Originally posted by Brad Oliver
While this is probably the last thing you want to hear, the reality is that the Mac is a very small market compared to the PC, and as such it's much harder and more expensive to pour resources into things like this, especially if the original PC app continues to be modified past the release date. The bottom line is that as a Mac user, odds are better than average that in these cases, you're not going to maintain feature parity with the PC version, unless the PC team has committed resources specifically for the Mac build (which literally never happens). If that upsets you to the point of severe emotional distress, then the gods-honest-best thing you can do is buy a PC, or wait for the Mac market to grow much larger than what it currently is.
Brad
Brad this is the crux of my argument and of my question. While i have indeed chosen to purchase a cheap PC to play games on due to the knowledge of what you have written above, and although on one level this makes sense to me, overall it does not. It seems like a "catch 22". It would seem to me that if Mac games were on parity with their PC counterparts, and had the same support, that more of the games would be sold. If more games were available for the Mac that were on parity with the PC counterparts, it would seem that more Macs would also be sold as the impression that games on Macs are crap would be slowly eroded away.
i have read, and think that i understand where you are coming from in your arguments concerning the frequent updates, the squashing of your free time, etc for the builds. Perhaps i have not been clear enough, through my criticisms, to relate how admirable this is of you to do. i certainly appreciate your efforts, more so when they are given freely. If patches are on the way for a game that is to be ported, why are these updates not included or renegotiated in the contract? From what you are writing, it would appear that MacSoft is a small company indeed if you have to do work by yourself without additional resources allocated.
i just fail to see how it helps game companies, such as MacSoft, in the long run if more people choose to do as i do. If your argument--which appears to be very closely in line with the crux of my own--is true, then this situation *is* a downward spiral. i love my Mac, and i wish more people would use them, especially as i experience all the limitations and convoluted nature of my WinTel PC. Perhaps getting the game is better than not getting it at all, however, but i don't see, especially in the troubled economy that we have now, why people would choose to continue to purchase games that can not be on par with their PC counterparts--especially a game such as this one in which this issue is so very important to those of us who want to get as much out of it as possible. The endearing quality of THIS game is the gamers ability to modify it, make their own scenarios, etc.
This game has appeared on the Mac since its inception. If i recall, the first version was created on a Mac. It has not been until this version that the Mac community has truly been left out in the cold. For a game as big as this one to be in such straits, i am left feeling that the situation is not going to be improving much for future games. This, to me, does not bode well for the platform that supports the porting industry in the first place.
To say that one should just switch to another game, however, is akin to saying if you don't like god in the pledge of allegiance, you should move to another country. The point is Civ III and its measure, not an open sourced imitation of it. However, as i will check out those other alternatives mentioned previously in the thread, the appeal of Civ III is unquestionable, esp. as it appears the game is improving through the ability to actually create maps with starting locations, the upcoming expansion pack, etc.
A catch 22 indeed.
TW, is released.
