and the PC gamer audience was trained away from Macs. But outside of that, and the realm of some high-end business software, almost every major software package is available cross-platform. Certainly Office and Photoshop have development costs that dwarf DDI, but they somehow find it worthwhile for that "negligible" user base. Unlike computer game developers, WotC wouldn't be delving into the unknown by developing for the Mac. There's no question a Mac audience exists; there's no reason to believe or suspect that Mac users don't play D&D, unlike with computer games. This is not a speculative audience--it's an audience that currently exists, currently plays D&D, and currently wants to pay for DDI. You can quibble over percentages (and I do: I buy the 3.36% number only if you count every cash register and business server in the country as a personal computer), but the bottom line is the number of Mac users is pretty analogous to the number of women who game. Sure, they're a distinct minority, but would anybody really argue that it makes good business sense for WotC to tell each and every [I]existing[/I] female player to go take a flying leap? Any smart businessman will tell you it costs many, many more times to regain lost business in the form of new customers than it does to keep it in the form of existing customers. Even if it's only 5% or 10%, the business is worth keeping, even if it costs a bit of money to keep it. I have no special insight into why DDI has gone this route. (Well, I have my hypotheses, but since that's all they are I'll keep them to myself.) I do know that I'm very seriously disappointed, and I want WotC to know it. It may not be "easy" to program for the Mac, but it shouldn't be easy not to, either. [/QUOTE]

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