The Name of the Game

Distress. Angst. Woe. Grief. Anger. Pain. Discomfort. The heartbreak of psoriasis. Jock itch. Apple isn't serious about games. Dammit.

Huh. Well, maybe it would be pretty cool if I could play Halo 3 on my Mac. I wouldn't, but it would be cool if I could. Every once in a while I play a game of Civilization. I'm on Civ IV these days. It's fun on the weekends I can really devote to it. I hope the game continues to be sold in new iterations every few years. Each new revision brings new stuff. I still think Civ II was the best, but that's just me.

I have a couple of friends who play Eve Online on their PCs. That sounds like it's pretty nifty, and that will be coming to the Mac one of these days, I've heard. I've always wanted to noodle around with an MMORPG. The problem is, to do it right I'd have to invest a lot of time to it that I just don't have available.

I don't know who these "hard-core gamers" are. It seems to me that it must be a niche even smaller than the Graphic Artist niche that Apple is famous for owning. Maybe Apple just doesn't think it's a demographic worth pursuing.

Who are all these people who have all this money to spend on cutting edge, high powered, bad-ass technology for playing games? I mean, I'm not poor, but if we're in the $2k - $3k range for a computer, the sumbitch better have some higher purpose than simulated blowing up virtual imaginary robots to save a fictional galaxy. Y'know?

I'm open to other opinions, but near as I can tell Apple is making a business decision to not get all pantymoist about first-person shooters. I probably agree with their decision for the wrong reason: I think first-person shooters are idiotic. I've thought so ever since Frankenberry or whatever the hell that game was in the early '90s (Muttanjeff? Huffenpuff? Scratchensniff?).

If there were really Mac people serious about the platform as a game station, they'd make it one. Here's my guess at what will happen. The Mac will gain market share because it's a superior computer with a superior operating system. As that happens there will be more and more game fanatics with Macs. The Mac "hard-core gamer" demographic will eventually get big enough that Apple won't be able to ignore them anymore.

Then we'll get a Half-Life port. I, myself, personally, won't give a rat's ass.

The kettle's on the boil, and we're so easily called away.