No Macs? Holy crap did WotC do the math wrong!

[cthulhu_duck]

Virtual PC (emulation software) was cancelled.

Hm? I thought Virtual PC for Mac was still available?

I just bought my dad an ibook 2 months ago.

Apple haven't made iBooks for some time...

The apple store installed his old PC desktop & parallels right on the computer for free.

I hope he got a license for Windows along with the rest of the documentation then? When you say 'Apple Store' do you mean an Apple Inc store or a third party?

With 1 button click, my dad can switch to his windows xp and play Civ 4 on his mac.

Given that there's a Mac version of Civ 4, this seems like a waste of time.

 

[Imp]

We still haven't got Beyond the Sword, though.

* pouts, kicks pebble *

 

[RFisher]

We all might be experts in our own way. Problem is, the only expert opinion that matters is the one who came up with this policy at wotc. I seriously doubt it was an off cuff decision. Perhaps in the old days of TSR, but not in the new days of corporate accountability.

Corporate accountability: There's the crux of the matter. "Nobody ever got fired for choosing Microsoft." Although I suspect that's not 100% true, it's true enough to still result in lots of bad decisions.

In my experience, companies like Wizards heavily defer such decisions to whatever development house they're working with, & too many development houses make decisions based solely on their limited understanding of conventional wisdom without the least due diligence.

& I say this as an optimist who usually expects people will do the best job they can at whatever they're doing. Experience eventually taught me otherwise in this case.

 

[Nifft]

We still haven't got Beyond the Sword, though.

* pouts, kicks pebble *

I must say, Civ IV is pretty much worth a dedicated computer.

Cheers, -- N

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I just bought my dad an ibook 2 months ago. The apple store installed his old PC desktop & parallels right on the computer for free. With 1 button click, my dad can switch to his windows xp and play Civ 4 on his mac. With a single keystroke, he switches back to the Mac OS X desktop.

That doesn't mean it comes with Macs free. If the Apple Store installed in for free (I doubt, since they usually only do such setup as part of ProCare or One to One) that doesn't mean they sold it to you for free or that all macs come with it. Did you buy ProCare or One to One? If so, as part of buying either ProCare or One to One ($99 each) they will do a complete setup that includes transferring a PC desktop over to the virtual environment. But it still wasn't for free.

Boot Camp is free. Apple created that and it is in beta right now. Leopard will include Boot Camp for all Intel Macs.

Was the software for free? I don't know if there was some short term discount that included a rebate that was equal to the cost of the program. Maybe. But that doesn't change that all Macs don't come with that 3rd party app for free.

Installing it for free and giving it to you for free are different things.

I know what Parallels does.

Are you sure it was The Apple Store, or was it another company that sells Apple computers?

But, I suppose I don't know what I'm talking about...

Seeing iBooks were discontinued a long time ago (2005), didn't come with an Intel processor making it impossible to run Parallels or Boot Camp, I'll take your admission.

 

[CharlesRyan]

I think they said that, at release, DDI will not be compatable for MAC. So, since there is a smaller number of MAC-only users out there, what makes more sense? Release DDI early so that the majority of (PC) users can use it OR not release it at all until everyone (MAC & PC users) can use it all at the same time?

Of course, then you'll have the people that wine that their 486 computer can't run it, and it's not fair to them.... wahhhhh

I refer you to the original post. The issue isn't that Mac users individually represent 5% or 10% of the marketplace. It's that gaming groups that include Mac users might represent 30% or 50% of the marketplace.

In that context, I think it certainly makes sense to release DDI on whatever timetable allows you to get it to the vast majority of your consumer base without alienating any of your gaming groups or encouraging groups with Mac users from leaving their friends behind. If that means it takes a little longer, so be it. Of course, if WotC had done this math right from the very beginning, I don't think there's any reason it would have taken any longer.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Haven't any of the mac user advocates here heard of Parallels? It COMES with new macs-- and is a really good Windows XP emulator that can be used to run PC games, aps, etc on a mac.

Yeah, I've heard of it. I have a G5 and I can't run emulation on that. I plan on upgrading to an Intel for my home machine, but not for another year or so. Even so, its crazy to think that I have to buy a new computer to use the Virtual Tabletop.

Back to Charles point, as a publisher I've meet a lot of friends across the country that I would love to game with. A lot of those friends are talking about getting games together using the Virtual Tabletop. Unfortunately, I'm hung high and dry when it comes to that for obvious reasons and so is the rest of my company as we all use Mac.

 

[Aeolius]

I just noticed that the formatting tools for the Gleemax blogs do not show up on a Mac browsing with Safari or IE... only in Firefox.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I just noticed that the formatting tools for the Gleemax blogs do not show up on a Mac browsing with Safari or IE... only in Firefox.

IE hasn't been updated on the Mac in over 5 years. You should never use that browser. The fact that the formatting options aren't working isn't a problem with being on a Mac, but a problem with the Safari browser. Partly the reason why I switched to Firefox.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Even so, its crazy to think that I have to buy a new computer to use the Virtual Tabletop.

A new computer, AND virtualization software, AND a copy of Windows.