Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gazoobee 
Most of what you're saying here is complete BS. You are doing the same thing Carmack is doing in that you're just sitting back and "imagining" what might be going on in Steve Jobs' head based on really nothing at all.
Games are by definition a sort of time-wasting activity. Steve Jobs is a serious person and like most serious people, if he has time for games it's minimal.
I've worked in the business since the beginning and I can tell you without equivocation that the
vast majority of the "serious" computer users, the techs, the developers, the scientists, the artists, and those that create all the stuff that you use, do not play a lot of games.
If you are a hard-core XBox or PSP gamer you are way more likely to be on the inconsequential fringes of the tech scene than you are to be a mover and shaker. Most of the really smart capable people I know in the computer field play a few games now and then, have one or two they may like (especially for nostalgia reasons), but basically haven't played much since they you know ...
grew up.
In other words,
games *are* toys, and mostly for "kids," or for brief relaxation.
The whole idea that the Mac platform should bend over backwards for games is a fantasy propagated by a lot of XBox boys that is essentially unreasonable. Most of the people actually using the Mac platform are using it for more serious things and couldn't give a damn about games except when they can't run one that they might want to.
Games are just not the big deal that all the teenagers and twenty-somethings think they are and so-called "casual" gaming is far more important and far more popular than all the copies of Halo put together because smart people have
better things to do.
I take issue with many thing you are saying. Games are a big deal in that they are not going away and that the are in fact growing in popularity with no sign of slowing down. Microsoft in fact if it knew what it was doing would have tied a ZUNE PLAYER much more tightly to the Xbox 360, created a music store, download games, download movies, applications, whatever. Or ties in the new windows consumer smartphone OS with the 360. There is a 30+ million audiance that could be tapped into there. Microsoft just does not have the vision it needs to truly pull this stuff off.
To say games are toys and are for kids yes you are correct. And that it why Steve Jobs and company have never fully supported game developers from the beginning. I am going back to 1984 and the intro of the Mac. Remember the Alice game that came out with the intro of the mac? It was to be marketed by Apple to show of how unique the mac was but it was pushed aside because it was thought to make the mac look like a game toy.
John Carmack is a smart individual. It would not surprise me if he said those comments just to ignite some interest and have Apple notice this. Carmack is an extrodinary game designer and programmer. Apple and Carmack have met in the past and he has stated publicly that Apple is not consistent with supporting game developers.
Apple markets the iphone/touch as a general purpose do everything device. Which to their credit it is. I am surprised to see so many people bust on Carmack as if he has no idea what he is talking about. Carmack is in some eyes a programming genius. I think he creates envy by doing what he does.
But apparently Apple does not think its a waste of time to market the iPod touch as a gaming device, even though they are serious people, and might be less enthusiastic about this perception. This would make sense. Why would a serious computer maker make a game machine? IBM?
Apple bending over backwards for developers is not common. In fact Apple has a reputation of not being upfront with developers in the first place. So to say that, is just not factual. It would be nice to see Apple work better with developers regarding the iphone/touch, make development a free market by putting ESRB's before purchasing, and stop pulling or disaproving apps and let the app store market sort itself out.